For years I thought that the name Led Zeppelin might have something to do with the Black Country/Birmingham origins of two of its members. Many people from the area are aware that the Black country was the target of a Zeppelin raid in World War 1. I thought Robert and Bonzo might have been aware of this when a name was being decided.

This is completely wrong. Apparently, the name originated with Keith Moon who, with John Entwhistle, was thinking of teaming up with Jimmy and Robert. However, they had second thoughts and apparently Moon said that the group if formed would go down like a lead ballon (or he may have said a lead zeppelin). The 'a' was dropped from the lead and the rest is history.

Another famous misapprehension is about the origins of the name of 10cc. It is commonly thought that it derives from a reference to the average amount of male ejaculate. This is completely false. Firstly, the average amount is about 3cc. Secondly, the person who thought up the name was Jonathan King and he has repeatedly said that it had nothing to do with this. He just thought it sounded short and slick and that was it.

Perhaps there is also a misapprehension about the name of The Purple Helmets too - altohugh I somehow doubt it.

Does anyone else know of famous myths in the same vein?

No, but any theories about the hard of hearing, big cats in Sheffield Zoo?

:D

Originally posted by LordChaverly
Another famous misapprehension is about the origins of the name of 10cc. It is commonly thought that it derives from a reference to the average amount of male ejaculate. This is completely false. Firstly, the average amount is about 3cc...

That you know this in such detail is... worrying.

Originally here: http://www.netsector.com/tony/maiden/briefhistory.htm
at the end of 1975, Iron Maiden was born. Steve got the name from seeing an Iron Maiden in an old movie of "The Man In The Iron Mask". It was a metal coffin with spikes on the inside and the victims were placed inside it and skewered to death.

Originally here: http://chrisnkaren.com/acdchistory.html
1973

November:
Malcolm Young forms a band in Sydney with Colin Burgess (Drums, ex-Masters Apprentices) and Larry Van Kriedt (Bass). Singer Dave Evans (ex-Velvet Underground after Malcolm left that same band) answers an advertisement placed in the Sunday Morning Herald and gets the gig. Angus Young, who just disbanded Kantuckee, is later brought in as second lead guitarist at Malcolm’s request.

December:
The band rehearses in Newtown and adopt the name AC/DC at the suggestion of Angus’ sister Margaret who saw the sign on a sewing machine.

Okay Lord C. I blame you for this. If I hadn't been looking for answers to your thread, I would never have found this abomination recoded by the Marginal Prophets :

http://home.wanadoo.nl/reinemann/lepfaq/sounds/prophets.mp3

:help:

Hmm, misunderstood rock band name origin stories, that's a bit of a narrow field and I can't think of any at the moment, but a friend of mine runs a website devoted to mis-heard song lyrics: http://www.kissthisguy.com/

(the website's name is taken from that well known line in Purple Haze, where Jimi Hendrix sings "'scuse me while I kiss this guy")

Originally posted by Strix


The name AC/DC has been variously (and erroneously) thought to be a reference to Satanism and/or bisexuality.

You are correct - its actually a reference to a sewing machine!

Lynerd Skynerd is a reference to Leonard Skinner, a schoolteacher known to the group. Those good ole boys certainly have a way with words

Originally posted by Deavon
That you know this in such detail is... worrying.

Mmm - now where are my weighing scales and pictures of Anna Kournikova?

Originally posted by LordChaverly
Mmm - now where are my weighing scales and pictures of Anna Kournikova?

Careful, you only get a bucket and a half you know :hihi:

Well of course Steely Dan took their name from a steam-powered dildo in William Burroughs' novel the Naked Lunch. Hatfield and the North took theirs from a road sign, and Spock's Beard from a particular episode of Star Trek where a false Spock from a parallel universe (or some such nonsense) had a beard whereas the real one didn't.

Soft Machine also derived from a William Burroughs novel, I think.

http://www.heathenworld.com/bandname/

Originally posted by carcrash
http://www.heathenworld.com/bandname/

great site carcrash. There are many bands listed I've not heard of, including the evocative 'Nashville Pussy' - those good ole' boys do like their woolly pudding.

Its interesting that no one has yet been able to definitively trace the origins of the name Procul Harum - not even the band members seem to know.

A very famous Manchester stadium rock band were having lunch in the food court at meadowHall when they happened on their name. Ladies and gentlemen I give you the Kay Eff Cee band!!!

I though Procul Harum were named after a breed of cat.

Originally posted by LordChaverly
Soft Machine also derived from a William Burroughs novel, I think.
As was the phrase "Heavy Metal". And many other band and song names.

Captain Beefheart, is a bit of a rude story alledgedly, where he was showing the end part of his private anatomy to a friend .
who commented that it looked just like a beef heart!

Saxon, took their name from the saxon's arms, a pub in thurcroft apparently.

Heaven 17 was from Clockwork orange

Thin lizzy was a famous one. Allegedly they after changing from their original name of skid row, thet became tin lizzy in deference to the old car. But because they had irish accents, some people thought they meant to say thin lizzy, and so it came to pass that that became the name.

Gay Dad, were a bunch of journalists who wanted to do a marketing experiment and release some songs, it was successful as they had a semi-decent song in the charts and became a one hit wonder. Having a sense of humour, It struck me that, with the name GAY DAD they were taking the pee out of the artist Puff-Daddy.

Originally posted by metalman
Well of course Steely Dan took their name from a steam-powered dildo in William Burroughs' novel the Naked Lunch
and Deacon Blue took there name from a Steeley Dan song

Supergrass took their current name, their first was "the Jennifers", from the famous Comic Strip film Supergrass

Cast guitarist used to be in the LA's and I can't remember the full story but, either "Cast" was the last word on a LA's album, or "LA" was the last word on a stone Roses album.

The screeming trees were named after a guitar distortion pedal.

Lemmy went from roadie to bass player and sometimes singer in Hawkwind, and he wrote the song Motorhead, which the rest didint, like, so he split and formed his own band.

Def Leppard were apparently inspired by a drawing of a leopard with no ears (the original name was Deaf Leopard).

Originally posted by muddycoffee
Lemmy went from roadie to bass player and sometimes singer in Hawkwind, and he wrote the song Motorhead, which the rest didint, like, so he split and formed his own band.
That's not entirely true. I don't know how much the rest of the band liked the song Motorhead (the word is slang for somebody who takes a lot of amphetamines), certainly they liked it enough to record it as a single (I have a copy). The reason he left Hawkwind was that he was kicked out: they were touring the USA and Canada and, crossing the border (I forget which way) he was found with amphetamines on him and wasn't allowed into the country. The band wanted to carry on with the tour, so they found another bass player. Lemmy was less than happy with this, so he formed a new band which originally he called "b*stards" (but with an "a" in place of the asterisk). Somebody (his record company, I guess), talked him out of this and he ended up naming the band after the song he'd already written and recorded with Hawkwind.

At least, that's how I remember it from my (now long-gone) days as a Hawkfan.

Chavers old bean what a splendid fellow you are..

ZZTop, wanted to make sure that their albums were always at the very end of the record store, so they used the last letter of the alphabet twice, which was opposite to most artists who preferred to be at the beggining. But thinking that they might finish up in the basement they ended it in top so it doodent sound too bad.

And likewise the youthful british heavy rock band A did a similar thing in the opposite direction a couple of years ago.

Not rock but amusing - Jamiroquai, real name Jason Michael Roger(or rodney) Kay. was taken the pee out of, for being a self important tosser by Radcliffe and Lard on the BBC for years, who liked to call him Jamie Rockway.

The Red Hot Chilli Peppers, once wonderful, cool, impenetrable, noisy and influential funk metal band, now crap ballady housewife's choice. Claim to have got their name from some graffiti spray beneath a bridge in LA.

Mother Love Bone, the excellent band of which, parts of later formed the hub of Pearl Jam, claim that their name came from a phrase heard, or miss heard, in a bus queue.

The doors, according to one of the films as I understood it, they originally dreamed up the name, when they thought of themselves as open doors receptive to all influences.

I though the doors got their name from the doors of perception by huxley.

And Ooberman, I presume, got their name from Nietsche.

Originally posted by LordChaverly
Mmm - now where are my weighing scales and pictures of Anna Kournikova?

With a CD by the appropriately-named PEARL JAM playing in the background, perhaps?

Can I remind everyone who has said I was wrong about someting, is that this thread is called.
Myths and Errors about the origins of rock band names
Not the truth about names.
Everything I have reported comes from many years of being absorbed in rock/guitar magazines, interviews, rock radio and books, not made up by me.

Michael Stipe said in a radio interview sometime around 1990 that REM actually stood for Ronald's Electric Minstrels

Kiss wanted to be called F**K, but there management wouldn't allow that so they went for Kiss instead.

Well said Muddycoffee - its clear from your previous poststhat you have an enormous and wide ranging knowledge of music which I for one appreciate very much. Keep up the good work!

Fair point Muddy, and keep those erroneous name-origins coming :), I was also just keeping to the topic by pointing out which ones were errors :D

I've always wondered why the Nolan sisters called themselves The Nolans

Just doesn't make sense does it? :gag: :gag: :gag:

Dan And Lord Chaverly,
thanks for that, you are both splendid chaps. I am no great expert, but am farely good at pop quizzes, however my knowledge of rock data tends to stop at around 1990. I once worked out that the most common release date of my record collection was 1986.

Hmm, 1986, what a great year for music (http://www.rocklist.net/1986.html) - Word Up!

Pearl Jam got their name from a peyote jam Eddie Vedder’s great grandmother (her name was Pearl) used to make. Or did they? I've also heard the process of creating a pearl (doesn't start out as a lovely thing, but ultimately turns into something quite exquisite) was the influence.

Prior to becoming Pearl Jam, the group briefly played under the name Mookie Blaylock (after a purportedly second-rate basketball player for the New Jersey Nets).

Originally posted by Bobbi
Pearl Jam got their name from a peyote jam Eddie Vedder’s great grandmother (her name was Pearl) used to make. Or did they? I've also heard the process of creating a pearl (doesn't start out as a lovely thing, but ultimately turns into something quite exquisite) was the influence.

Prior to becoming Pearl Jam, the group briefly played under the name Mookie Blaylock (after a purportedly second-rate basketball player for the New Jersey Nets).

im a massive pearl jam fan but i never knew about how they got there name

now i do:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Originally posted by Bobbi
Pearl Jam got their name from a peyote jam Eddie Vedder’s great grandmother (her name was Pearl) used to make. Or did they?
Not what I heard (another myth and error?), I'd heard that Pearl Jam was slang for another kind of jam entirely (one that only men can make), but it seems I was wrong as well (http://experts.about.com/q/549/3906857.htm).

tehee ee what a cool i dea

Originally posted by DanSumption
Not what I heard (another myth and error?), I'd heard that Pearl Jam was slang for another kind of jam entirely (one that only men can make), but it seems I was wrong as well (http://experts.about.com/q/549/3906857.htm).

In that case, it's a good thing they didn't go with Eddie's first choice of name: Pearl Necklace ;) (allegedly)

Originally posted by carcrash
I though the doors got their name from the doors of perception by huxley.

William Blake
If the doors of perception were to be cleansed evr'y thing would appear to man as it is, infinite


Blake knew what he was talking about.

edit -- found this


THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS
They took the name from a friend's ventriloquist act, which was named after a film starring George C. Scott, which in turn was inspired by a section of Don Quixote. Don Quixote's trusted servant asks why he is preparing to attack several windmills with his lance. Don Quixote replys, "Because they might be giants."

Originally posted by mojoworking
In that case, it's a good thing they didn't go with Eddie's first choice of name: Pearl Necklace ;) (allegedly)
Wasn't that the name for the rather gruesome effect of shatterproof windscreens when a person was hurled through one?

If not, I'll erase this post

Originally posted by Strix
Wasn't that the name for the rather gruesome effect of shatterproof windscreens when a person was hurled through one?

If not, I'll erase this post

That's one way of putting it ;)

Originally posted by DanSumption
As was the phrase "Heavy Metal". And many other band and song names.

I'm not too sure that it was a William Burrough's novel that gave rise to the term "heavy metal" for loud riffing rock.

Steppenwolf's "Born to be Wild" contained the lines;

"I like smoke and lightning
Heavy metal thunder
Racin' with the wind
And the feelin' that I'm under"

This was on the soundtrack of the film "Easy Rider" - a real cult classic among rock fans in the late 60's early 70's - much more popular than Burroughs (OK a lot of people bought his books but not many people got past page 2).

And even then - being of a certain age - I can't remember the term heavy metal being used in the early 70's - although phrases like "heavy", "heavy rock" and "hard rock" were applied to bands like Led Zep, Sabbath, Purple etc

My first recollection of the term heavy metal was when applied to bands like Motorhead and AC/DC later on in the 70's - and this got applied retrospectively to earlier heavy bands.

Originally posted by Longcol
I'm not too sure that it was a William Burrough's novel that gave rise to the term "heavy metal" for loud riffing rock.

Steppenwolf's "Born to be Wild" contained the lines...
Yup, I'm aware of Born to be Wild, but Burroughs wrote about the Heavy Metal Kid about 5 years before that song was written. There's no proof that Steppenwolf got it from Burroughs, but it seems quite possible given Burroughs' underground popularity at the time. The first use of "Heavy Metal" to refer to a type of music was apparently in 1970, applied to the Blue Öyster Cult. But even before then, bands like Iron Butterfly and Led Zeppelin played heavy music and had, erm, metallic names.

Yes Dan, but as I say, I was around at the time and can't remember the term "heavy metal" being used until later in the '70's.

And I must have been one of the many people who bought "The Soft Machine" and "Naked Lunch" and never got past page 2 - and Burroughs would definitely have been way beyond most HM fans!