OVER to YOU's WEB LIST of ROCK BANDS and THEIR NAMES
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Utbildningsradion – Over to You 2000/2001 Rock Bands and Their Names Programnr:00060/ra 1 OVER TO YOU's WEB LIST OF ROCK BANDS AND THEIR NAMES ABBA means father in Aramaic, but that probably doesn't have anything to do with the name. ABBA is an acronym – put together from the first letter in each of the members' first names: A for Agnetha Fältskog, B for Björn Ulvaeus, B for Benny Andersson and A for Anni-Frid Lyngstad. ACE OF BASE Well, supposedly their first studio was in the basement below a garage. That's how they got base from basement. They also considered themselves the kings or aces of their own studio – and there you go: Ace of Base ... AEROSMITH Joey Kramer, the drummer, always wrote Aerosmith all over his notebooks in school. Both Joey and his friend, singer Steven Tyler, thought the name looked cool. They got the idea from a book called “Arrowsmith” by the American writer Sinclair Lewis. BACKSTREET BOYS First the idea was to call this “boys band” something with “kids” in the name, like the tremendously popular 80s band NKOTB, New Kids On The Block. But they settled on “boys” instead. Backstreet comes from the name of a flea market in their home town of Orlando, Florida. BEASTIE BOYS The three guys in the band say that beastie, which really means something like “creep”, is an acronym. It stands for Boys Entering Anarchistic States Toward Internal Excellence. But now really, that sure sounds like something they made up afterwards, doesn't it? THE BEATLES There are a number of stories about this name. John Lennon and his best friend Stuart Sutcliffe, who was in the band from the beginning, came up with the name The Beetles, spelled with two e’s, since they liked Buddy Holly's band The Crickets. But instead they took the name The Quarrymen, and later became The Silver Beetles. John Lennon may also have been inspired by the movie “The Wild One” starring Marlon Brando. A motorcycle gang in the movie is called The Beetles. Lennon is also said to be the one who combined the word beat with beetle and came up with Beatles spelled with ea. BLACK SABBATH According to singer Ozzy Osborne the origin of the name comes from a film produced in 1963 – a horror movie with the number one horror actor Boris Karloff. BLUR Believe it or not, but Blur is said to come from a list that the record company gave the band. The company didn't like their earlier name Seymore. 1 Utbildningsradion – Over to You 2000/2001 Rock Bands and Their Names Programnr:00060/ra 1 BONO/U2 Bono, the singer of U2 whose real name is Paul Hewson, was inspired by a shop in Dublin, Ireland, called Bono Vox, meaning ‘good voice’ in Latin. It is actually a store for those who are hard of hearing. Bono says that the name U2 came from the idea that they wanted the audience to interact with the band – “You too”. U2 is also the name of a type of military spy plane. DAVID BOWIE His real name is David Jones, but he didn't want to be mixed up with Davy Jones of the pop group The Monkees, which was really big in the late 60s when Bowie started out. Bowie comes from the name of a wilderness knife, which Bowie liked as a child. BOB DYLAN His real name is Robert Zimmerman, but he thought that the name was too long and complicated. Robert is almost always shortened to Bob. Dylan comes from one of his favorite writers – British author Dylan Thomas. EVERYTHING BUT THE GIRL This funny name was inspired by an ad for a clothing store that claimed to sell “everything but the girl”, everything but the sales girl, that is. FUGEES The story behind Fugees is interesting. The parents of three of the members were refugees, so they came up with the name Refugee Camp. After about half a year this was shortened to Fugees. But their record label is still called Refugee Camp. GARBAGE Shirley Manson is the singer of Garbage. In several interviews she has claimed that they got an ultimatum from the record company if they wanted a contract. “You have a choice between Garbage and Hootie and the Blowfish, they told us. And that choice was pretty easy,” she says a little tongue in cheek. The truth behind their name seems to be that they started with songs that had been turned down by the members' earlier bands. And by the way, Hootie and the Blowfish is an American band, and they say that their name is a combination of the nicknames of two kids in their old high school. Hootie was a guy who sounded like an owl ... INXS Early on they were called The Farriss Brothers – three of the members are brothers named Farriss. But they changed their name to INXS, which is a cool way of spelling “in excess”. Maybe they hoped that their music would be more cool and better than anyone else's. LYNARD SKYNARD The name is a variation of the name of a gym teacher that several of the guys in the band had in high school. His name was Leonard Skinerd. They thought it was the perfect name for a band that wanted to play 2 Utbildningsradion – Over to You 2000/2001 Rock Bands and Their Names Programnr:00060/ra 1 loud rock 'n roll. You see their teacher Mr Skinerd always yelled and screamed at them because they so often forgot their gym clothes. MARILYN MANSON The name is a combination of two American martyrs – the blonde movie star Marylin Monroe and mass murderer Charles Manson. The idea was to combine two opposites, two separate worlds, the good and the evil. NINE INCH NAILS Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails thought the abbreviation NIN looked cool. He got the idea from the length of coffin nails, which are supposed to be nine inches long. “It is also said that Jesus was crucified with nine inch nails,” says Trent Reznor. THE OFFSPRING There are two different stories around their name. Fans argue about which is the right one. One claims that the band see themselves as the musical offspring (avkomma) of a band called The Descendants. The other one claims that the name comes directly from a B film from the 80s called “The Offspring – They Were Born to Kill”. 'N SYNC They have simply taken the last letter in each of their names: N in justiN, S as in chriS, Y in joeY, N in lanstoN and C in jC. 'N Sync is of course a play on the expression “in sync” – meaning to be in rhythm. ROLLING STONES Guitarist Brian Jones suggested the name, which both Mick Jagger and Keith Richard immediately liked. “Rolling Stone” is the name of a song written by blues singer Muddy Waters, which The Rolling Stones played in the beginning of their career. SAVAGE GARDEN The story goes that Darren and Daniel, the two guys in the band, found the name in a novel by Anne Rice. Both of them say they love her books. Anne Rice writes different kinds of books, but among them quite a few horror and vampire stories. The term Savage Garden is in several of these. Most of her stories, by the way, take place in a special area of New Orleans, called the Garden District. STING (whose name is Gordon Sumner) got the name from other musicians long before his first band The Police was formed. Sting played in a jazz band and often dressed in a yellow and black striped T-shirt. The guys in the band thought he looked like a bee and started calling him Sting. TLC is another band name that you could call an acronym. An acronym is an abbreviation formed by taking the first letter of a word or words. TLC is actually a very common expression in English, meaning ‘Tender, Loving Care’. Then once again, it's also the first letter in the girls' names – T for Tionne, L for Lisa and C for Chili. 3 Utbildningsradion – Over to You 2000/2001 Rock Bands and Their Names Programnr: 00060/ra 1 ROCK BANDS AND THEIR NAMES Manus: Claes Nordenskiöld Producent: Claes Nordenskiöld Sändningsdatum: 1/9 2000 Programlängd: 14’32 Music: “Sweet Home Alabama” Lynard Skynard Speaker/Claes Nordenskiöld: Think about this. You have a rock band, but you can’t decide what to call it. So how about naming your band after an old gym teacher? Well, that’s what an American rock band did! The name Lynard Skynard comes from the name of a gym teacher that several of the guys in the band had in high school. His name was Leonard Skinerd. They just changed the spelling. They thought it was the perfect name for a band that wanted to play loud rock ‘n roll. You see their teacher Mr. Skinerd always yelled and screamed at them since they often forgot their gym clothes... Music: “Sweet Home Alabama” Lynard Skynard Speaker: Have you ever wondered where your favorite rock band’s name comes from? In this program we’re going to give a few examples of why bands are called what they’re called. Why is Garbage called Garbage? And how did names like Savage Garden, Bono, Backstreet Boys, and The Beatles come about? Fans often have a lot of ideas why a band is called this or that, but the truth isn’t always that easy to determine.