# De-puzzling puzzling album titles **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [November 23, 2025, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/de-puzzling-puzzling-album-titles/1025070 "2025-11-23T20:08:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Al128](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/al128/32/16541_2.png) [@Al128](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al128)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2025, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/de-puzzling-puzzling-album-titles/1025070/1 "2025-11-23T20:08:43Z")
I quite often come across album titles that leave me wondering… CREAM - Disraeli gears THE POLICE - Regatta Mondata (?) THE OFFSPRING - Ixnai the hombre (?) Please help explaining those and post ones that have you scratching your head ---
**Author:** ![Dropo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2025, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/de-puzzling-puzzling-album-titles/1025070/2 "2025-11-23T20:42:01Z")
“Drummer [Ginger Baker](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ginger_Baker) recalled how the album’s title was based on a [malapropism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malapropism) which alluded to 19th-century [British Prime Minister](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_Minister_of_the_United_Kingdom) [Benjamin Disraeli](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Disraeli)”: > You know how the title came about – Disraeli Gears – yeah? We had this [Austin Westminster](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin_Westminster), and Mick Turner was one of the [roadies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_crew) who’d been with me a long time, and he was driving along and [Eric](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Clapton) [Clapton] was talking about getting a [racing bicycle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racing_bicycle). Mick, driving, went ‘Oh yeah – Disraeli gears!’ meaning [derailleur gears](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derailleur) … We all just fell over … We said that’s got to be the album title.[[13]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disraeli_Gears#cite_note-13) - [Disraeli Gears - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disraeli_Gears) ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2025, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/de-puzzling-puzzling-album-titles/1025070/3 "2025-11-23T20:54:19Z")
> [@Al128](#): > > THE POLICE - Regatta Mondata ( Regatta Mondatta isn’t an album by The Police, it’s an album of raggae Police cover songs. I’d assume it’s a play on The Police albums Zenyatta Mondatta and Reggatta de Blanc. Regatta de Blanc loosely translates to ‘white raggae’ and Zenyatta Mondatta were made up words. From wiki: Stewart Copeland said that the group arrived at the album’s title after deciding it should roll off the tongue. _Zenyatta_ and _Mondatta_ are invented words, hinting at [Zen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen), at [Jomo Kenyatta](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jomo_Kenyatta), at the French for ‘the world’ (_le monde_), and at _reggatta_, from the title of the previous Police album, _[Reggatta de Blanc](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reggatta_de_Blanc)_. > **[Zenyatta Mondatta | Title](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zenyatta_Mondatta#Title)** > > Stewart Copeland said that the group arrived at the album's title after deciding it should roll off the tongue. Zenyatta and Mondatta are invented words, hinting at Zen, at Jomo Kenyatta, at the French for 'the world' (le monde), and at reggatta, from the title of the previous Police album, Reggatta de Blanc. As Copeland explained: > **[Reggatta de Blanc](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reggatta_de_Blanc#)** > > Reggatta de Blanc is the second studio album by the English rock band the Police, released on 5 October 1979 by A&M Records. It was the band's first release to top the UK Albums Chart and features their first two UK number-one singles: "Message in a Bottle" and "Walking on the Moon". In early 1980, the album was reissued in the United States on two 10-inch discs, one album side per disc, and as a collector's edition with a poster of the band. > The album's title loosely translates in French to ... ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2025, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/de-puzzling-puzzling-album-titles/1025070/4 "2025-11-23T20:58:06Z")
> [@Al128](#): > > THE OFFSPRING - Ixnai the hombre It’s a pig latin for nix and Spanish (and English) for The Man. They were implying ‘fuck the man’ or ‘fuck authority’. > **[Ixnay on the Hombre](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ixnay_on_the_Hombre)** > > Ixnay on the Hombre is the fourth studio album by American rock band the Offspring, released on February 4, 1997, by Columbia Records, as the band's first album on the label. After the massive commercial success of their previous album, Smash (1994), the band entered the studio in the middle of 1996 to record their fourth album and it was the first Offspring album not to be produced by Thom Wilson, instead being produced by Dave Jerden. The title combines Pig Latin ("Ixnay" is the version of t... > The title combines [Pig Latin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pig_Latin) (“[Ixnay](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ixnay)” is the version of the word “[nix](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/nix)”, familiar in 1940s Hollywood movies) and Spanish (“[hombre](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hombre)”, “man”) to convey the message “fuck [The Man](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man)”, as in “fuck authority”.[[6]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ixnay_on_the_Hombre#cite_note-6) ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2025, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/de-puzzling-puzzling-album-titles/1025070/5 "2025-11-23T20:59:20Z")
The second album by Brand X, titled _Moroccan Roll_. The cover picture by Hipgnosis shows a scene in Morocco. Because it’s their _second_ album, it’s a pun on “more rock-’n’-roll.” ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2025, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/de-puzzling-puzzling-album-titles/1025070/6 "2025-11-23T21:19:59Z")
The official story is that the name of the Grateful Dead’s album _Aoxomoxoa_ has no meaning, and was chosen just because it is a palindrome. ---
**Author:** ![Jaycat.again](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat.again/32/11525_2.png) [@Jaycat.again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaycat.again)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2025, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/de-puzzling-puzzling-album-titles/1025070/7 "2025-11-23T22:05:21Z")
> [@Dropo](#): > > “Drummer [Ginger Baker](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ginger_Baker) recalled how the album’s title was based on a [malapropism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malapropism) which alluded to 19th-century [British Prime Minister](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_Minister_of_the_United_Kingdom) [Benjamin Disraeli](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Disraeli)”: I read that an alternate title was “Elephant Gerald.” (Ella Fitzgerald). ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2025, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/de-puzzling-puzzling-album-titles/1025070/8 "2025-11-23T22:27:06Z")
Joe Walsh’s “The Smoker you Drink, the Player you Get” is a play on what was apparently a common 1970s musician expression “The higher you get, the better you play.” This thread prompted me to do some research to find that out. In the process I found an [old SDMB thread](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-meaning-to-joe-walsh-the-smoker-you-drink-the-player-you-get/142366) asking about the title.