# Myths that form about songs and bands / band members **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [February 11, 2025, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myths-that-form-about-songs-and-bands-band-members/1014173 "2025-02-11T16:37:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2025, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myths-that-form-about-songs-and-bands-band-members/1014173/21 "2025-02-11T23:04:07Z")
That _Puff the Magic Dragon_ or _Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds_ are about drugs. They are not. The Beatles did write some songs about drugs, that wasnt one of them. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2025, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myths-that-form-about-songs-and-bands-band-members/1014173/22 "2025-02-11T23:06:05Z")
> [@Jaycat.again](#): > > (for the foodies) Also, the one about jam made by Eddie Vedder’s grandmother, Pearl, being the origin of that band’s name. ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2025, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myths-that-form-about-songs-and-bands-band-members/1014173/23 "2025-02-11T23:12:08Z")
I remember being told by classmates back in elementary school of a woman getting murdered in a recording studio and the scream could be heard on the song [“Love Rollercoaster”](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/the-ohio-slayers/), and my mother telling me not to belief everything I am told. > **[Ohio Players Love Rollercoaster](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/the-ohio-slayers/)** > > Is the scream of a murdered woman audible on the Ohio Players' song 'Love Rollercoaster'? ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2025, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myths-that-form-about-songs-and-bands-band-members/1014173/24 "2025-02-11T23:15:29Z")
> [@Jaycat.again](#): > > Mama Cass and the ham sandwich. Which in turn ended up as a horrible joke. Really. It’s horrible: If Mama Cass had given that sammich to Karen Carpenter, maybe both would’ve been alive. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2025, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myths-that-form-about-songs-and-bands-band-members/1014173/25 "2025-02-11T23:22:23Z")
> [@Lucas\_Jackson](#): > > What ever happened to that guy anyway? _Ice Age_ movies, mostly. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2025, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myths-that-form-about-songs-and-bands-band-members/1014173/26 "2025-02-11T23:22:27Z")
I heard that joke as a kid. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2025, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myths-that-form-about-songs-and-bands-band-members/1014173/27 "2025-02-11T23:40:21Z")
> [@Jaycat.again](#): > > Mama Cass and the ham sandwich. Interestingly, I found this… _Her memoir also reveals how Elliot-Kugell did finally find out, decades later, the true origin of the ham sandwich myth._ _She was having lunch with her mum’s friend the journalist Sue Cameron and talk turned to Cass’s death._ _“I said, ‘I really just wish I knew where that story came from’. She stopped eating, put her knife and fork down, looked me in the eye and said: ‘I did it’.”_ _Cameron went on to explain how back in 1974, when she heard the news, she called Cass’s manager Allan Carr in London to find out what had happened._ _Elliot-Kugell picks up the story: “So many of her peers had passed away due to drug overdoses that Carr really wanted to protect her. And there was a sandwich that was found there.”_ _On the spot, Carr concocted the choking on a ham sandwich story and asked Cameron to write it up in the Hollywood Reporter to quell speculation until there was more information._ _For Elliot-Kugell knowing the truth was a huge relief: “Allan Carr wanted to protect his client’s legacy and in a weird way it did. So now I understand, and it makes sense.”_ _She just wishes that everyone knew the truth._ ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2025, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myths-that-form-about-songs-and-bands-band-members/1014173/28 "2025-02-12T00:17:47Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > That _Puff the Magic Dragon_ or _Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds_ are about drugs. They are not. The Beatles did write some songs about drugs, that wasnt one of them. C’mon now, have you _heard_ the lyrics to Lucy in the Sky? I know what Lennon said in an interview, that the song is based on a drawing his son made. But here’s a little tip: musicians don’t always tell the truth about themselves and their music. Especially Lennon, who famously liked to mess with the beliefs and expectations of reporters and his own fans. The song is clearly and unequivocally about the rising epidemic of IBS among the female population. _A girl with colitis goes by…_ ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2025, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myths-that-form-about-songs-and-bands-band-members/1014173/29 "2025-02-12T00:45:58Z")
Here’s a timely one: 10cc’s Graham Gouldman confirmed in a February 2025 interview that the band did not, in fact, get its name from the volume of an average male ejaculation: > We got bored with giving the long-winded reason for how we got the name, then someone told us the average male ejaculation was 9cc [cubic centimetres]. Since we were 1cc more, we started saying it was the average male ejaculation. Is it a real fact? I have no idea! But it is now. (The “long-winded answer” is that their producer, Jonathan King, had a dream where he saw a billboard with the words “10cc The Best Band in the World.”) > **[10cc’s Graham Gouldman: ‘Every West Indian person I’ve spoken to loves...](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/jan/23/10ccs-graham-gouldman-every-west-indian-person-ive-spoken-to-loves-dreadlock-holiday-but-i-wouldnt-write-certain-lines-now)** > > As the 78-year-old star tours his latest solo LP, he answers your questions on his Everton terrace anthem, the making of I’m Not in Love and hosting Joey Ramone in Stockport ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2025, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myths-that-form-about-songs-and-bands-band-members/1014173/30 "2025-02-12T00:51:39Z")
> [@solost](#): > > C’mon now, have you _heard_ the lyrics to Lucy in the Sky? Indeed. I do not for a second believe Lennon there. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2025, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myths-that-form-about-songs-and-bands-band-members/1014173/31 "2025-02-12T01:01:10Z")
> [@solost](#): > > The song is clearly and unequivocally about the rising epidemic of IBS among the female population. > > _A girl with colitis goes by…_ The warm smell of colitis rising up through the air? ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2025, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myths-that-form-about-songs-and-bands-band-members/1014173/32 "2025-02-12T01:14:44Z")
Two myths in one? You decide: In 1977, The members of KISS had blood drawn and mixed into the red ink for their Marvel comic super special. There’s an “official” notarized statement documenting it. But wait! According to the band’s manager, the ink did not end up being used for the KISS comic, but for an issue of Sports Illustrated instead. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2025, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myths-that-form-about-songs-and-bands-band-members/1014173/33 "2025-02-12T01:15:51Z")
> [@blondebear](#): > > In 1977, The members of KISS had blood drawn and mixed into the red ink for their Marvel comic super special. Stan Lee said it’s true…so it might not be. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2025, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myths-that-form-about-songs-and-bands-band-members/1014173/34 "2025-02-12T01:33:16Z")
There’s the rumor that [insert celebrity name here - I heard it as George Michael and Rod Stewart] had to have about a quart of semen pumped from their stomach. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2025, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myths-that-form-about-songs-and-bands-band-members/1014173/35 "2025-02-12T03:23:23Z")
I heard it was Rod Stewart long before anyone ever heard of George Michael. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2025, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myths-that-form-about-songs-and-bands-band-members/1014173/36 "2025-02-12T03:38:11Z")
Cecil sets the record straight on “Louie Louie”: > **[What are the REAL lyrics to “Louie Louie”?](https://www.straightdope.com/21341456/what-are-the-real-lyrics-to-louie-louie)** ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2025, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myths-that-form-about-songs-and-bands-band-members/1014173/37 "2025-02-12T03:46:38Z")
I grew up in Des Moines, and this happened the year after I graduated from high school. I was not there, but I knew a lot of people who were, and the story is totally true. As for Van Halen and the M&Ms, I read somewhere that there was a band playing at a venue a few days after a Van Halen show that requested ONLY brown M&Ms, so the promoters put those in the refrigerator and set them out in the backstage area when that band showed up. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2025, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myths-that-form-about-songs-and-bands-band-members/1014173/38 "2025-02-12T04:19:30Z")
Anybody remember the rumour that the band Klaatu (“Calling Occupants,” “Sub Rosa Subway”) was actually a reunified Beatles? > **[Klaatu (band)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaatu_(band)#First_three_albums_and_Beatles_rumours)** > > Klaatu (/ˈklɑːtuː/) was a Canadian rock group formed in 1973 by the duo of John Woloschuk and Dee Long. They named themselves after an ambassador, Klaatu, from an extraterrestrial confederation who visits Earth with his companion robot Gort in the film The Day the Earth Stood Still. After recording two non-charting singles, the band added drummer Terry Draper to the line-up; this trio constituted Klaatu throughout the rest of the band's recording career. > In Canada, the band is remembered for s... They weren’t, but the rumour grew, fueled by the fact that their first album named nobody in the band, there were no photos of the band, and all songs were written and produced by Klaatu—no names in that regard either. Plus, it was prog rock, much like the Beatles made towards the end of their time together, and “Sub Rosa Subway,” in particular, could have fit seamlessly into the _White Album_. The band was happy to ride the publicity, not to mention the record sales. They didn’t show themselves until their third album, and even then, they were only sketched into the crowd on the cover. Only on their fourth album were names revealed and photos shown. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2025, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myths-that-form-about-songs-and-bands-band-members/1014173/39 "2025-02-12T05:38:23Z")
Ringo fed the rumor soon after with his cover for Goodnight Vienna. [![](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS3jdvt9KDi9JkaKVJ0WytB8xFUrxsDUl0_V5XVSPafdA&s=10) ](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS3jdvt9KDi9JkaKVJ0WytB8xFUrxsDUl0_V5XVSPafdA&s=10) ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2025, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myths-that-form-about-songs-and-bands-band-members/1014173/40 "2025-02-12T06:09:22Z")
**Blue Oyster Cult** used to claim they got their name as an anagram of their preferred brew Cully Stout Beer. While it is a perfect anagram, there is no such beer (AFAIK); the name actually comes from Sandy Pearlman’s mythos that infuses many of the songs he wrote for them, including Subhuman (tellingly re-titled Blue Oyster Cult when re-recorded for the Imaginos album). Lyrics include: > Oyster boys are swimming now > Hear them chatter on the tide > We understand, we understand > But fear is read and so do I > > So ladies fish and gentlemen > Here’s my angled dream > See me in my blue sky bag > And meet me by the sea > > Oyster boys are swimming for me > Just one deal is what we made now [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myths-that-form-about-songs-and-bands-band-members/1014173.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myths-that-form-about-songs-and-bands-band-members/1014173.md?page=3)