Well, let me put it this way: since everyone who hears the song notes the acronym, I suspect Lennon noticed it as well. I’ve read the snopes article on it before, but didn’t find it all that convincing. As well, musicians who insert drug references in songs are generally hesitant to admit them – the references often “cheapen” the song/artist.
That said, I won’t say it definitely is an intentional reference, but its not at all implausible.
Crowded House was initially called The Mullanes, after the middle name of singer/songwriter Neil Finn. The three of them, Neil, Nick Seymour, and Paul Hester, moved to Los Angeles to secure a contract and shared a teeny tiny little house. Living all squashed together, they came up with what they felt like was a better name.
“Walk This Way: the Autobiography of Aerosmith” debunks the idea that the band was named after Sinclair Lewis’s novel.
It seemed (and still seems) too coincidental for me, though.
-Myron
Not true. I was working as an intern (you work your butt off and don’t get paid for it) at KISW radio in Seattle in 1975. I was considering a career as a DJ. The day of a Deep Purple concert in Seattle, the band stopped by the studio. When asked how they came about there name, they said the song Deep Purple by Nino Temple & April Stevens came on the radio while they were thinking of names. It sounded good so they used it. The version of the song they used was released in 1963.
I’d always thought he got it from the Suicide song Harlem, which has the phrase “Big Black City” repeated throughout.
An addendum to the origin of the Velvet Underground name - they once played a show (in 1969 or 1970) and one of the people working at the gig was the daughter of the guy who wrote the book. She gave them the sad news that he’d just died. There’s also a sequel to the book (which is not a porn novel, so much as a cheesy book about wife swapping and other types of deviance), called The Velvet Underground Revisited which was, as likely as not, a cash in on the (limited) success of the band.
[slight hijack]Re Pearl Jam, my mother, back about forty years ago, used to know a young girl called … Pearl Jam. She appeared in a newspaper at the time of the band’s first tour here, saying how she was bemused at all the disbelieving laughter she got from young people when she told them her name, until she cottoned on that it had been purloined.[/sh]
Here is the quote, from Our Band Could Be Your Life by Michael Azerrad:
Yo, Racer 72, “Deep Purple” the Tempo-Stevens song has been around since at least 1939, when it went to #1 for the first time, by Larry Clinton & His Orchestra.
Fine Young Cannibals took their name from the 1960 movie, All The Fine Young Cannibals. Some soft rock stations won’t even say the group’s name because, I guess, it sounds so “heathenish,” preferring to call them “FYC.”
The Beau Brummels took their name because it would put their records directly behind those of the Beatles in the music store racks. Hoping for a spillover effect that never really happened. Although “Laugh, Laugh” is a good song.
And, Tears For Fears adopted their name for Arthur Janev’s book, **Prisoners of Pain[b/], but then aren’t we all?
Yes, but I heard this story from several of the members in a documentary on BBC. I think a friend who wasn’t in the band but helped them find a new name was also there.
Once upon a time there was a poor little kid named Rivers Cuomo that had bad asthma and was called Weezer. Later on, when he was forming a band, he thought his nickname would be perfect for the band.
Big Star named themselves after a grocery store chain in the South. They liked the pretentiousness of it.
No Doubt came from the phrase their original lead singer said alot.
The Residents got their name after someone responded to a letter they sent. They didn’t write their names on the return adress, so it was labled as being to “The Residents”.
I think The Band got their name since they were always introduced as “Bob Dylan and Band” when they played with him.
Beagledave nailed the GD origin.
Apropos of nothing, they previuosly were called Mother Macree’s Uptown Jug Champions before Pigpen took them in a blues direction.
The Bangles had to change their name from something, I forget what, but they took the Bangles as a play on the name of, and an homage to, the Beatles.
Beat…Bang…get it?
“Frankie Goes to Hollywood” was poached from a Frank Sinatra movie poster.
Peter Paul and Mary got their name from…oh, never mind.
[/nitpick] The name of the band as well as the return address label is Residents, not The Residents
Haj
Yes, but just prior to be called The Grateful Dead, they were known as The Warlocks. How early 60’s is that?
Haj
Definitely the film and the book. In fact, I don’t think any of the dialogue in that excellent film isn’t from the equally excellent book. The film stops at the end of the 20th chapter of a 21 chapter book though. The U.S. version of the book, until recently, left off the last chapter.
Haj
That would be “The Bangs” - at least according to their very own appearance on Behind the Music. They added the “les” to the end only to avoid a legal wrangle with some obscure band with their original name - I can’t speak to the Beatles homage one way or another…
A similar thing happened with The English Beat. The had to change their name from The Beat to perform in the U.S. and avoid legal issues.
Haj
Damn you… I read through this whole thread and thought I was going to be the only one who knew that.
The “Arrowsmith” thing is not true at all.
“Walk This Way” does in fact note that Joey Kramer basically just made the name up in High School. His band at the time didn’t want to use it, but he was obsessed with the name. Wrote it on his textbooks and everything.
When he proposed it to the band who would become Aerosmith, they actually DIDN’T want to use it because of the book. Too scholarly, they didn’t like the book yadda yadda. But when he explained it was AERO not ARROW… they took to it.
I also heard the same story about “The Lovin’ Spoonful”.
Hmmn… I seem to recall that on Letterman’s show he had a Top 10 list - “Top 10 worst band names”. The number 1 on the list was Hootie and the Blowfish. When the band formed, they chose the name as a joke. I believe I even have a memory of their first appearance on the Letterman show where he mentioned that.
A question - Does KMFDM really stand for Kill Mother F(iretruckin’) Depeche Mode?