It’s a running gag to declare a particularly catchy, random collection of words a “Band Name.” But my question is, when did musical bands start to appear as entities with odd names?
The history of popular music isn’t my strong suit, but I can’t recall any 19th century virtuosos touring as Pag Mahone or anything—though I think I’ve heard at least a few turn of the century examples of “The [Artist name] Orchestra” or the “[Artist Name] Quartet.” The Hardn Quartet is the first example I can find of such a group not named for one of it’s members, but like I said, it’s not my field of expertise, so I could be off by fifty years.
So, I’m asking…when did you start seeing bands named like “The Proper Nouns”?
But I notice that the Haydn Quartet is older. That’s the earliest I can find that doesn’t have the bandleader’s name attached. Otherwise, there are jazz bands called “__________ and his _________” from before then.
The problem with a question like this, of course, is that documentation of the vast majority of live music that happened prior to the explosion of records in the 1920s is spotty. It seems pretty clear that band names were already common at that point – the first jazz recording (1917) was by the Original Dixieland Jass Band.
The first group whose name made me sit up and say, “HUUUnnhh??” was The Lovin’ Spoonful in the late sixties. Before that group names always made sense, sort of.
Whereas I remember laughing when I heard there was a group called “Strawberry Alarm Clock” - I think that was the first “off the wall” name of a group I had ever heard.
Marty: Let’s…uh talk a little bit about the history of the group. I understand Nigel you and David originally started the band wuh…back in…when was it…back in 1964?
David: Well before that we were in different groups, I was in a group called The Creatures and which was a skiffle group.
Nigel: I was in Lovely Lads.
David: Yeah.
Nigel: And then we looked at each other and says well we might as well join up you know and uh…
David: So we became The Originals.
Nigel: Right.
David: And we had to change our name actually…
Nigel: Well there was, there was another group in the east end called The Originals and we had to rename ourselves.
David: The New Originals.
Nigel: The New Originals and then, uh, they became…
David: The Regulars, they changed their name back to The Regulars and we thought well, we could go back to The Originals but what’s the point?
It seems to me that those are two different questions. There were plenty of groups in the 1950s with “The Proper Nouns” type names: The Silhouettes, The Platters, The Coasters, etc. What you’re asking about in the first sentence seems to be an incongruous juxtaposition of adjectives and nouns, like Strawberry Alarm Clock, Jefferson Airplane, Velvet Underground, etc. And that was a phenomenon that took off in the late 1960s. This is the kind of name that is the subject of the “Band name!” meme, which may have originated with Dave Barry.
Simon and Garfunkel’s first group in 1957 was called Tom and Jerry, and they even had a minor hit under that name, but I guess you couldn’t consider them a band, really, as there weren’t backup musicians that I’m aware of.
Colibri: I think 1965 is more accurate, with the advent of groups like Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service, etc.
Well it started in the mid sixties, but as I said it really took off (and probably peaked) in the late sixties then.
Let’s take a look. These are just names on the “Incongrous adjective/noun” model, not “The Proper Nouns” or “Somebody and the Whatever” models, even if the latter were outlandish. Some of these may be literary references or puns, but I’ve included them anyway.
Blue Cheer
Blue Oyster Cult
Electric Flag
Elmer Gantry’s Velvet Opera
Opal Butterfly
Peppermint Trolley Company
Plastic Penny
Savage Resurrection
Spooky Tooth
Strawberry Alarm Clock
Tangerine Dream
Re 1964: members of the bands that became The Velvet Underground and The Blues Magoos came together in this year. However, the Velvets didn’t adopt that name until November 1965. The name Bloos Magoos wasn’t used until 1966, to be changed soon afterwards.
Re Captain Beefheart: that was Don Van Vliet’s alias, but not the name of the band. Through most of his career, the billing was Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band.
