Posted by Bruce Sanborn on November 14, 2011 - 10:50am
Free Liquor and Busty Strippers. I've always thought that'd be a great name for a band. And I'd love to see it on a marquee. I'll bet you'd get quite a number of walk-ins, horny drunk guys lathering in front of the stage for about an hour till the disillusionment sets in and they realize that the guys onstage playing insturments are all they're going to get. Your music would have to be pretty fucking good to win over that crowd. Or you'd have to be the Pussycat Dolls.
I've always thought the name of a band is both the most and least important aspect of the business. Some have had horrible names and gone on to fame, well deserved in the case of Green Day, not so much in the case of Coldplay. A band's name is it's calling card, the first thing most people know about them. Some ring out, making you want to hear them. Dire Straits comes to mind. That's a fucking great name. The best of all time of course is The Rolling Stones. According to Keith Richards, he and Brian Jones were on the phone with a club owner when he asked them what their name was. They didn't have one. Keith looked down at the floor and there was a Muddy Waters album laying about. He saw a song title and barked out, "The Rollin' Stones!" Serendipitous to say the least.
Band names seem to reflect their times. In the '50's birds were popular. The Falcons, The Flamingoes, The Robins, The Larks, The Crows, The Swallows, Sonny Til and the Orieles. There was an innocence reflected in their choices. The Moonglows. How can you not like a band named The Moonglows? And the 'ettes'. The Marvelettes, The Ronettes, The Bobbettes and I could make the case for Etta James but I won't.
With the advent of hallucentory pharmaceuticals, the 60's saw some of the more creative names come about. Strawberry Alarm Clock, Velvet Underground, Lovin' Spoonful, Procol Harum, Iron Butterfly.
Sometimes a band will take the easy way out. I did. Sam and Dave were two guys named Sam and Dave. The Dave Matthews Band, Ben E. King. Just use your fucking name and be done with it. Bruce Springsteen also did but he also named his back-up band. When they were just starting out, they use to drive over to pick up their keyboard/guitar player David Sancious who lived on E Street. They would have to wait for hours sometimes for David to get his shit together and get out to the car. Someone said, "We sit on this street so much we should be called the E Street Band." Bingo.
Some band names fit them so perfectly that they could be called nothing else. Fear is one. When you go to see a band called Fear you know exactly what you're getting and you'd better be prepared for it. Coldplay is another. Buy a ticket to Coldplay and you can be guaranteed to be bored out of your fucking skull. Rise Against is a perfect one. They do and you will.
The past few years have seen an uptick in playful meaningless names. Foster the People, Cage the Elephant, 30 Seconds to Mars, Panic! at the Disco. Fun, interesting and cute but ultimately bearing little resemblance to what their music sounds like.
Some of the most fun you can have is sitting around thinking up the name for your band. When doing bongloads this can occupy hours of your time. But at the end of the day does it really matter if you call your selves The Delfonics or Artic Monkeys? I think it does. A name should be memorable but it also shouldn't kill off potential fans. Which brings me to the worst name for a band in the history of music. Back in the early 70's, an era not known for its taste, a heavy-metal band from California...wait for it...Dogbreath. I kid you not.
B
TheBruceSanbornBand.com
I've always thought the name of a band is both the most and least important aspect of the business. Some have had horrible names and gone on to fame, well deserved in the case of Green Day, not so much in the case of Coldplay. A band's name is it's calling card, the first thing most people know about them. Some ring out, making you want to hear them. Dire Straits comes to mind. That's a fucking great name. The best of all time of course is The Rolling Stones. According to Keith Richards, he and Brian Jones were on the phone with a club owner when he asked them what their name was. They didn't have one. Keith looked down at the floor and there was a Muddy Waters album laying about. He saw a song title and barked out, "The Rollin' Stones!" Serendipitous to say the least.
Band names seem to reflect their times. In the '50's birds were popular. The Falcons, The Flamingoes, The Robins, The Larks, The Crows, The Swallows, Sonny Til and the Orieles. There was an innocence reflected in their choices. The Moonglows. How can you not like a band named The Moonglows? And the 'ettes'. The Marvelettes, The Ronettes, The Bobbettes and I could make the case for Etta James but I won't.
With the advent of hallucentory pharmaceuticals, the 60's saw some of the more creative names come about. Strawberry Alarm Clock, Velvet Underground, Lovin' Spoonful, Procol Harum, Iron Butterfly.
Sometimes a band will take the easy way out. I did. Sam and Dave were two guys named Sam and Dave. The Dave Matthews Band, Ben E. King. Just use your fucking name and be done with it. Bruce Springsteen also did but he also named his back-up band. When they were just starting out, they use to drive over to pick up their keyboard/guitar player David Sancious who lived on E Street. They would have to wait for hours sometimes for David to get his shit together and get out to the car. Someone said, "We sit on this street so much we should be called the E Street Band." Bingo.
Some band names fit them so perfectly that they could be called nothing else. Fear is one. When you go to see a band called Fear you know exactly what you're getting and you'd better be prepared for it. Coldplay is another. Buy a ticket to Coldplay and you can be guaranteed to be bored out of your fucking skull. Rise Against is a perfect one. They do and you will.
The past few years have seen an uptick in playful meaningless names. Foster the People, Cage the Elephant, 30 Seconds to Mars, Panic! at the Disco. Fun, interesting and cute but ultimately bearing little resemblance to what their music sounds like.
Some of the most fun you can have is sitting around thinking up the name for your band. When doing bongloads this can occupy hours of your time. But at the end of the day does it really matter if you call your selves The Delfonics or Artic Monkeys? I think it does. A name should be memorable but it also shouldn't kill off potential fans. Which brings me to the worst name for a band in the history of music. Back in the early 70's, an era not known for its taste, a heavy-metal band from California...wait for it...Dogbreath. I kid you not.
B
TheBruceSanbornBand.com
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Comments (4)
The '70's had some great band names as well: Canned Heat, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, The Main Ingredient, Grand Funk Railroad, Red Rider, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Vanilla Fudge, etc...
I always thought Spooky Tooth was an interesting and bad name at the same time. No wonder Gary Wright went solo.
In much the same fashion that The Rolling Stones came across their name, my understanding of how Jethro Tull got their name was somewhat similar. Supposedly they were horrible when they first started out. After each show they were informed that they were not going to be asked back to each venue they played thus they had to keep changing their band name so they could book gigs in the same venues or in other venues in the area. The first time they were invited back to a venue they were using the band name Jethro Tull... and the rest is history.
I'm not sure what I would expect from Three Dog Night had I never heard their music before, but the meaning behind the band name is interesting. The use of three dogs is to keep people warm at night depending on how cold it is... thus it is cold enough to have three dogs sleep with you to keep you warm so it's a Three Dog Night.