Of things I like to do, I’d say researching obscure facts among one of my favorite things.
I’ll hear something, or see something and that leads me to want to find out other similar things.
While researching these obscure facts, I will often tell Lisa, Kate and Charlotte the interesting things I have found out.
*Side Note 1 – You’d think that Lisa, Kate and Charlotte would enjoy hearing these tidbits of information. You’d think that wouldn’t you?
The other day I heard how a band came up with it’s name listening to the Top-40 Countdown on the radio (the 70s channel) – and I was fascinated.
I, quite naturally, assumed that there was a guy with that name in the band, and he was either the head songwriter or the lead singer and he and his fellow musicians played in his bands.
But I was wrong.
In February of 1972, a band had rehearsed a few days in a warehouse they had rented in South Carolina. They were scheduled to open for The Allmon Brothers but still couldn’t come up with a name for their band. The warehouse they had rented had a key chain that was inscribed with Marshall Tucker on it, so not even knowing who Marshall Tucker was, decided to call themselves “The Marshall Tucker Band”. It turns out that there was a Marshall Tucker. Marshall Tucker was blind since birth, but he had become an expert piano tuner, and had been working in the warehouse before the musicians had rented the space.
See, that’s the kind of stuff I find fascinating.
A long time ago, I heard the story of “The Cars” and how they got their name. The band formed in Boston Massachusetts in 1976. A lot of names had been kicked around but the band members had a feeling they were going to be big and they had the idea that they’d also be able to sell t-shirts with their band name on it. But every name they came up with was too long of a name to look good on a t-shirt. 1 or 2 of the band members were into artist design and one of them knew he was late to practice at one session when he got there are saw all of the other cars there. It seems he had a habit of running a few minutes late and always knew he was the last one there when he recognized all the cars were already there. So it was suggested “The Cars” would be a good name, not only because of the cars, but because it looked so good on a t-shirt.
Aerosmith Drummer Joey Kramer was in another band when he and his girlfriend were listing to “Aerial Ballet” and they liked the word ‘aerial’ and began creating names for a band that had ‘aerial’ and ‘aero’ in it. They liked the name “Aerosmith” but the band he was in didn’t like it. But then he met Joe Perry and Steven Tyler, who had a group. They liked the name, but he had to convince them it wasn’t a play on words from a Sinclair Lewis novel, “Arrowsmith”.
I always thought that Foreigner was named Foreigner because when they brought on Lou Graham, someone must have said, “Hey, who’s the foreigner?” I thought the other band members were all from England. But I was wrong. Three members were from England and three were from America. And it was figured that no matter where they went, at least ½ the band would always be a foreigner.
This is one many of you probably know. Bare Naked Ladies was having a problem getting people to attend their shows. They needed something catchy. “I know – let’s put something that will bring in people. Let’s put Nude Girls on the signs.” But that was too crass, so they settled on ‘Bare Naked Ladies’. Crowds started to gather at their shows. OR SO YOU THOUGHT – because that’s what the rumor has always been. But NOPE. Actually, frontman Ed Robertson was with another band wet to perform as a charity event, when his band broke up. He needed to confirm his band playing, so he told the organization they had just changed their name to “Bare Naked Ladies”, a name he had been kicking around for years. He got up with his friend Steven Page. He laughed at the name his friend had given the organizers, but it stuck and they kept it.
Wicked Lester was playing together for a while and had developed a minor following. But the name didn’t fit. They needed something that stuck. They did like the ‘wicked’ monicker, and thought about just being ‘wicked’. Okay, that’s a cool sounding word, but not quite right, but they did like the one-word thing. Drummer Peter Criss liked the name of a band he was in that didn’t make it and broke up, “Lips”. They kicked that around for a while and then Peter Stanley came up with “Kiss”.
People love their pick-up trucks. But in 1915 there didn’t exist the pick-up trucks that we know today. But in 1915 the REO Speedwagon began selling and would become the pick-up truck. Keyboard player Neal Doughty went into his college classroom studying “The History of Transportation” and REO Speed Wagon was written on a black board it struck him right there – that should be the name of his new band.
*Side Note 2 – “The History of Transportation” – seriously, how cool does that class sound ?
There are many stories around about how bands came up with their names – this is just a few I wanted to find out.
But no – I’ll let the Sumstine ladies reads it here on BecauseJimSays.com because they sometimes don’t find obscure facts as interesting as I do.
My Take on Life and Events 