How Bands Got Their Names

Jethro Tull: Named after an English agriculturist who invented the seed drill.Lynyrd Skynyrd: Named after Leonard Skinner, who was an annoying gym teacher/coach some of the band members had in Robert E. Lee High School in Jacksonville, Florida.

Mothers Of Invention: Frank Zappa’s band started out as “The Soul Giants” and was later changed to “The Mothers” but their record label asked them to change it because it could be taken as an obscenity. So, out of necessity they added “of Invention” as “necessity is the mother of invention.”

Beastie Boys: “Beastie” is said to have originally stood as an acronym for “Boys Entering Anarchistic States Toward Internal Excellence”. However, according to Mike D and MCA on the Charlie Rose Show, August 28, 2007, this was an afterthought once the band was already named “Beastie Boys”.

The Doors: The band took their name from Aldous Huxley’s book “The Doors of Perception” which in turn was inspired by a line from William Blake’s poem: “If the doors of perception were to be cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is: infinite”.

Heaven 17: The name is taken from a fictional band mentioned in Anthony Burgess’s book “A Clockwork Orange”.

UB40: Took their name from a paper form “Unemployment Benefit, Form 40″ issued by the UK government’s Department of Health and Social Security which is now replaced by Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), and the form UB40 no longer exists.

Led Zeppelin: After a concert Keith Moon, the drummer of The Who, said to Jimmy Page that his new band will fly like a lead zeppelin, in other words it will not survive. The “a” from “lead” was dropped so people woudn’t pronounce it as leed.

Taken from wakeupvibes

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