FROM THE PAST

Beatles, Rolling Stones and many others: how did the name of the most famous bands come about?

Puns, references to events of the past or random terms: often behind the birth of the name of some of the most famous band in the world there are very curious anecdotes.

Some names were born almost by chance, such as that of the Rolling Stones, while others derive from musical characters of the past, as in the case of the Pink Floyd.

Here's where the name of some of the main groups that have made the history of music, especially in the world of rock come from: browse the photo gallery to learn more!

ANSA Foto, Artwork
How did the names of some of the most famous band come about?
Puns, references to past events or random terms: often behind the birth of the name of the band there are very curious anecdotes. Some names were born almost by chance, such as that of the Rolling Stones, while others derive from musical characters of the past, as happened to the Pink Floyd. Here's where the name of some of the main groups that have made the history of music, especially in the world of rock come from: browse the photo gallery to learn more!
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Rolling Stones (1965)
In 1962 the group led by Mick Jagger received a call to perform on stage at the London Marquee , after the Alexis Korner concert was cancelled. When they asked Brian Jones, a founding member of the band, the name to be included on the poster, initially he did not know what to say, then he saw on the ground the cover of the album The Best of Muddy Waters and the fifth song of the album was called Rollin’ Stone: from that moment the Rolling Stones were born.
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Pink Floyd
Initially, the group adopted several names: Screaming Abdabs, Leonard's Lodgers and finally Tea Set. However, the band discovered that in the same place where she was supposed to perform for a concert, the next day she would play another group called Tea Set. To avoid confusion, Syd Barrett created the name Pink Floyd as a tribute to two American bluesman, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council.
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The Beatles 
On the origin of this name circulate several stories, more or less true. The Liverpool group in the early years had used several names such as "Black Jacks", Beatals" and "Silver Beatles". Derek Taylor, press agent of the group, claimed that the idea was suggested by Stuart Sutcliffe after seeing the film The Wild One, in which Marlon Brando has to do with a biker gang called "Beetles". This version is disputed by the journalist Bill Harry, because the film was banned in England in the sixties. Probably, in any case, it was John Lennon to change Beetles in Beatles to recall the famous Beat, or rhythm.
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Deep Purple 
The name of the band was chosen by guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, who thought of the homonymous song by Peter DeRose, often played on the piano by Blackmore's grandmother.
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AC/DC 
The name was suggested by the sister of Malcom and Angus Young, Margaret, who read on an appliance the inscription AC/DC, or Alternate Current/Direct Current (alternating current / direct current). Malcom and Angus  felt that this name was perfect to express the dynamism and electricity of the band.
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Lynyrd Skynyrd
The name of the band is bizarre and derives from Leonard Skinner, gym teacher of the school "Robert E. Lee", attended by some original members of the band. The teacher did not like long hair and targeted Gary Rossington and Bob Burns, guitarist and drummer. The boys changed Skinner 's name to make fun of him. Among other things, also Seymour Skinner, principal of the elementary school of Springfield in the animated series "The Simpspon" owes its name to Leonard Skinner.
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Led Zeppelin
One of the first names in the band was The New Yardbirds. The name then changed to Lead Zeppelin, a type of airship developed in Germany in the early twentieth century. Subsequently, Lead was also changed to Led.
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The Who
Pete Townshend and his roommate, Richard Barnes, spent a whole night evaluating effective names for the group and eventually chose "The Who" because it could be ironic, creating a play on words with the term "Who" (Who?).
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Queen
 "Queen"was chosen by the charismatic leader of theFreddie Mercurygroup , who in an interview explained the reason for this name. According toMercury,Queen was a short name, easy to remember and at the same time able to  express everything that wanted to communicate his band with his music, namely majesty and royalty,  in a word: glam.
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The Velvet Underground 
The choice of the name was inspired by the title of the homonymous book written by the journalist Michael Leigh and published in September 1963: this novel describes the American libertineunderground of the early sixties. Lou Reed said that the name was also perfect because it recalled the cinema underground, which adapted to the poetics of the first songs of the group. 
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Fleetwood Mac (1977)
The name Fleetwood Mac was coined by the guitarist Peter Green merging the surnames of bassist John McVie and drummer Mick Fleetwood.Peter in fact knew that sooner or later he would leave the group and his goal was to ensure that, through this nice gesture, his companions still remained a good memory of him. 
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Guns N' Roses
The original members of the group, founded in 1985, came from two different band, the L.A. Guns and the Hollywood Roses. The members of the new band then decided to merge the names of the previous groups, thus creating the Guns N' Roses. From  theHollywood Roses cameAxl Rose andIzzy Stradlin, while from the L.A. Guns came  Tracii Guns, Ole Beich and  Rob Gardner. 
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Black Sabbath
Initially, the band was called Earth, but there was already a group named so. The new name was born from an idea of guitarist Terence Butler, a great fan of novels of black magic andhorror.Butler knew a horror movie called Black Sabbath ("sabba" was called the meetings of witches and evil spirits): the guitarist then wrote a song that took the title of this film and  this song then gave the name to the group.  
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Jethro Tull
The name of the band comes from Jethro Tull, British agronomist who lived in the eighteenth century, considered the pioneer of modern agriculture and inventor of the first mechanical seeder, fundamental to start the agricultural revolution.
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Aerosmith
The drummer was Joey Kramer listening to Aerial Ballet,Harry Nilsson   album and liked the word "Aero", so he began to think of several puns: among them, Aeromind and Aerostar. In the end, Kramer joined the word Aero with Smith and the choice was appreciated by all members of the band.
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Eagles
The band loved the sound of the word "Eagles" and by calling herself that she would pay homage to the The Byrds, the band they were inspired by. It is said that the idea for the name was born after a trip to the desert of Mojave, at a time when the members of the group were under the influence of psychedelics: this story remains a legend and has never been confirmed. 
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28/04/2024
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