Abandoned working titles

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Jerry ha ha.

So 'The Time Machine' started out as 'The Chronic Argonauts'.

I learned yesterday that Leo Baxendale's Bash Street Kids was originally called 'When The Bell Rings', which is a bit rub.

What are your favourites.

― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 4 December 2002 13:25 (twenty-two years ago)

costello's Armed Forces going to be called Emotional Fascism
yorkie bars were going to be called QUINN bars

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 4 December 2002 13:27 (twenty-two years ago)

Actually not just abandoned working titles. The Bash Street Kids was actually called 'When The Bell Rings' for a while before the Beano caved in to popular terminology. So, things that were known as something else in the early days, including post-launch.

― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 4 December 2002 13:40 (twenty-two years ago)

'Trimalchio in West Egg'(aka 'The Great Gatsby')owns this thread.

And would 'Gravity's Rainbow' seem so daunting if it were called 'Mindless Pleasures'?

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Wednesday, 4 December 2002 13:43 (twenty-two years ago)

The Jubilee Line on the underground was originally going to be called the Fleet Line, until someone realised it was opening in 1977.

― caitlin (caitlin), Wednesday, 4 December 2002 13:44 (twenty-two years ago)

I most stop saying 'actually'.

I think Mindless Pleasures is a great title. I wish it were called that.

I've always been fond of Cock Fun, the working title of If You're Feeling Sinister.

― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 4 December 2002 13:46 (twenty-two years ago)

I most be pedantic and point this out.

― dwh (dwh), Wednesday, 4 December 2002 14:05 (twenty-two years ago)

I'll have to copy that to my famous quotes file:

"I've always been fond of Cock Fun" -- N.

― caitlin (caitlin), Wednesday, 4 December 2002 14:06 (twenty-two years ago)

it was opening in 1977

and then, it didn't.

Smarties were called Chocolate Beans (I think) for a year in the 1930s.

― MarkH (MarkH), Wednesday, 4 December 2002 14:06 (twenty-two years ago)

MarkH: good point. It was supposed to, though.

― caitlin (caitlin), Wednesday, 4 December 2002 14:09 (twenty-two years ago)

Monty Python's Flying Circus was originally to be called 'Owl Stretching Time'. Love it.

― jon (jon), Wednesday, 4 December 2002 14:21 (twenty-two years ago)

Charles Schultz wanted to call Peanuts Li'l Folk.

― MarkH (MarkH), Wednesday, 4 December 2002 14:25 (twenty-two years ago)

I was enthusiastic about seeing a film called 'The Sad Fuckers Club' but it turned out to be called 'Crush'. It was still good though. It starred Andie McDowell and had a nice 'Robbie Williams' feel to it.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Wednesday, 4 December 2002 14:28 (twenty-two years ago)

'Notting Hill' was originally called 'The Romanticised-Melodrama-As-A-Means-Of-Increasing-My-Property-Value-While-Accelerating-Local-Socio-Economic-Class-Cleansing Project'

― Snowy Mann (rdmanston), Wednesday, 4 December 2002 14:30 (twenty-two years ago)

Also the Fleet Line would have been a k-rub name for the Jubbly since at no point does it traverse the bed of the Fleet River - unlike the Metropolitan, Circle and Hammersmith & City.

― Pete (Pete), Wednesday, 4 December 2002 14:35 (twenty-two years ago)

Well, originally, Stage 2 of the Fleet/Jubilee would have ran north of the Thames; but by the time they got round to building it they changed their mind.

― caitlin (caitlin), Wednesday, 4 December 2002 14:47 (twenty-two years ago)

Monty Python's Flying Circus was originally to be called 'Owl Stretching Time'.

In between the latter and former names it was going to be called "Gwen Dibley's Flying Circus". There was also a fairly long Goon Show-esque name but I can't remember it...

Blur's "13" was going to be called something like "When You Walk Backwards To Hell, No One Can See You, Only God".

― Chriddof (Chriddof), Wednesday, 4 December 2002 14:51 (twenty-two years ago)

the Stones' classic "Satisfaction" was originally entitled "Auntie Mable's Caught Her Left Tit In The Mangle" before mick jagger got his hands on the riff. no, i'm NOT making that up. (if anyone's making it up, it's keith richards)

wasn't one of the beatles best known tunes originally entitled scrambled eggs? though i can't remember which one...

― kate (suzy), Wednesday, 4 December 2002 14:53 (twenty-two years ago)

re Blur, erm... that was what was threatened, because damon wanted to call the album nomad, which was damon backwards, but graham nixed it with that suggestion above.

― kate, Wednesday, 4 December 2002 14:54 (twenty-two years ago)

kate that's a line in a song called 'jump' written
by pete and dud as 'derek and clive' some years after
satisfaction. he was joking i'm saying.

the macca tune was 'scrambled eggs'
meanwhile lennon's 'sexy sadie' was 'maharishi' at first
before he thought better of it.

'beacoup fish' was originally
'tonight matthew we're going to be underworld'

psb's 'introspective' was 'bounce at first.

the tv show 'goodness gracious me' was originally
'peter sellers is dead'

the milky way bar was 'fat mary' originally (!)

'brass eye' started out in the pilot as 'torque tv'

― piscesboy, Wednesday, 4 December 2002 15:02 (twenty-two years ago)

One of the Teardop Explodes' albums had a working title of "Everyone wants to shag..... The Teardrop Explodes" but I'm not sure which.

― lol p xx, Wednesday, 4 December 2002 15:05 (twenty-two years ago)

b-but i own a te lp called exactly that, lol p xx

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 4 December 2002 15:07 (twenty-two years ago)

I've always been fond of Cock Fun, the working title of If You're Feeling Sinister.

N. is an indie swot, as proved by his 29/30 score in the National Pop League quiz last weekend.

― Mooro (Mooro), Wednesday, 4 December 2002 15:09 (twenty-two years ago)

"Scrambled Eggs" was what became "Yesterday". The lyrics went: "Scrambled eggs, oh my baby how I love your legs..."

Chris Morris' Jam was very nearly Apes & Music.

― Chriddof (Chriddof), Wednesday, 4 December 2002 15:10 (twenty-two years ago)

Charles Schultz wanted to call Peanuts Li'l Folk.

It was for a while. If I recall my Peanuts anniversary book reprints correctly.

Owl Stretching Time is a *much* better name than Monty Python's sodding circus. The world could have been so much better!

― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 4 December 2002 15:15 (twenty-two years ago)

B-b-but how could Meercans mispronounce Owl Stretching Time?

― Pete (Pete), Wednesday, 4 December 2002 15:29 (twenty-two years ago)

My friend Ramsey Margolis, late of N16, now of North Island NZ, ran a campaign to stop the change of name from Fleet to Jubilee Line. He sold badges sayinhg 'we won't stand for the national anthem' and got in the news etc.

― jon (jon), Wednesday, 4 December 2002 15:37 (twenty-two years ago)

"b-but i own a te lp called exactly that, lol p xx"

Bugger. All I heard was that it was a working title. Props to them for releasing it as that, though. I'll be getting my coat now.

― lol p xx, Wednesday, 4 December 2002 17:18 (twenty-two years ago)

I think it came out later, once it had achieved legendary status. It was the great lost third album, I think.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Wednesday, 4 December 2002 17:27 (twenty-two years ago)

There's a Guardian article about the struggle to keep Sad Fucker's Club as a title:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/friday_review/story/0,3605,720692,00.html

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Wednesday, 4 December 2002 18:39 (twenty-two years ago)

I still can't believe Licensed To Ill was almost called Don't Be A Faggot. I think the history of rap/rock/suburbia/whiteness forever would have been altered. It's almost like asking what if the Beastie Boys had never happened.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Wednesday, 4 December 2002 19:11 (twenty-two years ago)

Momus - "The Poison Boyfriend"

originally to be called "BBC1" until an early version of the song that became "Shaftesbury Avenue", which mentions said channel, was dropped from the album.

― robin carmody (robin carmody), Thursday, 5 December 2002 08:14 (twenty-two years ago)

Casablanca was originally something like "Everybody Comes To Rick's," wasn't it?

― Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Thursday, 5 December 2002 08:34 (twenty-two years ago)

Papercuts V

― Mooro (Mooro), Thursday, 5 December 2002 08:35 (twenty-two years ago)

The working title to "Finnegans Wake" was, wait for it... work in progress

― Leee (Leee), Thursday, 5 December 2002 08:55 (twenty-two years ago)

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