Bands named after books

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It seems like this must have been done before, but the search didn't turn up anything.

A few for starters:

Velvet Underground ("Velvet Underground", Michael Leigh, 1963)
Aerosmith ("Arrowsmith", Sinclair Lewis, 1925)
The Doors ("The Doors of Perception", Aldous Huxley, 1954)

― o. nate (onate), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 14:56 (nineteen years ago)

Mott the Hoople ("Mott the Hoople", Willard Manus, 1966)
Supertramp ("The Autobiography of a Super Tramp", W.H. Davies, 1908)

― Dadaismus (Dada), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 15:02 (nineteen years ago)

William Burroughs section:

The Soft Machine (1961)
Dead Fingers Talk (1963)
Nova Express (1964)

― Dadaismus (Dada), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 15:04 (nineteen years ago)

Steppenwolf - ("Steppenwolf", Herman Hesse, 1929)

― o. nate (onate), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 15:05 (nineteen years ago)

Steppenwolf ("Steppenwolf", Herman Hesse, 1928)

xpost DAMN YOU

― Mike W (caek), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 15:06 (nineteen years ago)

The Fall ("The Fall", Albert Camus, 1956)

― o. nate (onate), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 15:09 (nineteen years ago)

Nine Horses and V., by Billy Collins and Thomas Pynchon respectively.

― owen moorhead (i heart daniel miller), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 15:15 (nineteen years ago)

The Go Betweens ("The Go Between" LP Hartley)

― TRG (TRG), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 15:16 (nineteen years ago)

The Moviegoers ("The Moviegoer", Walker Percy, 1961)
All The Pretty Horses ("All The Pretty Horses", Cormac McCarthy, 1993)
The Grifters ("The Grifters", Jim Thompson, 1963)

(attn new bands: please peruse the Jim Thompson catalog. "Texas By The Tail", "Recoil", "Heed The Thunder" and "Nothing More Than Murder" are still untaken. Green on Red titled one of their LPs "The Killer Inside Me", but that one's up for grabs, too.)

― Eazy (Eazy), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 16:00 (nineteen years ago)

Public Image Ltd ("The Public Image" by Margaret Drabble)

― James, Wednesday, 15 February 2006 16:02 (nineteen years ago)

Naked City ("Naked City", Weegee, 1945)

― o. nate (onate), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 16:03 (nineteen years ago)

Whoops, make that "The Public Image" by Muriel Spark, sorry.

― James, Wednesday, 15 February 2006 16:04 (nineteen years ago)

Er, The Books?

― stew!, Wednesday, 15 February 2006 16:04 (nineteen years ago)

The Bible

― Dadaismus (Dada), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 16:06 (nineteen years ago)

Better Than Ezra, from Collected Letters of T.S. Eliot

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 16:10 (nineteen years ago)

A Small, Good Thing, from Raymond Carver's Cathedral

― Chairman Doinel (Charles McCain), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 16:18 (nineteen years ago)

Heaven 17
Korova Milk Bar
Moloko
Durango 95

All taken from A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

― Ben Dot (1977), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 16:19 (nineteen years ago)

... but not actually named after a book

― Dadaismus (Dada), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 16:21 (nineteen years ago)

Well, they're hardly named BEFORE the book.

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 16:24 (nineteen years ago)

Yes but bands named after things that are in books - that's piss easy that is

― Dadaismus (Dada), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 16:27 (nineteen years ago)

Eyeless In Gaza ("Eyeless In Gaza" Aldous Huxley)

― James Ward (jamesmichaelward), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 16:29 (nineteen years ago)

The Shipping News (after The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx)

― Jena (JenaP), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 17:06 (nineteen years ago)

aren't Belle and Sebastian named after a kid's book?

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 17:21 (nineteen years ago)

A T.V. series

― Dadaismus (Dada), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 17:23 (nineteen years ago)

what is the world coming to.

― AaronK (AaronK), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 17:33 (nineteen years ago)

If we're counting comic books, then there's Love and Rockets.

― o. nate (onate), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 17:37 (nineteen years ago)

those arent real books, they are transient and disposable and they arent genuine.

― AaronK the bookist (AaronK), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 17:42 (nineteen years ago)

Dharma Bums (Jack Kerouac, THE DHARMA BUMS)

― Terrible Cold (Terrible Cold), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 17:56 (nineteen years ago)

All the Pretty Horses the book is taken from a line in a folk song.

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 18:50 (nineteen years ago)

the wind-up bird (murakami)

― peter stillman (dovlandau), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 19:37 (nineteen years ago)

Fountainhead
The Bell Jar

― Dave will do (dave225.3), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 19:40 (nineteen years ago)

nore quite, but The Jaded Salingers

― AaronK (AaronK), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 19:46 (nineteen years ago)

er, not.

― AaronK (AaronK), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 20:01 (nineteen years ago)

The Who (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?)

― stu (stu), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 20:29 (nineteen years ago)

Eyeless In Gaza ("Eyeless In Gaza" Aldous Huxley

... which in turn is a line from Milton's Samson Agonistes. Do I win a point?

― Wax Cat (Wax Cat), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 20:56 (nineteen years ago)

Steely Dan -- not after a book so much as after something IN a Burroughs book

― that's so taylrr (ken taylrr), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 20:59 (nineteen years ago)

Hot Water Music -- the Bukowski book.

― Mark (MarkR), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 21:02 (nineteen years ago)

Joy Division..........I think.

― xgurggleglgllg (xgurggleglgllg), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 21:14 (nineteen years ago)

I'm sure there are bands called Ubik and Valis (both Philip K Dick).

― Matt #2 (Matt #2), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 21:43 (nineteen years ago)

damn, all the best books are taken...

Is there a thread for characters in books? Josef K (from The Trial) obviously springs to mind.

Apparantly there's a band called Deadeye Dick after the Kurt Vonnegut book but I can't believe there isn't a band called The Sirens of Titan.

― Ned T.Rifle (nedtrifle), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 22:00 (nineteen years ago)

Hang on - I've just found one - on myspace naturally.

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=10342074

The link seems to be broken though - on googles cached version it says they are metal/rock.

― Ned T.Rifle (nedtrifle), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 22:01 (nineteen years ago)

Joy Division..........I think

I believe it came from an excerpt from a book related to Nazi death camps. I remember last year Mojo did an article on Ian Curtis and they highlighted the passage.

― Cunga (Cunga), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 22:04 (nineteen years ago)

Watt.

― Sloppy Toe, Thursday, 16 February 2006 00:35 (nineteen years ago)

The Archies

― jim wentworth (wench), Thursday, 16 February 2006 01:51 (nineteen years ago)

Anal Cunt ("The Gift of the Anal Cunt", Bob Frost, 1918)

― Waka Waka (Cunga), Thursday, 16 February 2006 03:28 (nineteen years ago)

Ah, I knew Joy Division came from a book somehow. I regret not getting that issue of Mojo when I had the chance.

― xgurggleglgllg (xgurggleglgllg), Thursday, 16 February 2006 03:43 (nineteen years ago)

Generation of Vipers

― bobby.lasers (bobby.lasers), Thursday, 16 February 2006 03:47 (nineteen years ago)

bend sinister

― Sym Sym (sym), Thursday, 16 February 2006 03:57 (nineteen years ago)

The Grapes of Wrath had some hits in Canada in the late 80s/early 90s.

― Sundar (sundar), Thursday, 16 February 2006 04:17 (nineteen years ago)

Pink and Brown: Pink and Brown People and other Essays by Thomas Sowell, 1980

― Cunga (Cunga), Thursday, 16 February 2006 04:55 (nineteen years ago)

Augie March

― Simon H. (Simon H.), Thursday, 16 February 2006 05:28 (nineteen years ago)

Sixpence None the Richer is a line from a C.S. Lewis book, naturally.

― regular roundups (Dave M), Thursday, 16 February 2006 05:45 (nineteen years ago)

Prince (Machiavelli)

― Sym Sym (sym), Thursday, 16 February 2006 06:39 (nineteen years ago)

Speaking of 'A Clockwork Orange', Clock DVA took their name from Alex's slang.

― GLC, Friday, 17 February 2006 05:25 (nineteen years ago)

Isn't there some terrible emo band called 'As I Lay Dying'? Or did I dream that?

― Roz (Roz), Friday, 17 February 2006 07:39 (nineteen years ago)

Joy Division = the subsection of the Nazi concentration camp where Jewish women were forced to have sex with the officers--something like that

― Roque Strew (RoqueStrew), Friday, 17 February 2006 08:34 (nineteen years ago)

one month passes...

The idea that Aerosmith was named after Sinclair Lewis seems too improbable to be true.

― Mitya (mitya), Tuesday, 21 March 2006 03:15 (nineteen years ago)

three weeks pass...

That whiny emo band My Chemical Romance (after an Irvine Welsh novel I believe).

― DOESTOEVSKY, Monday, 17 April 2006 07:30 (nineteen years ago)

one month passes...

"Joy Division" was taken from "House of Dolls," and in their song "No Love Lost" there's a lengthy quote from the same book.

I found this list trying to doublecheck some names on our "Booking Bands" page, in which we asked readers to combine band and book names (and got a few thousand entries that I'm still sorting through) We made a special category for books that bands used as a name.

http://www.coudal.com/bookingbands.php

― illnoise, Wednesday, 24 May 2006 14:26 (nineteen years ago)

The Doors ("The Doors of Perception", Aldous Huxley, 1954)

I'm almost positive that they took the name from the William Blake quote ("When the doors of perception are cleansed, man will see things as they truly are--infinite") rather than the book title--itself, too taken from the Blake quote.

Minor point, I guess.

― max (maxreax), Wednesday, 24 May 2006 14:34 (nineteen years ago)

Wikipedia says they got the name from the book:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_doors

Could be wrong though.

― o. nate (onate), Wednesday, 24 May 2006 14:43 (nineteen years ago)

Lisa Loeb (and Nine Stories)

― nabisco (nabisco), Wednesday, 24 May 2006 15:29 (nineteen years ago)

One Hundred MySpace Profiles of Solitude

― nabisco (nabisco), Wednesday, 24 May 2006 15:33 (nineteen years ago)

xxxxxx-post

so, the band my chemical romance wasn't named after the chemical romance of christian rosenkreutz? that was their only redeeming quality!

― bell labs (bell_labs), Wednesday, 24 May 2006 19:47 (nineteen years ago)

that's how i remember it too...

― Nathalie (stevie nixed), Wednesday, 24 May 2006 20:07 (nineteen years ago)

there is a really shitty band called CHOMSKY

― killy ii (baby lenin pin), Wednesday, 24 May 2006 20:21 (nineteen years ago)

that's how i remember it too...

So which seems a more likely inspiration for the Doors: a mystical religious poem or a book about mescaline? Could be both, I guess.

― o. nate (onate), Wednesday, 24 May 2006 20:33 (nineteen years ago)

The Double = a book by Doestoyevsky (spell-check, please?)

The Reivers = a book by Faulkner (now that spelling I NAILED)

― hank (hank s), Wednesday, 24 May 2006 23:57 (nineteen years ago)

Blood Meridian - Blood Meridian by someone or other

― FACEBRACE (FACEBRACE), Thursday, 25 May 2006 12:06 (nineteen years ago)

Wasn't there a band called The Wasp Factory (Iain Banks)? Managed by Eddie Izzard?

― ledge (ledge), Thursday, 25 May 2006 12:12 (nineteen years ago)

Suprised that no one has mentioned the Comsat Angels, named after a J. G. Ballard short story. Another was used for Joy Division's song "The Atrocity Exhibition". Indeed, JBB's bibliography is rife with good potential band/song names:

― 35 Hertz (35 Hertz), Thursday, 25 May 2006 15:44 (nineteen years ago)

Suprised that no one has mentioned the Comsat Angels, named after a J. G. Ballard short story. Another was used for Joy Division's song "The Atrocity Exhibition". Indeed, JGB's bibliography is rife with good potential band/song names:

― 35 Hertz (35 Hertz), Thursday, 25 May 2006 15:44 (nineteen years ago)

Catch 22. Shitty band, great book. Heller.

― Heath Raymond (Heath Raymond), Thursday, 25 May 2006 15:54 (nineteen years ago)

fifteen years pass...

Reading A Severed Head; assume that belongs.

― clemenza, Tuesday, 1 June 2021 00:21 (four years ago)

Speedy Ortiz is the 2nd(?) band to take its name from Love and Rockets; as a fan of the comic, I don’t love that move… but if it leads to even one new reader, then great.

― like a d4mn sociopath! (morrisp), Tuesday, 1 June 2021 00:46 (four years ago)

The Triffids

― Zelda Zonk, Tuesday, 1 June 2021 01:18 (four years ago)

Devil Wears Prada, and they hilariously misunderstood what the book was about

― Feta Van Cheese (Neanderthal), Tuesday, 1 June 2021 01:25 (four years ago)

No thread for songs named after books (or lines in books). Came across this in A Severed Head today:

I said, “If I broke your neck now I’d probably get off with three years.” I got up and leaned against the mantelpiece looking down at her. “What have I done to deserve this?” I said.

― clemenza, Tuesday, 1 June 2021 02:27 (four years ago)

Guadalcanal Diary

― henry s, Tuesday, 1 June 2021 12:06 (four years ago)

three weeks pass...

The Would-Be-Goods

― Lily Dale, Thursday, 24 June 2021 05:48 (four years ago)

there's a local band here named Catcher AND the Rye and I can't tell if they think they're being clever or tehy're so stupid that they think that's the title of the book

― cancel culture club (Neanderthal), Thursday, 24 June 2021 13:22 (four years ago)

I think House of Love were named after the Anais Nin book 'Spy in the House of Love'

― Maresn3st, Thursday, 24 June 2021 13:54 (four years ago)

was (not were)

― ten man poland chasing this means hamsik feasts (breastcrawl), Thursday, 24 June 2021 13:59 (four years ago)

My Favorite Summer 1956 was named after Mickey Mantle's autobiography

― cancel culture club (Neanderthal), Thursday, 24 June 2021 14:10 (four years ago)

or would be if they existed

― cancel culture club (Neanderthal), Thursday, 24 June 2021 14:10 (four years ago)

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