Bands Spawned from Literature

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Let's start with these two:

Boo Radley - To Kill a Mockingbird
Heaven 17 - A Clockwork Orange

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Friday, 12 March 2004 12:54 (twenty-two years ago)

Steely Dan - The Naked Lunch (I think)

What about record labels? Orange Juice had a label called "Holden Caulfield International" and Echo & The Bunnymen's label was called "Korova" afer the milk bar in A Clockwork Orange.

― LondonLee (LondonLee), Friday, 12 March 2004 14:10 (twenty-two years ago)

Korova Milk Bar were also a band. I think Moloko came from A Clockwork Orange too.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Friday, 12 March 2004 14:14 (twenty-two years ago)

Off the top of my noggin:
Faust
Pere Ubu
Shock Headed Peters
Thin White Rope
Genesis
Steppenwolf

But there are seriously *loads* of less well known bands with names from taken from literature: Karamazov, Zarathustra, Dharma Bums, Swans Way, Kilgore Trout...

― NickB (NickB), Friday, 12 March 2004 14:20 (twenty-two years ago)

I remember Swan's Way, I think I might even have a 45 by them somewhere.

Just remembered an obvious one: Josef K.

― LondonLee (LondonLee), Friday, 12 March 2004 15:06 (twenty-two years ago)

That'd be 'Soul Train'. I actually quite liked that at the time myself.

Other stuff:
Supertramp
Soft Machine
The Go-Betweens
Phanthom Tollbooth
Holly Golightly
The Shipping News
Marillion, Gandalf and all those other hobbit-rockers

― NickB (NickB), Friday, 12 March 2004 15:14 (twenty-two years ago)

I read somewhere the Beatles meant their unusual spelling to in part refer to the Beats, as in Ginsburg and friends.

― otto, Friday, 12 March 2004 15:40 (twenty-two years ago)

Huxley-beat:
The Doors
Eyeless in Gaza

― NickB (NickB), Friday, 12 March 2004 15:45 (twenty-two years ago)

The Teardrop Explodes came from a comic. Dunno which one, mind. I don't do comics.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Friday, 12 March 2004 15:53 (twenty-two years ago)

It was a "Submariner" comic I think, I saw the panel it came from printed somewhere once.

If we're including comics there's The Thompson Twins who got their name from the two bowler-hatted gentlemen in Tin-Tin.

― LondonLee (LondonLee), Friday, 12 March 2004 15:58 (twenty-two years ago)

Oops, that should be Tintin

― LondonLee (LondonLee), Friday, 12 March 2004 16:00 (twenty-two years ago)

A-ha! It was a "Daredevil" comic that had the Submariner in it.

http://www.screamingsecrets.com/discography/cb_images/dd_2.jpg

― LondonLee (LondonLee), Friday, 12 March 2004 16:03 (twenty-two years ago)

There *must* be a few Dickens ones. I can think of Uriah Heep (from David Copperfield) and Tiny Tim (maybe that's pushing it though!). There was also a local band in Bedfordshire called Barnaby Rudge. They played bad 70s pub-boogie, but dressed up as Victorian gents wearing ruffs and top-hats. Oh yeah.

― NickB (NickB), Friday, 12 March 2004 16:07 (twenty-two years ago)

There's that 2-Step Garage bloke The Artful Dodger.

― LondonLee (LondonLee), Friday, 12 March 2004 16:13 (twenty-two years ago)

That Daredevil excerpt just made my day.

― otto, Friday, 12 March 2004 17:27 (twenty-two years ago)

Collective Soul - from Ayn Rand, which book escapes me
Savage Garden - Anne Rice

― Natalie (Penny Dreadful), Friday, 12 March 2004 20:12 (twenty-two years ago)

haha Veruca Salt

― mookieproof (mookieproof), Friday, 12 March 2004 20:18 (twenty-two years ago)

The Fall, The Birthday Party, and of course Tom Jones.

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Friday, 12 March 2004 21:57 (twenty-two years ago)

Eyeless in Gaza (Depressing book, dreary band)
Bauhaus weren't really named after a book (They were before Tom Wolfe :)), but they had loads of bookish references, including a song called Artonin Artaud ("Young man held a gun to the head of a god/Take that, holy cow")
Bad Seeds (as in Nick Cave and the) is a Biblical reference
Nirvana (two bands!)
Then Jericho
The Doors (The Doors of Perception (Huxley/Blake))
Love (Take yr pick of what partial title THAT's from)

― PuzzleMonkey (PuzzleMonkey), Friday, 12 March 2004 22:29 (twenty-two years ago)

>> and of course Tom Jones.

LOL for rest of the day!

― PuzzleMonkey (PuzzleMonkey), Friday, 12 March 2004 22:30 (twenty-two years ago)

[/LOL] OK, if yr gonna be like that, how bout....

Bob Dylan!

― PuzzleMonkey (PuzzleMonkey), Friday, 12 March 2004 22:31 (twenty-two years ago)

the song "tea in the sahara" is based on paul bowles' "the sheltering sky"

― eleni (eleni), Friday, 12 March 2004 23:07 (twenty-two years ago)

Just once, in a record store, I saw an album by a band called Benny Profane.

Looked like a promo copy, so maybe they didn't get far.

The Mekons are named for space aliens from the Dan Dare comic strip.

― Phil Christman, Saturday, 13 March 2004 00:27 (twenty-two years ago)

A list of songs inspired by books

― PuzzleMonkey (PuzzleMonkey), Saturday, 13 March 2004 06:01 (twenty-two years ago)

Benny Profane were an indie band from Liverpool that were around in the late 80s. I don't really have any recollection of exactly what they sounded like, but I did once see them supporting the Three Johns along with the long forgotten King Of The Slums.

― NickB (NickB), Saturday, 13 March 2004 07:48 (twenty-two years ago)

Cocteau Twins

― PuzzleMonkey (PuzzleMonkey), Saturday, 13 March 2004 17:55 (twenty-two years ago)

i was only semi-joking about Tom Jones, PuzzleMonkey. i seem to recall that Thomas Woodward chose his stage name because of the popularity of the recently released movie, so weirdly enough he is named after Henry Fielding's hero.

confirmation here

crazy world, innit?

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Saturday, 13 March 2004 22:23 (twenty-two years ago)

The Archies!

And what about all the indie pop dudes who are so obviously influenced by literature? Swoon! Anybody hear Space March's "Dorian Grey"? Swoon! Swoon, I say!

― Ann Sterzinger (Ann Sterzinger), Sunday, 14 March 2004 00:56 (twenty-two years ago)

The Cocteaus are named after a Simple Minds song, surely?

― O.Leee.B. (Leee), Sunday, 14 March 2004 02:01 (twenty-two years ago)

Archies! LOL all over again!

Noodle, that wasn't very vague @ all, good one, I never knew he was someone else. Hey if you were only half joking about that, I'm only half joking about Dylan :)

Oooh. www.simpleminds.org teaches me they had a song called Cocteau Twins. [hangs head in ignorant shame] "A 1978 gig favourite, this song gave the group The Cocteau Twins their name.
It was based on two out-and-out gays who Jim once stayed at a flat with. He'd just read a book of Jean Cocteau's plays which included Les Enfants Terribles and he related it to them."

It was recorded for the band's second demo tape.

"The French poet, writer, artist, and film maker Jean Maurice Eugene Clement Cocteau was born to a wealthy family on July 5, 1889 in a small town near Paris, France." from the Jean Cocteau website

I haven't read his work, but he was a big influence on the Beats and others (presumably incl the Minds and the Twins) in a, I suppose, vaguely Rimbauxesque way.

Thanks, O.

― PuzzleMonkey (PuzzleMonkey), Sunday, 14 March 2004 17:35 (twenty-two years ago)

Talking of Rimbaud, does that mean Stallone qualifies for this thread?

― PuzzleMonkey (PuzzleMonkey), Sunday, 14 March 2004 17:41 (twenty-two years ago)

Do you mean Frank Stallone?

http://www.pmpnetwork.com/Frank_Stallone/frank2.jpg

― O.Leee.B. (Leee), Sunday, 14 March 2004 20:31 (twenty-two years ago)

surely the foxgloves to thread?

― cozen (Cozen), Sunday, 14 March 2004 20:38 (twenty-two years ago)

Re Frank.

Uhhh, right, brother of the more famous Jack!

http://www.mv.helsinki.fi/home/paeniska/rimbaud.jpg <--Arthur Rambo John Rimbaud --> http://www.otrarealidad.net/multimedia/images/dearticulos/rambo.jpg

― PuzzleMonkey (PuzzleMonkey), Sunday, 14 March 2004 21:23 (twenty-two years ago)

This could all be the result of me thinking all these years that the pronounciation for Rimbaud was "Ram-bo". Apologies if I got that wrong and ended up making no sense whatsoever. (A less than infrequent experience!)

Case in point.... erm, foxgloves? Didn't get that!

― PuzzleMonkey (PuzzleMonkey), Sunday, 14 March 2004 21:28 (twenty-two years ago)

No, you're right. Rimbaud = Rambo.

― LondonLee (LondonLee), Sunday, 14 March 2004 22:11 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.indiepop.it/articoli/singles/0803/foxgloves.jpg

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Sunday, 14 March 2004 22:11 (twenty-two years ago)

When I was a shameless indie kid, some schoolfriends of mine were in a band called Steerpike (from the Gormenghast protagonist). Great name for a band. Shit music.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Monday, 15 March 2004 10:22 (twenty-two years ago)

Rollerskate Skinny were a terrible band named after a description of one of the kids in Franny and Zooey.

Also Ride nicked loads of one of their songs from Raise high the roofbeams carpenter.

― chris (chris), Monday, 15 March 2004 11:06 (twenty-two years ago)

There's an Australian indie-rock band that I've never heard called Sal Paradise (the protagonist of On The Road). Actually, I think there was another, different Australian band before them also called Sal Paradise. I think they had flutes and stuff, I only have vague memories of seeing them on TV when I was quite young.

― NickB (NickB), Monday, 15 March 2004 11:34 (twenty-two years ago)

What song, Cabbage?

― the beebfox, Monday, 15 March 2004 15:19 (twenty-two years ago)

Polar Bear from the album Nowhere, indie kids.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Monday, 15 March 2004 15:24 (twenty-two years ago)

Speaking of things Kerouac, guys I knew had a an arrangement rather than a band, called first Dharma Bums, then Desolation Angels. Surprisingly enough, they were weird and interesting and never really got anything together.

― PuzzleMonkey (PuzzleMonkey), Monday, 15 March 2004 19:07 (twenty-two years ago)

Who ARE the Foxgloves? I love that alburm cover.

― Ann Sterzinger (Ann Sterzinger), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 00:05 (twenty-two years ago)

that;'s the one G, goes on about touching the sky and having dust from the clouds on yr fingers

― chris (chris), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 10:34 (twenty-two years ago)

I found that by googling "Ride JD Salinger".

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 11:13 (twenty-two years ago)

the foxgloves.

― cozen (Cozen), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 18:33 (twenty-two years ago)

that's me on... the foxgloves.

― cozen (Cozen), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 18:39 (twenty-two years ago)

Drunken Boat (from Rimbaud)
The Darling Buds (Shakespeare's sonnet 18)
This Mortal Coil (Shakespeare again)
Steppenwolf (from the Hesse novel)
Killdozer (from the Theodore Sturgeon story collection)
Love and Rockets (from the series of comics by the Hernandez Brothers)

"Eyeless in Gaza" is originally from Milton's Samson Agonistes
"Ask for this great Deliverer now, and find him / Eyeless in Gaza, at the mill with slaves, / Himself in bonds under Philistian yoke." (40-42)

― Underpants Aweigh!, Wednesday, 17 March 2004 09:35 (twenty-one years ago)

The Jaded Salingers

― AaronK (AaronK), Thursday, 18 March 2004 20:34 (twenty-one years ago)

Aerosmith = Arrowsmith?

― alison murchie, Sunday, 21 March 2004 13:26 (twenty-one years ago)

four months pass...

hi i am in santosh from india.i am just joining indian army.
i would like to do something great for my country.

so am looking this pages, i like to see army pages also
so if you have any posters about army ,can you send me
my mail,thank you

― santosh r. patil, Friday, 20 August 2004 14:42 (twenty-one years ago)

During his Dinkytown days Zimmerman began introducing himself as Bob Dylan. It has been suggested this choice was a tribute to the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas.
Does it count?

― Fred (Fred), Friday, 20 August 2004 16:07 (twenty-one years ago)

And let's not forget:

The House of Love (taken from "A spy in the house of love" by Anais Nin)

Belle and Sebastian (after "Belle et Sebastien" by Cecile Aubry)

― RR (restandrec), Friday, 20 August 2004 22:10 (twenty-one years ago)

Bloodhag is a death-metal band devoted to classic science fiction writers - they have songs about Clarke, Le Guin, etc.
http://www.bloodhag.com/

― Layna Andersen (Layna Andersen), Saturday, 21 August 2004 19:14 (twenty-one years ago)

Are they the worst thing in the history of the world? They sound like they might be.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Saturday, 21 August 2004 19:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Not in a world with Belle & Sebastian.

― MikeyG (MikeyG), Monday, 23 August 2004 10:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Belle and Sebastian rule like no band has ruled before. You, sir, have no taste. :P

― RR (restandrec), Monday, 23 August 2004 21:18 (twenty-one years ago)

one month passes...

yo are albanian byoutifol

― genis hoti, Sunday, 17 October 2004 21:02 (twenty-one years ago)

you lov albania kosovo

― genis hoti, Sunday, 17 October 2004 21:05 (twenty-one years ago)

Does 'The Foxgloves' come from a book? I always imagined a big fluffy bumble bee crawling slowly but surely into an elagantly fluted and ever so slightly bulbous bloom to impregnate it with its rich and fruity seed, etc.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 09:08 (twenty-one years ago)

two weeks pass...

hello .. i am lavdrim muhaxheri and i am from kosova .. i saw all film's of silvester stalone "rambo" and i prefer this actor if you need some help please write me in my message .. bye and say to rambo hello from all kosova and kacanik

― lavdrim muhaxheri, Saturday, 6 November 2004 11:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Yes I need some help.

― Fred (Fred), Saturday, 6 November 2004 13:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Rimbaud: First Blood.

― MikeyG (MikeyG), Monday, 8 November 2004 12:34 (twenty-one years ago)

It's obvious when you think about it, but I never made the connection. Disaster Area (from The Restaurant at the End of the Universe) are based on Pink Floyd. The spaceship derives from Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun.

It spells it out in a biography of Douglas Adams.

― MikeyG (MikeyG), Thursday, 11 November 2004 11:50 (twenty-one years ago)

helo! my name is Elchin! thank you.

― Elchin, Friday, 12 November 2004 12:31 (twenty-one years ago)

super

― Fred (Fred), Friday, 12 November 2004 13:48 (twenty-one years ago)

six months pass...

haj rambo ju are very good

― samir, Saturday, 11 June 2005 18:06 (twenty years ago)

I like your Foxgloves story, Cozen. Makes me want to see them live.

― Ann Sterzinger (Ann Sterzinger), Sunday, 12 June 2005 22:44 (twenty years ago)

one month passes...

ben TÜRKÝYEDEN KONUÞUYORUM.BENCE ÇOK KARÝZMATÝK BÝRÝ.

― zinfaz, Saturday, 6 August 2005 06:25 (twenty years ago)

Rollerskate Skinny were a terrible band named after a description of one of the kids in Franny and Zooey.

Rollerskate Skinny were a great band named after a description of Holden Caulfield's sister in Catcher In The Rye.

― emil.y (emil.y), Saturday, 6 August 2005 10:24 (twenty years ago)

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