Standard:British accent
Language level: Lower-intermediate
Speaker: Justin Ratcliff
Source: she-sins.blogspot.com
Source: www.speakup.com.br
IN THE NAME OF POP (the Sixties)
Pop groups choose names to be memorable or stylish. These names become so familiar that we no longer notice their meaning. When you hear Genesis, do you think of the Bible? Do you think of water in the desert when you see Oasis?
The names of great bands often have hidden meanings. Here we take a look at these origins, to understanding the music and fashions of recent decades.
INSECTS
“Many people ask what are Beatles? Why Beatles? Ugh, Beatles, how did the name arrive? So we will tell you. It came in a vision – a man appeared on a flaming pie and said unto them ‘From this day on you are Beatles with an ‘A’.” That is what John Lennon wrote in the Liverpool music magazine Mersey Beat in 1961 (this was before the Beatles were famous).he had tried various names: the Quarry Men, Johnny and the Moondogs, the Silver Beetles, the Silver Beats. His final choice plays on words, suggesting insects, like Buddy Holly and the Crickets, but also “The Mersey Beat” (The rock’n’roll scene of Liverpool’s River Mersey and “the Beat Generation.”
Insects would not come back into fashion until the 1980s, with Adam and the Ants. But the Beatles certainly influenced two groups’ name. The Byrds and the Monkees. Playing with spelling has been common ever since. Def Leppard, Megadeth, Black Crowes, Phish.
LIKE A ROLLING STONE…
In the early 1960s, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards started playing with guitarist Brian Jones. They took their name from a blues song by Muddy Waters, “Rolling Stone” (Later, in 1967, it would also be used as the name a new rock magazine). The phrase comes from a proverb: “A rolling stone gathers no moss.” It’s a classic rock’n’roll sentiment: always keep moving, never settle down.
Other band names capture that rock sensibility. The Animals sound wild. The Kinks sound idiosyncratic and sexy. “There’s nothing Kinky about us, “said singer Ray Davies. “Kinky is such a fashionable word: we knew people would remember it.”
SURF MUSIC
California band The Pendletones took their name from the Stylish Pendleton shirts. Imagine their surprise when they opened their first single. “Surfin,” to discover that the producer had renamed them the Beach Boys!
Another classic band began as The Detours, then became The High Numbers, it is said that, while they were trying to think of a new name, guitarist Pete Townshend (who is now dear) kept saying “The Who?” They became The Who and the hits soon followed.
THE SUMMER OF LOVE
The late ‘60s’ brought psychedelic music, with the influence of sex and drugs. The Doors took their name from Aldous Huxley’s 1954 book on drugs. The Doors of Perception. Lou Reed’s group, The Velvet Underground, were inspired by a book on sadomasochism.
Influenced by The Beatles’ psychedelic album, Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, many chose names reflecting their experimental music: the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention. Captain Beef heart and his Magic Band. Pink Floyd’s name comes from blues musicians, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council: their original name, the Architectural Abdabs, was much more bizarre.
THE SEARCH FOR SIMPLICITY
New bands reacted against this complexity. Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker considered themselves the best blues musicians, so they called themselves Cream. Other simple names include Yes, Free, Rush, Wings, Squeeze and Kiss. Freddie Mercury chose the name Queen for its ambiguous royal and transvestite connotations. Peter Gabriel nearly called his band Gabriel’s Angels, but decided Genesis sounded fresh and new. Van Morrison changed the Gamblers name to them.
