By: Brad Gallagher
In the book, “Old Possum’s Book Of Practical Cats”, T. S. Eliot describes his take on how cats get their names:
“The Naming of Cats is a difficult matter,
It isn’t just one of your holiday games;
You may think at first I’m as mad as a hatter
When I tell you, a cat must have THREE DIFFERENT NAMES.”
The naming of rock groups can also be a difficult matter. And, many groups have several names throughout their carriers, such as Chicago who was originally Chicago Transit Authority, or Grand Funk who started out as Grand Funk Railroad, or even The Ivey’s who changed their name to Badfinger when they signed with Apple records. Some are named after cities, like Boston or Chicago. And some are simply named after an object such as The Doors, or The Cars. But every group has some type of story behind the choosing of their name whether simple or complicated. Today I would like to tell you a few of those stories as I heard them.
As the story goes:
The group we all refer to as The Eagles got their name when one of their founding members, Bernie Leadon, read about the Hopi Indians’ reverence for the Eagle. However, it didn’t really stick until one day when Glenn Frey was out in the desert and shouted “Eagles” as he looked up and saw several eagles fly overhead. He also insisted that the band’s name should not be “The Eagles”, but simply “Eagles”.
Fleetwood Mac was named after two of the original band members, and ironically the only two original members still with the band. When many bands were naming themselves after the lead singer, or the lead guitarist, Fleetwood Mac decided to buck the system. They derived their name from the drummer, Mick Fleetwood, and the bass guitarist, John McVie. Rather than naming themselves after the front man, they named themselves after the guys in the back.
The band Foreigner was originally known as Trigger, until they found out that someone else was already using that name. So, they decided to come up with a different name. Foreigner guitarist Mick Jones suggested the name “Foreigner” because of the fact that three of the band members were form England and three of the members were from the USA. This meant that no matter where they went in the world, at least three of them would be foreigners.
Jethro Tull reportedly changed their name repeatedly in their early days in order to get rebooked at clubs where they had previously not done well. They eventually changed their name to Jethro Tull after an English man who lived in the 18th century. The real Jethro Tull from the 18th century was an agriculturalist and a pioneer in his field. Once they settled on Jethro Tull their careers took off and they never changed their name again.
In the summer of 1966, Keith Moon and John Entwistle of The Who joined up with Jimmy Paige and John Paul Jones for some studio recordings. The guys running the studio started making suggestions that they should join together to start a new group, but Entwistle said that would go over “like a lead balloon”. A couple years later when Jones, Robert Plant and Paige started their group, Paige remembered Entwistles comment and their new band became Lead Zeppelin.
The group known as The Band started out as the back up group for Bob Dylan. Whenever they would be out and about and someone would recognize one of them they would say, “he’s with the band”, referring to Bob Dylan’s band. So, when they decided to break away and form a group of their own, they decided to call themselves The Band, because that is what people already referred to them as.
Foghat didn’t settle on a name until after they finished recording their first album. They considered names like Brandywine Track, and Hootch, but finally settled on the name Foghat, which was a meaningless word that guitarist Dave Peverett made up in a game he and his brother played as kids.
And then there are the easy ones:
Kansas came up with their name when one of the band members simply asked, “Well, what state do we live in?”
Traffic got their name when drummer Jim Capaldi got was attempting to cross the street against the traffic one day.
And finally, The Little River Band was said to be driving to a gig when they saw a sign post at the exit they were taking that read “LITTLE RIVER”. At first they thought of using it as a song title, but they liked it better as the new name of their band.
How many of these stories are true, and how many are just a figment of someone’s imagination?? That is hard to say. But someone’s imagination came up with each of these band names. So now you know a little bit about the naming of rock groups. Now go out and tell your friends. And join me again real soon right here on As The Story Goes.
AS THE STORY GOES 