Bands named after books

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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 (eighteen years ago) link

Generation of Vipers

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

bend sinister

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

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

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

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

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

Augie March

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

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

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

Prince (Machiavelli)

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

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

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

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 (eighteen years ago) link

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 (eighteen years ago) link

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 (eighteen years ago) link

three weeks pass...

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

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

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 (seventeen years ago) link

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 (seventeen years ago) link

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 (seventeen years ago) link

Lisa Loeb (and Nine Stories)

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

One Hundred MySpace Profiles of Solitude

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

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 (seventeen years ago) link

that's how i remember it too...

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

there is a really shitty band called CHOMSKY

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

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 (seventeen years ago) link

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 (seventeen years ago) link

Blood Meridian - Blood Meridian by someone or other

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

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

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

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 (seventeen years ago) link

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 (seventeen years ago) link

Catch 22. Shitty band, great book. Heller.

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

fifteen years pass...

Reading A Severed Head; assume that belongs.

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

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 (two years ago) link

The Triffids

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

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

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

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 (two years ago) link

Guadalcanal Diary

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

three weeks pass...

The Would-Be-Goods

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

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 (two years ago) link

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 (two years ago) link

was (not were)

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

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

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

or would be if they existed

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

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