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I searched this site and can't come up with anything on this, so was wondering if this was true, or a potential "urban legend"...
I've been told that the musical group (actually duo of Walter Becker & Donald Fagin) Steely Dan took the name from a nickname for a type of dildo... does anyone know a source than can prove/disprove this?
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specifically, its from the book naked lunch by william s. burroughs. burroughs also coined the phrase "heavy metal."
Posts: 4 | From: Los Angeles, CA | Registered: May 2006
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Well, here's the passage it's from. This probably is NFBSK, but if there are schoolkids listening to Steely Dan ... I shudder at the thought ...
quote:William S. Burroughs, Naked Lunch: Mary is strapping on a rubber penis. "Steely Dan III from Yokohama," she says, caressing the shaft.
"What happen to Steely Dan I?"
"He was torn in two by a bull dyke. She could cave in a lead pipe."
"And Steely Dan II?"
"Chewed to bits by a famished candiru in the Upper Baboonsasshole. And don't say 'wheeeeeeee!' this time."
wheeeeeeee!
Hey, how about other bands that took their names from literature? I know The Doors took their cue from Aldous Huxley's The Doors of Perception and the phrase "Collective Soul" is in either The Fountainhead or Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand ... any others?
[oh, and my signature came before this thread!]
------------------ I crawl like a viper through these suburban streets, make love to these women, languid and bittersweet...
Steely Dan, "Deacon Blues"
[This message has been edited by Wyerthfali (edited 09-22-2000).]
quote:Originally posted by Bill: Some others that got their names from either books or movies would include Duran Duran and the 80s one hit wonder bands T'pau and Heaven 17.
Alphaville, from the movie Alphaville. Marillion, from the book Silmarillion. They Might be Giants, from the George C. Scott movie of the same name. Eve6, from an X-Files episode. Toad the Wet Sprocket, from a Monty Python Routine. ... Jethro Tull, Bauhaus, Farenheit 451, Nosferatu ...
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Level 42 took their name from Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Universe. For some reason, Level 42 is a band I've heard much about, but I don't think I've heard any of their tunes. Marillion is in the same category.
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Billy Pilgrim and Kilgore Trout (local band that used to play in Tuscaloosa, AL) both take their names from Vonnegut novels. Veruca Salt from Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory.
sure"I'm sure I'll think of more after I post this"shot
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Uriah Heep -- Dickens UB40 -- named after the unemployment form in England Squirrel Nut Zippers -- the candy There's a band (from Sweden I think) called Narnia.
quote:Originally posted by Hutch: Level 42 took their name from Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Universe. For some reason, Level 42 is a band I've heard much about, but I don't think I've heard any of their tunes. Marillion is in the same category.
quote:Originally posted by DataAngel: . They Might be Giants, from the George C. Scott movie of the same name.
Although, technically, if you go back far enough, the title of the movie came from a Broadway play. The title of which, in turn came from Don Quixote. Sancho Panza asks Don Quixote why he is preparing to attack the windmills, and he says, "Why, because they might be giants."
And alternatively, the image of windmills as giants came from Dante's Inferno, Canto 34. . . How far back can we take this?
quote:Originally posted by Autolycus: Although, technically, if you go back far enough, the title of the movie came from a Broadway play. The title of which, in turn came from Don Quixote. Sancho Panza asks Don Quixote why he is preparing to attack the windmills, and he says, "Why, because they might be giants."
And alternatively, the image of windmills as giants came from Dante's Inferno, Canto 34. . . How far back can we take this?
Except the band claims they got the name from the George C. Scott movie... where they got it from is a whole different thread.
On an unrelated-related note. "Alphaville" is on at 2:30 (edt) on TCM.
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Tygers of Pan Tang, a British metal band of the early '80s, took their name from Micheal Moorcock's Stormbringer.Posts: 1325 | From: Ontario, Canada | Registered: Feb 2000
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Soft Machine (William Burroughs) Naked Lunch (several bands) (William Burroughs) The Velvet Underground (from a tacky porno book) Pere Ubu (Albert Jarry) The Fall (Albert Camus) Veruca Salt (from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory)
quote:Originally posted by PTVroman: BTW, Jethro Tull is not a liturary character, he was a philosopher.
Bands named after book titles aren't characters, either. :P They still should be listed, since we were just talking about origins, not specifically literature.
Actually... we were talking about Steely Dan and sex toys and well... things kind of went downhil from there.
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IIRC, Jethro Tull was an English Agronomist and Philosopher who invented the seed drill. At least that's what in said in Rolling Stone around 1970.
Posts: | From: Fairfield, CA | Registered: Dec 2006
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