It was the best of bands, it was the worst of bands

[substitute]

So, Muriel Spark died after a long and illustrious career. I was reminded that the band Public Image Ltd. named themselves after a novel of hers, which then made me think about literary-rock connections. I started to make a list in my head of Musical Groups Named After Things Literary. Add any you can think of! Note: I cheated and used Wikipedia for some of these. I'm not quite that smart!

Public Image
The Soft Machine
Steely Dan
The Boo Radleys
The Velvet Underground
Pere Ubu
The Thompson Twins
Aerosmith (disputed)
Steppenwolf
The Grifters
Heaven 17
Love and Rockets
Eyeless in Gaza (double Huxley/Milton score as pointed out by someone else)
As I Lay Dying
Veruca Salt
The Grapes of Wrath
Collective Soul
The Doors (double Huxley/Blake score)
The Fall
Hot Water Music
Moby

Comments

[hersheyjumper.livejournal.com]

yes you are.

[brianenigma.livejournal.com]

I knew Veruca Salt and probably could have guessed Heaven 17, but as far as the rest of them, either my music knowledge or my literary knowledge is not quite as SMRT as you an Wikipedia. (I'm not even sure *how* I would go about researching something like that in Wikipedia.)

[substitute.livejournal.com]

Burroughs and Huxley are the apparent winners. Gee, who would a thunk, drugs and rock 'n' roll!

[onda-dog.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen Clockwork Orange in years, but I think Alex mentions a band called Heaven 17

[frobisher.livejournal.com]

Yep. You can see them listed on a chart in the music store too.

Also:

[gcrumb.livejournal.com]

Fine Young Cannibals
Genesis (heh)
Supertramp

And I believe Robert Zimmerman chose 'Dylan' because of Mr. Thomas.

[tuliphead.livejournal.com]

Cocteau Twins
Depeche Mode (does a magazine count as literary?)
Alphaville (does a movie count as literary?)
Tosca

also:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPj-8_wOZcA

[kineticfactory.livejournal.com]

If TV shows count, you can add Belle & Sebastian to that list as well.

[substitute.livejournal.com]

TV shows ain't literary! I included graphic novels.

I did find out that about Belle & Sebastian during my search, though.

[carpyscreed.livejournal.com]

Right - if we were doing visual media too I would be the first to put Duran Duran on that list!

[kineticfactory.livejournal.com]

It may please you to know that there was an Australian indie band named The Vivian Girls a few years ago.

[cataptromancer.livejournal.com]

is 'the mountain goats' a biblical reference?

[alivicwil.livejournal.com]

hi! found you via seriesfinale... really interesting post.

I can add:
Amboy Dukes - Ted Nugent's original band - taken from the title of a 1940's book about street gangs by Irving Shulman.

The Black Crowes - originally named Mr. Crowe's Garden, after a favorite children's book.

Grateful Dead - from a passage about spirit beings, chosen at random from a reference book by Jerry Garcia.

Marillion - named after J.R.R. Tolkien's book The Silmarillion.

My Chemical Romance- from Irvine Welsh's "Ectasy: Three Tales of Chemical Romance" novel.

They Might be Giants - named after a film, but the film references Don Quixote - the title character says "they might be giants" when referring to the windmills he attempts to fight.

[substitute.livejournal.com]

That's interesting about TMBG; I didn't know that was a one step removed Quixote thing.

[cordiloquy.livejournal.com]

H.P. Lovecraft!

[substitute.livejournal.com]

Oh, damn, yeah.

[cordiloquy.livejournal.com]

There's also a pretty good L.A.-area rock band these days called the Dagons.

Another (possibly insufferably obscure) one: I was trying to look up some background information on George Trakl's poem "Elis" for class a couple of months ago, but all I found out was that there is a Lichtensteinian goth band named after it.

[cordiloquy.livejournal.com]

oh, and both DeVotchKa and the Devotchkas.

I'm getting way too into this.

[leolo.livejournal.com]

Tears for fears (IIRC)

And if you are including comics: Bérurier Noir (http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%A9rurier_noir).

[carpyscreed.livejournal.com]

Shakespeare's Sister (I wouldn't know this one if I hadn't *just* read a memoir by Erica Jong)

[substitute.livejournal.com]

I always wondered if they named themselves after the Smiths song or after the Woolf essay the Smiths referred to.

[onda-dog.livejournal.com]

There's the Ellen James Society with a reference to Garp. This is a great list

[compilerbitch.livejournal.com]

The Art of Noise (my favourite band evah!) are named after an essay by some futurist or other, whose name I can't be bothered to look up.

[dorothy-parka.livejournal.com]

centrifugal bumblepuppy.

one time i had to break a boy's heart by explaining to him that, no, anthony burgess as not name-checking the _band_ heaven 17.

[frobisher.livejournal.com]

I was sure I wasn't going to come up with one that no one else did, but this just occured to me.

Frumious Bandersnatch. And, holy crap, they have a website.

And, if we were allowing TV as an influence, Andrew Ratshin of Uncle Bonsai/Electric Bonsai Band (It's not electric, it's not a band) fame also has a band called the Mel Cooleys.