What's in a Name?

Yesterday, we were at the club and the discussion turned to how some bands, especially in the 60’s, just had the most bizarre and off the wall names.  Some people blame it on the LSD but I think a good part of it was just trying to out-weird the next guy.  After all, the more outrageous the name, the more acid drenched the music must be and people would buy it up, right?  Maybe.

One thing led to another and it was suggested that maybe I could do an entire show of bands with bizarre names.  Well, I happened to be doing one today (the next day) so here it is, an entire DJ set of bands with those outrageous names.  At first, I wanted to include all decades but it soon became apparent that 98% of those names are from the late 60’s, so this has become a period piece.  Those that I could find of the same caliber of weirdness just didn’t make the cut like the B-52’s or Men without Hats.

I compiled quite a few and I was able to trim it down to the best two hours musically.  When I looked at the list, a few things become apparent, like taking any inanimate object and making it “electric” somehow made it psychedelic and a great band name, like the Electric Flag, the Electric Prunes and the Electric Banana to name a few.  You will songs from all three today.

You will hear a band today called the “Moving Sidewalks,” which had a young musician, Billy Gibbons, as a member.  Through a couple of personnel changes, Billy and the Moving Sidewalks became ZZ Top.  Something similar happened to the two young Fogerty brothers and their band, the Golliwogs, which evolved into Creedence Clearwater Revival.  We will hear from both this afternoon.

“Creedence Clearwater Revival” is itself a strange enough name to make the list but they are so mainstream that the name has lost its weirdness factor.  Same could be said by many bands like Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and the Jefferson Airplane.  I won’t play anything by those mainstream artists but I will play one from something of a copycat knock-off, the Jefferson Handkerchief.

People often hold up Norman Greenbaum as the quintessential “one hit wonder,” and his song, Spirit in the Sky.  This isn’t true as he was also a member of a band you will hear today, Dr. West’s Medicine Show and Junk Band.  They had a top 40 hit with the Eggplant that Ate Chicago, making Norman Greenbaum a “two-hit-wonder,” instead.

Here is a list of some of the bands with strange names I’ll feature today.  These are in alphabetical order but I will not play them in this order.

The Blue Things

The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band

Brain Police

The Brass Toads

Capt. Groovy and His Bubblegum Army

The Children of the Mushroom

The Chocolate Light Bulbs

The Chocolate Watchband

Crazy Elephant

Dr. West’s Medicine Show and Junk Band

The Driving Stupid

Edwick Rumbold

The Electric Banana

The Electric Flag

The Electric Prunes

Farpardokly

Fee Fi Four Plus 2

Fifty Foot Hose

First Crew to the Moon

The Flamin’ Groovies

Fruit Machine

The Golliwogs

The International Submarine Band

The Jackson Investment Company

Jefferson Handkerchief

The Jolly Green Giants

The Moving Sidewalks

The Neighb'rhood Childr'n

Oedipus and the Mothers

The Peanut Butter Conspiracy

Plato & the Philosophers

The Rock & Roll Double Bubble Trading Card Co. Of Philadelphia 19141

Strawberry Alarm Clock

Ultimate Spinach

Vampires’ Sound Incorporation

W.C. Fields Memorial String Band

West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band

Wimple Winch

The Wizards from Kansas

The Zakary Thaks

The 13^th Floor Elevators

The 1910 Fruitgum Company

Join me today at 2:00 PM SL time as I take a look at these bands with strange names.

Ultimate Spinach's 1968 Debut Album, They released a total of 3 albums. Many of the above bands had several albums.

The Star Spangled Banner

The Star Spangled Banner that flew over Fort McHenry 13 September 1814

On this, the 242^nd anniversary or our nation’s birth, I’d like to take a look at the Star Spangled Banner, both the flag and the song.

The lyrics were written by poet, Francis Scott Key, who witnessed the bombardment of Fort McHenry in Baltimore during the War of 1812.  Key was a lawyer, who had come to Baltimore to negotiate the release of civilian prisoners of war, and was on a truce ship in Baltimore Harbor.  At dawn, on the morning of 13 September 1814, The British fleet began bombarding Fort McHenry with both cannon and rockets.  This attack continued through the day and at sunset, “the twilight's last gleaming,” the flag over the fort still flew, showing the Americans still held it.  The bombardment continued through the night and when the sky would light up during the attack, the flag was seen still flying over the fort.  When the sun rose the following morning, at the “dawn’s early light,” Key was able to see that same flag he had “proudly hailed” when the sun set the night before.  It had survived the night and we still held the fort.

The bombardment ended shortly after sunrise and the British retreated for no other reason than they were out of ammunition. The battle was a standoff with no winner but it inspired Francis Scott Key to write a poem called, “Defence of Fort M'Henry.”  It is four stanzas long but it is the first stanza that is so dear to Americans and so eloquently tells the story of that siege:

O say can you see, by the dawn's early light,

What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming,

Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,

O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?

And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,

Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;

O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

The picture at the top shows the surviving remnant of the flag that flew over Fort McHenry at sunrise on 14 September 1814, the very flag that inspired Key to write his poem.  You can see that it has 15 stars and 15 stripes, two more in each regard than the original with 13 of each.  These two new stars and stripes were for Vermont and Kentucky and even though, in 1814, we also had admitted Tennessee, Ohio and Louisiana, The flag did not yet represent it.  When we finally adopted a new flag, the convention was set that all future flags would have one star for each state and 13 stripes for the original 13 colonies/states.  The flag that flew over Fort McHenry was the only version with more than 13 stripes.

It was Key’s brother-in-law, Joseph H. Nicholson, who noticed that the poem fit the music of a popular British tune, the Anacreontic Song.  The two were joined and it became a popular patriotic song, despite being one of the hardest to sing because of the vocal range needed.  What very few people know today is that the Star Spangled Banner did not become our National Anthem until  1931, 117 years after the poem was written!

Tonight, my DJ show at AWT will be a salute to this great nation, America.  During it, I will play three versions of the Star Spangled Banner.  There are so many versions to choose from but I chose the following three.  I will open with Whitney Houston’s amazingly beautiful and moving rendition.  At the midpoint, I will play Boston’s version and finally, I will end with what is probably the most amazing rendition I know, the one by Kiss.  I decided not to use the Jimi Hendrix version as I have done in the past as you will be hearing it next month at Woodstock at AWT.

In recent years, Kiss has been ending their concerts with the Star Spangled Banner and making it a big production.  They often have a military color guard present the flag, bring wounded veterans on stage for the event and Paul Staley even plays his star spangled guitar.  The picture below shows this scene from one of their concerts.  You can see, Paul Stanley even has his hand over his heart.  Kiss has used these events to rally against those who refuse to stand for our National Anthem.  In my opinion, there are no truer patriots than the guys of Kiss.  Like with a fireworks display, this rendition will be the moving grand finale of my show tonight.  I'm still moved to tears every time I hear it.

So please join me, from 7:00 to 9:00 PM, tonight as we celebrate 242 years of American freedom.

Kiss about to do the Star Spangled Banner in concert