August 25, 2003

Trivia

Posted by Kieran

At the risk of sounding like Eugene Volokh, and inspired by a post from John Quiggin, I can think of three bands who take their names from William Burroughs’ writings. Name them and be entered in a prize drawing for the paperback edition of The Best of Crooked Timber, vol 2.

Posted on August 25, 2003 01:09 AM UTC
Comments

Steely Dan, Naked Lunch and Nova Express?

Posted by Henry · August 25, 2003 01:27 AM

I suspect one of them is Soft Machine.

Posted by Patrick Nielsen Hayden · August 25, 2003 02:05 AM

And another is the Velvet Underground.

Posted by Patrick Nielsen Hayden · August 25, 2003 02:06 AM

(Never mind that last—it turns out to be an incorrect urban legend. But I stand by Soft Machine.)

Posted by Patrick Nielsen Hayden · August 25, 2003 02:07 AM

Heavy Metal Kids were an obscure band from the ’70s. So were The Insect Trust I believe. And someone already got The Soft Machine.

Posted by Paul Kelly · August 25, 2003 03:24 AM

the insect trust were actually from the late ’60s, and featured the writer Robert Palmer.

Posted by howard · August 25, 2003 03:38 AM

Steely Dan is definitely one.

Posted by John · August 25, 2003 06:58 AM

With a little help from my friends at Google:

SOFT BOYS
Combination of two William Burroughs novels, ‘Soft Machine’ and ‘Wild Boys’.

STEELY DAN
A dildo in the William Burroughs novel ‘Naked Lunch’. According to Burroughs, the first Steely Dan was a metal dildo that an evil German bulldyke prostitute crushed using her pussy, and the second Steely Dan is still in use.

Both from
http://pages.eidosnet.co.uk/johnnymoped/musicforthemasses/musicforthemassesbandnames/musicforthemasses_bandnames_r_s.html

MUGWUMPS - from a William Burroughs novel. Cass Elliot was in this band before the MAMAS AND POPPAS.

NAKED LUNCH - The title of the famous William Burroughs book.

SOFT BOYS - Combination of two William Burroughs novels, “Soft Machine” and “Wild Boys”.

SOFT MACHINE - The name of a William Burroughs novel.

These four from
http://www.geocities.com/krnboi78/bandnames.html

Posted by Doug · August 25, 2003 09:03 AM

To which we can add (again, thanks to Google)

Dead Fingers Talk

and

Port of Saints

Posted by Chris · August 25, 2003 09:14 AM

Also Nova Mob, Grant Hart’s post-Husker Du project. I was betting Steely Dan, Soft Machine, & Nova Mob as the three in mind.

Posted by john · August 25, 2003 06:19 PM

You forgot one. ‘Thin White Rope’

(A reference to sperm apparently.)

Posted by AndyB · August 26, 2003 01:04 AM

Clem Snide too, though I think John has identified the three Kieran was thinking of.

(The Velvet Underground was a ’60s blue novel in the disguise of a sociological exploration of New York’s swinger and s&m scenes. I think it’s still in print thanks to the lingering interest on the part of the band’s fans.)

Posted by Steve · August 26, 2003 06:37 PM

you mean there never was a band called “junky”?

Posted by markus · August 26, 2003 10:49 PM
Followups

This discussion has been closed. Thanks to everyone who contributed.