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.
Steely Dan, Naked Lunch and Nova Express?
I suspect one of them is Soft Machine.
And another is the Velvet Underground.
(Never mind that last—it turns out to be an incorrect urban legend. But I stand by Soft Machine.)
Heavy Metal Kids were an obscure band from the ’70s. So were The Insect Trust I believe. And someone already got The Soft Machine.
the insect trust were actually from the late ’60s, and featured the writer Robert Palmer.
Steely Dan is definitely one.
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
To which we can add (again, thanks to Google)
Dead Fingers Talk
and
Port of Saints
Also Nova Mob, Grant Hart’s post-Husker Du project. I was betting Steely Dan, Soft Machine, & Nova Mob as the three in mind.
You forgot one. ‘Thin White Rope’
(A reference to sperm apparently.)
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.)
you mean there never was a band called “junky”?
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