I think the band was a big fan of his, and that was their original name for the album, if not the band. That is where the album title "Ten" came from- that was Mookie's number.
POLICE For some reason they enjoy using themes related to law enforcement. Consider Sting's name and the Stuart Copeland side project Klark Kent. One of Stuart Copeland's brothers used to head I.R.S. Records and another brother ran the FBI Tour Agency. Uh..first of all, it's THE Police not Police. Second, can they at least spell Stewart's name right? Ben Folds Five Well, the singer's name is Ben Folds and there are....3 guys.....in the band.....
The origin's of Pearl Jam's band name: in the words of Eddie Vedder: "I remember throwing words and meanings around for band names,..... I was writing songs daily and they seemed more important than the name of the band,.... I didn't grasp at the time how representative it may become,....not to mention we were just making a little record that few people would ever hear,...... so the words came, 2,... one of which was Pearl. The name of my great grandmother,..... married to a contortionist...... He used to fit himself into a suitcase.... One in a long line of peculiar individuals. Pearl is also a surfing term when you go headfirst and eat it on the face of a wave.... Janis Joplins greatest record was called Pearl,..... And of course, Earl the Pearl Monroe who shared the court with Phil Jackson I believe,.... (I often tell people that it was Phils initials that led us to our name..... ) I thought that was much better than the rumor that Pearl Jam was some sort of slang for "ej@culated liquid"..... harsh,..... No,..... I feel that the best justification for the name is in reference to the pearl itself,... and the natural process from which a pearl comes from,...... Basically, taking excrement or waste and turning it into something beautiful,...... This is how our band began,..... taking emotions that we wrestled with personally and letting them evolve into songs,..... In this way the songs became vehicles in which to deal with it all,..... Add the volume of loud instruments, amplified vocals,..... moving chord changes,.... And it wasn't just **** anymore,.... It was kind of beautiful,.... powerful,,...... UNCULTURED! As Johnny Rotten would say later, Anger is an Energy...... And **** can be Beautiful. the proof is in the pearl." -- droxford
Pink Floyd (previously "The Pink Floyd") was named after two blues musicians: Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. -- droxford
The Replacements - originally known as the impediments, they were told by a club owner that they would never play again because they were too awful and too drunk. something like that. they dropped the name and basically replaced themselves with another name, hence the Replacements. Veruca Salt - character from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate factory. Everything but the girl - taken from a department store that sold everything but the girl. Concrete Blonde - name was suggested by Michael Stipe. The Gap band - acronym for three streets in their hometown of Tulsa,Oklahoma Soundgarden - name of a local seattle landmark. Boston - hometown of the band.
That explains it. That one used to bother me. "Everything but the girl? But I just heard a female singer... looks like they do have one." Like when I was very young and I couldn't understand why the "Thompson Twins" were three unrelated people. And we always wondered if people went to see the Barenaked Ladies, then got upset when they found out that they weren't bare naked and weren't even ladies. I presume this is one of those bands who named themselves something that would get people into their shows, even with a little false advertising.
Know I am coming in late on this, but this is right. The story that I have always heard was that Pink Anderson and Floyd Council were Syd Barret's 2 favorite blues artists. On the song, "Have a Cigar" off the Wish You Were Here album, there is a line about the band meeting with record executives and one of the executives asked them, "Which one is pink?" Supposedly, that lyric was based on a true story.
