Where did these classic rock bands get their names?

Question

I have been wondering how these bands got their names...do you know?
* Aerosmith
* Lynyrd Skynyrd
* Led Zeppelin
* Creedence Clearwater Revival
* Pink Floyd
Thanks for any answers!

Answer 1

Visit http://www.rocknworld.com/nameorigins/list2.shtml

You will find everything there. ( :


But here's my answer anyway:

AEROSMITH-A popular myth is that the name came from a respelling of the title of the Sinclair Lewis novel “Arrowsmith”. But in the group’s autobiography “Walk This Way” Joey Kramer tells the story of how when he was still in school he was sitting around with his girlfriend one day listening to Harry Nilsson’s “Aerial Ballet” and he and his girlfriend started thinking of cool band names that had “aero” in them, he thought up “aerosmith” and liked the way it sounded. He loved the name so much he used to write it all over his school books. But the band he was with at the time didn’t want to use it. So fast forward to a little after he had joined Joe Perry and Steven’s band. They used to sit around and watch old Three Stooges reruns, stoned. One day they had a band meeting after the “Stooges” to try and come up with a name, Kramer remembered the word he used to compulsively write on his schoolbooks. The band didn’t like it at first because they thought it was the title of the Sinclair Lewis novel they were forced to read in high school but Joey said “No, no, A-E-R-O” and it stuck because they liked the connotation of power and the lift their music gave off.

PINK FLOYD -Syd Barrett supposedly came up with the name by combining the first names of two lesser-known blues artists - Pink Anderson and Floyd Council.

LED ZEPPELIN -Keith Moon and John Entwistle of the Who were hanging out with Richard Cole (The Yardbirds road manager) one night at the disco “Salvation” in New York. Moon and Entwistle were burnt out on the whole scene with The Who and were talking about the desire to form a band with Jimmy Page and Steve Winwood. And Entwistle said “Yeah. We’ll call it Lead Zeppelin. Because it will go over like a ******* Lead Balloon.” Laughter followed and Cole told Jimmy about the discussion later. So when the time came to change the band’s name from The New Yardbirds they finally settled on “Led Zeppelin” after short stints as “Mad Dogs” and “Whoopee Cushion”. They changed the spelling of lead to “Led” so that people wouldn’t mispronounce the groups name as “Leed Zeppelin”.

LYNYRD SKYNRD-"Lynyrd Skynyrd" came from Leonard Skinner. Skinner was a gym coach at Robert E. Lee High School in Jacksonville who at some point in the 1960s disciplined Gary and Bob for letting their hair grow. The young musicians eventually dropped out of school, but remembered all the hassles. In 1970, the band -- playing as the "One Percent" -- had a gig at a local club called the Forest Inn and Ronnie called out to the crowd, "Hey, we're Leonard Skinner and we're gonna play for y'all tonight". Since most of the crowd had run into Coach Skinner at one point or another the name was an instant hit and stuck. Eventually, the vowels were changed "to protect the guilty" -- as Gary put it a few years ago.

CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL-They changed the name to Creedence Clearwater Revival, after a friend of a friend of Tom's, Credence Nuball. The first name, with its connotations of believability and integrity, appealed to the group. Clearwater also had two meanings. It came initially from a beer commercial, but also resonated with the burgeoning environmental movement of the time. Revival, however, had one meaning. It was the band's aspiration, that after four years as the Golliwogs, after ten years of playing together, this new change in their fortunes would take the band where they all knew it could go. John would often say, "The most important part was revival."

P.S. I got the last one from one forum,from the internet

Answer 2

Aerosmith - Drummer Joey Kramer had been in a band called Aerosmith when he was a kid - he took the name with him (it may have come from that book "Arrowsmith," but Steven Tyler denies this).

Lynyrd Skynyrd - Leonard Skinnered was the name of one of their high school teachers.

Led Zeppelin - legend has it that Keith Moon (although some say it was Entwistle or Townshend) said that "Jimmy Page's new band will go over like a lead balloon."

CCR - I have no idea

Pink Floyd - someone else answered this correctly (about the two bluesmen)

Answer 3

Aerosmith was a misspelling of the Upton Sinclair novel, "Arrowsmith"

Lynyrd Skynyrd is a tweaked spelling of a teacher's name that Van Zant had in school

Led Zeppelin is (supposidely) a comment that Keith Moon of the Who made about the music ("This will go over like a lead zeppelin")

Answer 4

I can answer a couple...
Aerosmith was originally Arrowsmith(someone who makes arrows)
Lynyrd Skynyrd was the guys high school gym teacher.
Zepp took their name when someone told them their band would "go over like a lead zeppelin(blimp)
Sorry...dont know the other two :)

Answer 5

I'm not sure about the rest, but I believe Lynyrd Skynyrd was the name of the band's gym teacher when they were in school.

Answer 6

Led Zeppelin went down like a lead zeppelin (balloon) in their first consert

Pink Floyd are named after two American Blues artists - look the up

Answer 7

Pink Floyd is a combination of the bluesmen Pink Anderson and Floyd Counci.

Answer 8

i can say for Pink Floyd

Syd Barrett got 'Pink' from Pink Anderson and 'Floyd' from Floyd Council...they were two american bluesmen...rather obscure ones

Answer 9

maybe a combination of creativity and uniqueness.

Answer 10

yeah i know!i gave them those names i found them very special!