Why did so many experimental/electronic/avantgarde/Kraut/fusion bands create what appear to be totally non-sensical album names? It looked overly clever, pompous and pretentious at the time & in hindsight I think it still does:
VdGG - H to He Who Am the Only One
Can - Ege Bamyasi, Tago Mago
Frank Zappa - Waka/Jawaka
Yes - 90125
Mike Oldfield - Ommadawn
Tangerine Dream - Zeit, Atem
Magma - Udu Wudu
Faust - Ravvivando
National Health - D.S. al Coda
Gong - Shamal
Limp Bizkit - Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water
Stupid album name by a stupidly-named band.
Music isn't about chops, or even about talent - it's about sound and the way that sound communicates to people. Mike Keneally
Originally Posted by Scott Bails
While I agree with you regarding the band, I understand the words in the title, it makes sense.
It's still stupid.
"Alienated-so alien I go!"
I would like it if they were the names of 2 separate albums. I like the irony.
That one actually makes perfect sense. "D.S. al Coda" is an instruction for reading a written music chart. "D.S." means to go back to a symbol called "the sign" and play through until another symbol called "the coda," which indicates that you skip to the last part of the piece or song. Since this album was all music written by former NH member and co-founder, Alan Gowen, who had passed away, you might say he had taken his life to the coda sign.
As for the rest of the titles, I got nothing.
Only if you understand the instructions on sheet music. To everyone else it was nonsense.
Not anymore.
Not anymore.
No idea how, but whatever.
Considering that it's a title for music, it's not nonsense at all.
Music isn't about chops, or even about talent - it's about sound and the way that sound communicates to people. Mike Keneally
Whatever! I don't want an argument, just a bit of fun.
I learned what "D.S. al Coda" meant in elementary school music class. (shrug)
Apart from that, I would have thought anyone who is so interested in music enough to even know who National Health is, never mind knowing the title of their albums, would have at least rudimentary knowledge of things like time signatures, sheet music notation, etc. Or are you telling me that whenever I hear (ahem) "prog rock" fans actually have no idea what the 9/8 in Apocalypse In 9/8 means?
There's some band that put out an LP called "LP" which was later released on CD. I think they had to change the title.
There was also a record called "2 Oz of Plastic with a Hole in the Middle" by Man -- not sure how that translated.
Brain Salad Surgery
Forever More ~ Words On Black Plastic
Hell, they ain't even old-timey ! - Homer Stokes
the 2 Van Hagar albums -
For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge & 0U812 are about as stupid as it gets, kind of set the tone for the music too.
Yep. Apparently, they were still in high school at the time. OU812, however, was an answer to DLR's "Eat 'em and Smile," wasn't it?
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
Perhaps. Whatever the case Eat'em and Smile is a great album title, superior record, just shows that VH was nothing without Dave
Surprised nobody mentioned Tormato.
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
Actually, I thought they were pretty clever. Not so much FUCK (supposedly, the word is an acronym for the phrase, which is what was put on police records when someone was busted for solicitation or whatever back in the day), but the other (which you misspelled) is meant to be read like a license plate, ie "Oh, you ate one, too".
A punk band called Gang Green had an album called I81B4U, which I think was a response to the Van Halen title. They also had an album called Older Budweiser. I thought both of those were clever.
One that I thought was kind of a dumb title was Judas Priest's Stained Class. I mean, if it was some kind of word play or something, I could see it, but that's always read, to me, like a typo, unless there's some hidden meaning to the phrase "Stained Class", perhaps only in the UK, that I don't know about.
You know what was really a dumb album title? There's an Ike & Tina Turner album called The Best Of Ike And Tina, but it's not a best of. It's a standard album, and supposedly has some of Ike's best guitar work, but I don't think it's ever been reissued. Probably because of the title, no title, because nobody realizes it's not actually a best of.
How about "20 Jazz Funk Greats" by Throbbing Gristle? Not jazz-funk, not great, and not 20 tracks.
I thought that title was a riot.
How many disappointed hipsters went home with that album by mistake? Can you imagine confronting "The Hamburger Lady" by mistake?!?
Yeah, me too. I think Diver Down is Van Halen's worst album title. For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge is pretty clever. OU812, not as clever, but nothing tragic and it kept the trend going from 1984 and 5150.
Yeah, but on internet forums the common acronym is WtPHtCHTLaKWHKTtBWHGttFaHWtWTFHEtRTNBtBWYMiYMSWYGS YHYOHaRTDitGoHaIYKWYSTYKWtLaIYFiWMCYKTYR.
Interviewer of reprobate ne'er-do-well musicians of the long-haired rock n' roll persuasion at: www.velvetthunder.co.uk and former scribe at Classic Rock Society. Only vaguely aware of anything other than music.
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All I really know is what's on wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porcupine_Tree
Of course, wiki is not definitive.
Apparently, it was a joke that they simply continued.
Now, how, exactly they chose that particular name, I cannot say. But, it seems they wanted something to fit this fictitious band they created.
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
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