Stupid album names

[rcarlberg]

VdGG - H to He Who Am the Only One

I always read this as "Hydrogen to Helium" which is the definition of basic fusion. Granted, Van Der Graff wasn't exactly a fusion band -- nor did they get the name Van De Graaf right -- but Hammill never was the sharpest crayon in the box.

[GuitarGeek]

Put it in context of the English speakers reading this thread. Not all of their albums had German titles & as a teenager I didn't speak German.

I'm an English speaker, and I never thought Zeit or Atem were bad album titles at all. I thought they sounded foreign and exotic, which I thought was appropriate for the music. And how are they any worse than something like Phaedra, Rubycon, Tangram, or Logos?

[rcarlberg]

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.

[tom unbound]

In other words, "Stuff that I don't understand is stoopid."

I'm not stoopid, the rest of the world is !
You are all wrong and I'm always right !
I don't have opinions, they're facts !
I don't care what you think and I will write paragraphs explaining that to you !

It was a single , not an album, but "Earache My Eye" was 'unusual'.

[rcarlberg]

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.

[Rune Blackwings]

Stupid album names?

The winner is…

Fiona Apple's 1999 CD titled:

When the Pawn Hits the Conflicts He Thinks like a King What He Knows Throws the Blows When He Goes to the Fight and He'll Win the Whole Thing 'fore He Enters the Ring There's No Body to Batter When Your Mind Is Your Might so When You Go Solo, You Hold Your Own Hand and Remember That Depth Is the Greatest of Heights and If You Know Where You Stand, Then You Know Where to Land and If You Fall It Won't Matter, Cuz You'll Know That You're Right

Translated from Hipsterese: the music here sounds like all my other shit, but I will try to look edgy by referencing chess terms and urban poetry rhyming patterns

[bob_32_116]

"A Collection of Great Dance Songs" would have been a stupid title if Pink Floyd had been a relatively unknown band. Considering who they were, of course, it was not dumb, everyone would have picked it for tongue in cheek.

[Yves]

REO Speedwagon- You Can Tune A Piano but You Can't Tuna Fish

[Gruno]

Actually, I thought they were pretty clever.

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.

[Progatron]

Stupid album names?

The winner is…

Fiona Apple's 1999 CD titled:

When the Pawn Hits the Conflicts He Thinks like a King What He Knows Throws the Blows When He Goes to the Fight and He'll Win the Whole Thing 'fore He Enters the Ring There's No Body to Batter When Your Mind Is Your Might so When You Go Solo, You Hold Your Own Hand and Remember That Depth Is the Greatest of Heights and If You Know Where You Stand, Then You Know Where to Land and If You Fall It Won't Matter, Cuz You'll Know That You're Right

Yeah, but on internet forums the common acronym is WtPHtCHTLaKWHKTtBWHGttFaHWtWTFHEtRTNBtBWYMiYMSWYGS YHYOHaRTDitGoHaIYKWYSTYKWtLaIYFiWMCYKTYR.

[ronmac]

Care to spill? I know there are lots of theories about the origin of the band name, but as far as I know Steven Wilson has never actually given a definitive explanation.

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.

[No Pride]

Yeah, but on internet forums the common acronym is WtPHtCHTLaKWHKTtBWHGttFaHWtWTFHEtRTNBtBWYMiYMSWYGS YHYOHaRTDitGoHaIYKWYSTYKWtLaIYFiWMCYKTYR.

It took some effort to type that, didn't it?!

[Progatron]

It took some effort to type that, didn't it?!

It really did!

[Dave (in MA)]

I'm sure Froese smacked himself in the forehead once he realize he'd chosen album titles that some random guy on the internet didn't understand as a teenager.

Of all the crazy titles that Froese came up with and you're upset with the German words for Time and Breathing.

[rcarlberg]

Of all the crazy titles that Froese came up with and you're upset with the German words for Time and Breathing.

Two of the few that CAN'T be copyrighted.

[ronmac]

Two of the few that CAN'T be copyrighted.

Actually, titles cannot be trademarked or copyrighted.

[Dave (in MA)]

You mean someone can just go and reuse titles like Moonlight on a Crawler Lane and Detroit Snackbar Dreamer?

[rcarlberg]

Actually, titles cannot be trademarked or copyrighted.

Huh, you're right. Did not know that.
http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ34.pdf
"Names of products are not copyrightable"? Really? That doesn't sound right.

Wait a minute -- trademarks are a whole different story:

b. Titles. Titles, while not protected under copyright law, are sometimes protected under trademark and unfair competition laws. However, one-shot titles, no matter how clever they are, are not automatically entitled to trademark protection. To be protected, titles must achieve "secondary meaning." Secondary meaning is akin to the commercial magnetism of a title. As a rule, to be protected, titles must be "broadly known." Series titles, unlike one-shot titles, make good trademarks candidates. In addition, a title in one medium, will be protected in another.

So I SHOULD have said, "Two of the few that CAN'T be trademarked."

[Modry Effekt]

Aren't they all.Spooky tooth - You Broke My Heart So I Busted Your Jaw

[mogrooves]

Brain Salad Surgery

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.

Forever More ~ Words On Black Plastic

[progholio]

OU812, however, was an answer to DLR's "Eat 'em and Smile," wasn't it?

Perhaps. Whatever the case Eat'em and Smile is a great album title, superior record, just shows that VH was nothing without Dave

[trurl]

We're not talking about PiL are we? They released Album, Cassette and CD at the same time if memory serves.

[GuitarGeek]

Yeah, me too. I think Diver Down is Van Halen's worst album title.

Uhm, yeah, that's one I've always wondered how they came up with. I've talked about this before, but maybe not recently, but it drives me crazy that took me so long to figure out that album title/cover. For those who don't know, the front cover is a diver down flag. It's used to warn boaters to stay away from the immediate vicinity because there are scuba divers in the water. Hence the album title.

The thing is, I knew about all this back when I was a kid because other than music and science fiction, scuba diving was the other thing I was always interested in from the time I was little. So I read books and magazines at the library, way before I was old enough to get certified. But it took me something like 5 years to put the pieces together, and I remember this, because they were giving away tickets on the radio to a Van Halen show (I think it might have been The Monsters Of Rock tour, in 88 or whenever it was) and that was the trivia question you had to answer, "What is the significance of the Diver Down cover?". That's when it first hit me. Because I can remember seeing the album in stores when it came out, and I thought "Diver Down? What a dumb album title!", and then when I heard that trivia question the radio a few years later, it was like well, "D'oh" wasn't part of my vocabulary yet (did it even exist?), but that's what it was like, ya know, "I coulda had a V-8" or something.

But back to my initial point, I'd love to know how they came up with that as an album title/cover. Is it supposed to be a double entendre or was it an in-joke that only the band knew the punchline to, or what? I mean, to me it's a cool cover/title, but that's only because I'm a diver. To everyone else, they're both kinda dumb.

[rcarlberg]

We're not talking about PiL are we? They released Album, Cassette and CD at the same time if memory serves.

Yeah, that's the one. Apparently they stole the idea from Flipper.


All of these -- including Yes's "90125" which used the catalog number as the title -- were reactions against the increasing corporatism of rock. There were also a number of bands (DEVO for one) who used the newly-introduced bar code as part of the artwork as a protest against being "just a number" to the suits in accounting.

[bob_32_116]

You mean someone can just go and reuse titles like Moonlight on a Crawler Lane and Detroit Snackbar Dreamer?

How do you think Pink Floyd got away with calling an album The Dark Side of the Moon?