LOOK INSIDE ROCK FORMATIONS Below and on the following pages is a sample of the entries featured in ROCK FORMATIONS (approximately 1,000 of them!). This page is excerpted from the chapter entitled "AUTHOR! AUTHOR!", featuring bands whose names were inspired by books. Collective Soul Band member Ed Roland (vocals, guitars) had seen the term “collective soul” (i.e. applying the concept of a soul to the whole of mankind) when he read The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand, and it had always stuck with him. Crickets This name was suggested by group member Jerry Allison after reading the insect section of an encyclopedia. Apparently the group at one time even considered calling themselves The Beetles! Destiny’s Child The name Destiny’s Child developed from the initial suggestion of “Destiny” by group member Beyonce Knowle’s mother, having been inspired by a passage in the book of Isaiah in the Bible (Isaiah 65:11 contains the words “But as for you who forsake the Lord and forget my holy mountain, who spread a table for Fortune and fill bowls of mixed wine for Destiny…”). On the discovery that Destiny was already taken as a band name, Beyonce’s father suggested adding the word “Child”. Grateful Dead Grateful Dead is the name given to a kind of traditional folk tale, whereby someone pays off a dead man’s debts and is later miraculously rewarded (by the “grateful dead”). Founder member Jerry Garcia (vocals, guitars), having discovered that their original name The Warlocks was already being used and so looking for a replacement name at the time, came across the term while browsing a dictionary at bassist Phil Lesh’s house. Garcia has been quoted as saying that the moment of discovery was like a mystical experience for him, where everything else faded away to leave just those words on the page. The name has also been attributed to a quote from the Egyptian Book Of The Dead, but this was likely found after the band was already named. Some references mention that the “grateful dead” was a type of ballad collected by 19th-century music historian Francis Child, though there are no ballads with that name listed in any of his works. The band did however perform some ballads (e.g. “Barbara Allen”) which are found in Child’s collection English and Scottish Popular Ballads (5 volumes, 1882–1898). Joy Division The name Joy Division was suggested by vocalist Ian Curtis, and was the name given to the particular group of concentration camp barracks where women were kept to entertain the Nazi soldiers. The term was found in Karol Cetinsky’s book House of Dolls, detailing his families experience of the Holocaust and written under his camp name and number, Ka-Tzetnik #135633. The group quotes from the book in their song “No Love Lost” which was featured on the 1978 EP An Ideal For Living. Originally called Warsaw, from David Bowie’s track “Warszawa” on the album Low (1977), this had to be changed to avoid confusion with London punk band, Warsaw Pakt. Band member Bernard Albrecht (b. Bernard Summer AKA Bernard Dicken) has changed his name on occasion for undisclosed family reasons. Level 42 The inspiration for this name, rather than being a large multi-story car park, was in fact Douglas Adams’ science fiction comedy novel The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, in which “42” (which was to have been the band’s original name) is the answer to the ultimate question of the meaning of life, the universe and everything. The band decided to add “Level” before they began recording. Boon Gould (guitars–b. Roland Gould). NEXT