DAILY DIRT: A super group deserves a super name, just ask Led Zeppelin

Daily Dirt for Monday, April 21, 2025

When you get to thought No. 2, make sure you don’t miss what those new Pringle’s chip flavors are scheduled to be  … Welcome to today’s three thoughts that make up Vol. 1,261 of The Daily Dirt

1. There are few things a certified boomer enjoys more than discussing rock music.

That includes, in some cases, how some of the super groups got their names. There are times that might even be more interesting than some of the band-in-question’s songs.

Here are five of my favorite stories about how certain legendary groups acquired their familiar calling cards:

1. Led Zeppelin: This has always been my favorite. If the stories are correct, Jimmy Page (guitarist and front man for what would become Led Zeppelin), Jeff Beck (guitarist for The Yardbirds, a band Page had been part of), Keith Moon (drummer for The Who) and John Entwistle (bass player for The Who) came up with the idea of forming a supergroup, but Moon suggested this would “go over like a lead balloon”. Sometime later, Page remembered this expression and, after swapping “balloon” for “zeppelin”, decided to drop the “a” in “lead” to make it clear how the word should be pronounced: Led Zeppelin.

2. Alice Cooper: The front man, who also went by Alice Cooper, has said the original band came up with a name that could be someone’s grandmother – which made it a perfectly unorthodox match for a bunch of cross-dressing shock rockers. Alice Cooper (the front man in question), who is still performing, was born Vincent Damon Furnier. He legally changed his name in 1973 to Alice Cooper. He was born in Detroit, Mich. 

3. Uriah Heep: Never one of my favorite groups, but the story behind its name always interested me.  Uriah Heep got its moniker from a character in Charles Dickens’ “David Copperfield”. In the book, Uriah Heep was a man untrustworthy and unlikable to the extreme. Guitarist Mick Box said, “We were formed on the 100th anniversary of (the death of) Charles Dickens. There was publicity all over London to celebrate his birthday.”

4. Grateful Dead: The fact that the Grateful Dead came up with its band name while under the influence, according to dictionaryscoop.com, should surprise no one. Dead front man Jerry Garcia discovered the term while looking through an old folklore dictionary. The term relates to the soul of an unburied dead person expressing karmic gratitude to someone who arranged for their eventual burial. This is so-o-o-o Grateful Dead.

5.  Fleetwood Mac: This one is so simple, it is brilliant. Not many bands are named after the drummer and the bass player. But Fleetwood Mac is. The outfit was christened after the names of Mick Fleetwood and John McVie. This was a ploy devised by guitarist Peter Green to keep them in the band. And it worked — more than five decades and countless lineups later, the pair is the only remaining members from the 1960s.

2. Did you know (Part 339)

• That two new Pringles chip flavors to be released in May are Beer Can Chicken and Grilled Beer Brat. No, I’m not kidding.
• That Doritos will soon have a guacamole flavor.
• That a “theist” is a person who believes in God. I don’t think I have ever heard this term used, unlike its antonym, “atheist”.
• That a person who is versed in many languages is a “polyglot”.
• That a person who is hard to please is “fastidious”. (And all the time I thought my wife just meant I was quick.)

3. The most famous words ever uttered by George Costanza might be the following:

“Jerry, just remember … it’s not a lie if you believe it.” 

Steve Thought O’ The Day — My goal for this week to try that new Domino’s stuffed crust pizza. Always think big, my friends.

Steve Eighinger writes daily for Muddy River News. What about Meat Loaf?