Tag Archives: musicians

Apr 04 2013
17 Comments
funny names

Sara Beth Bareilles

Good morning, funny names fans! Spring is in the air, and if you haven’t already started your day off with a kickin’ soundtrack and pretended that you’re the star of your own romantic comedy film (Doesn’t everyone? No? Just me?) then I’ve got the perfect solution for you. Might I suggest that you queue up a couple of tracks performed by Sara Beth Bareilles?

Sara grew up in the fantastically named Eureka, California and attended the University of California in Los Angeles. Given that her mother’s maiden name was Bonnie Halvorsen Capellas, I’m betting that no one in the family was surprised when Sara joined her college a cappella group, the Awaken a Cappellas. What may have come as a surprise, however, is the level of Sara’s a cappella awesomeness: she won ULCA’s Spring Sing Contest, not once, but twice!

Sara Bareilles

Eureka Sara, that’s a great hat!

Although her first studio album was released in 2004, her career didn’t really gather momentum until 2007, when iTunes selected her single “Love Song” to be released as one of their free singles of the week. By the following month, her album had shot to #1 on iTunes’ list of most downloaded albums. The album has since gone three times Platinum in the US, (and I would recommend “Love Song” as the track to play over the opening credits of your own personal rom-com).

Sara began work on her next album in the summer of 2009, collaborating with the funny-named likes of Amir “Questlove” Thompson, members of Weezer, and Pharrel Williams. The album, called “Kaleidoscope Heart” was released on September 7, 2010, and debuted at Number 1 in the US.

Now, if you’re a regular reader (or if you’ve visited our Contributors page) then you know that, as your resident pop-culture vulture, I specialize in profiling funny names on TV and in the movies. “So Amb”, you may be asking, “why are you talking about a musician?” Never fear, my friends; you know that in my personal romantic comedy, everything always comes back to “Community” – and Sara is no exception.

Jeff and Annie from Community

I love these two so much I can’t even think of a witty caption for this photo.

On April 21, 2011, NBC aired the“Paradigms of Human Memory” episode of “Community”, which was directed by beloved BoFN alumni Tristram Shapeero and is, quite possibly, the most gloriously upside-down, off-the-wall, hilariously and brilliantly and densely plotted 22 minutes of television anywhere, ever, in the history of television. In my completely unbiased opinion, of course. Anyway, Sara’s song “Gravity” was featured in the episode during a montage of moments between two of my favourite characters, Annie and Jeff (swoon).

Speaking of swooning, I’d like to sing you out with my particular favourite of Sara’s tracks – in the rom-com movie version of my life, this is the song that played during our heroine’s “getting over a wrenching break-up and getting herself back out there into the crazy and wonderful world” montage that played a few months ago. As an added bonus, this video was directed by the funny-named (and very funny) Jonah Hill. Enjoy!

love amb

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Aug 09 2012
11 Comments
Uncategorized

Huddie Ledbetter, aka Lead Belly

Huddie Ledbetter, pictured with particularly fine headgear.

Huddie Ledbetter, better known as Lead Belly, was one of the key figures of American folk music of the 20th century. Huddie (pronounced “Hugh-Dee“, of course) was born sometime in January of 1888 in Loiusiana. His family soon moved to Texas, which is probably what you do if you’re sick of Louisiana. By 1908 he had married a 15-year old lady by the name of Aletha “Lethe” Henderson and was playing the accordion, his first instrument. The first song he ever wrote was “The Titanic”, about how African-American world champion boxer Jack Johnson was denied entry to that “unsinkable” ship, although apparently the story isn’t entirely true. Johnson never tried to get on the Titanic, but he was denied entry to another ship because of his race.

From then on, it was all music for Mr. Belly. Well music, murdering, prison time, getting stabbed in the neck, being discovered as a great musician, recording songs with Blind Lemon Jefferson, being imprisoned again, pardoned by the governor, imprisoned, pardoned again, slacking off in a chain gang, re-marrying someone named Martha Promise, and the small matter of becoming one of the most popular folk musicians of the century.

Sorry, did I jump over some interesting tidbits there? Yes. Yes, I did. A full biography of Mr. Belly would probably take at least 360 pages to describe, which goes over our self-imposed 500 world limit by a significant margin, and here I am wasting precious characters talking about wasting those characters. You just can’t trust me with a keyboard. So yes, for a real biography, follow that link and buy the book. I’ll just go back to the part where he was stabbed in the neck in prison and crack a joke or two if you don’t mind.

The coolest anyone has ever looked with an accordion.

Apparently, Huddie Ledbetter was a bit of a badass. This got him into trouble at times, such as when he killed someone in a fight over a woman and got sent to jail, or the other time he tried to kill someone and was sent to prison again. Most badassly, in jail he was at one point shanked in the neck with a big old knife. Instead of proceeding to cry “why!” and dying in horrible pain like normal people, Huddie exclaimed “what in the world?!” (or a less family friendly alternative), grabbed the knife, and shanked the shanker right back. He was left with a nasty scar that he subsequently covered up with a trademark bandana.

Today, Mr. Belly is best known for playing a 12-string guitar and recording oodles of famous folk songs, including recording the first known version of the song “Goodnight Irene“. He was discovered while still in prison because of his remarkable singing voice and skill on the guitar along with his enormous knowledge of folk and blues songs. He was subsequently covered by every imaginable musician in the world, including Abba, Pete Seeger, Van Morrison and Ernest Tubb. Yes, you can be sure there will a subsequent Ernest Tubb post on this here website. And yes, that is the first and last time those four have been mentioned in the same sentence.

Now, go on and get yourself some Lead Belly records and go back in time with some of that amazing music. It’s worth it.

 

 

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Apr 13 2012
9 Comments
Uncategorized

Golden Baby Naming Tips: Rhyming Names

Naming a child is fun. It can also be an important decider on where the child will go in life. Does the name pass the supreme court justice test? Does it sound respectable? And most importantly, does the first name rhyme with the last name?

Some folks have decided that it is absolutely a good idea to give your child rhyming names. Look over these examples, and decide for yourself.

Zowie Bowie – Son of David Bowie, Zowie (pronounced “zoe-ee” to rhyme with the last name) didn’t think it would grant him too much goodwill in his chosen career of filmmaking and changed his name to Duncan Jones. A bit bland if you ask me (but he never did).

Angel Rangel – He sounds like some sort of a gorgeous superhero, but Angel Rangel is in fact a professional soccer player for Wales’ finest, Swansea City. Yes they give men the name “Angel” in Latin America. Kind of awesome.

This guy does not look like a "Romney" to me. Maybe a Gingrich at best.

Wavy Gravy  – A caveat, that wasn’t actually his birth name, he changed his name to Wavy Gravy at the suggestion of blues musician BB King at some music gathering or another in the 60′s. In his defense, he was born Hugh Nanton Romney, which just doesn’t sound right for a hippie comedian.

Rolan Bolan - Rolan Bolan is the child of T. Rex singer Marc Bolan and a musician himself. With a catchy name like that he should have no problem following his father’s footsteps and producing catchy rhymes for a whole generation.

Maurice Morris – The classic rhyming strategy of just repeating the same thing twice works like a charm for us. Morris is an NFL player with the Detroit Lions. In case you’re wondering “why doesn’t he just go by his middle name to avoid the rhyme”, it’s because his middle name is Autora. That’s right, Autora.

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Mar 01 2012
2 Comments
Dave's greatest hits, Greatest hits

Florian Cloud de Bounevialle O’Malley “Dido” Armstrong

We thought we were on a roll after stumbling upon the name Rollo Gillespie while paying homage to Sir Stamford Raffles, but we quickly rolled into another Rollo: Rowland Constantine O’Malley Armstrong, known to friends and family as “Rollo.”

However, while Rollo is a founding member of successful British electronica band Faithless, as well as a fine fellow who will someday earn his own post in this blog, what brought him to our attention was actually his slightly more famous and slightly more humorously named sister.

She is Florian Cloud de Bounevialle O’Malley Armstrong, better known as the singer Dido.

Despite having so many excellent names to choose from, her parents – an Irish pub…lisher and an English writer – didn’t call her any of them as a child. Instead, they called her Dido, most likely in homage to the founder and first Queen of the Carthaginian Empire. So it wasn’t shocking when the singer adopted Queen Dido’s habits and set her sights on conquering the music world at the turn of this century.

She burst onto the scene in 1999 with No Angel, which sold 21 million copies on the strength of her breathy vocals and the breakout singles “Here with Me” and “Thank You,” the latter of which was also used in a collaboration single with Eminem called “Stan.”  Her follow up album, 2003′s Life for Rent, went on to sell another 12 million copies. She also picked up a Grammy nomination in the process. Her 2008 album Safe Trip Home was also well-received by critics, and helped continue her success with a second Grammy nomination.

So how does one develop the toughness to handle the rigors of fame and fortune? Well, for Dido, it appears her unusual name played a role in her developing a thick skin. According to Wikipedia – a go-to source for supporting our own unverified assumptions – Dido had to “deal with [her name's] unusual and ambiguous nature, which led to her being bullied and even pretending to have an ordinary name.” Florian (another name we’ve recently profiled) also had this to say of her assumed name “Dido”:

To be called one thing and christened another is actually very confusing and annoying. It’s one of the most irritating things that my parents did to me. … Florian is a German man’s name. That’s just mean. To give your child a whole lot of odd names. They were all so embarrassing. … I thought it was cruel to call me Dido and then expect me to just deal with it. – Dido, from a 2001 Observer article.

While we express sympathy for her childhood struggles, it appears that Ms. Florian Cloud de Bounevialle O’Malley Armstrong has gotten the last laugh. And for that, we have to say:

No, Dido, thank you!

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Dec 19 2011
4 Comments
Dave's greatest hits, Greatest hits

Taffy Nivert

Comedians have an old game they sometimes play called “Not Funny, Funny, Very Funny.”

It’s fairly simple – name a category, and come up with something in that category that fits each of those labels.

For the 1970′s quartet Starland Vocal Band, the list would have gone like this:
Not Funny – Jon Carroll
Funny – Bill Danoff or Margot Chapman
Very Funny – Taffy Nivert

Starland Vocal Band: Taffy, Bill, Margot, Jon (photo: billdanoff.com)

Taffy Nivert. Say that name and try not to smile. Taffy Nivert.

Taffy Nivert (photo: http://www.billdanoff.com)

Taffy Nivert of the Starland Vocal Band. Doesn’t ring a bell? It should. After wisely changing their name from “Fat City,” Starland Vocal Band won the Best New Artist Grammy Award in 1977 for their #1 single “Afternoon Delight,” which was recently also named the 20th sexiest song of all time by Billboard.

Yes, that list did include two songs from Rod Stewart in the top 10, but let’s ignore that for a moment. I think we can all just agree that “Afternoon Delight” is a fine – and yes, sexy – song.

The video – with its rhythmically superimposed fireworks and confrontational-looking vocal faceoffs – might not make a “20 sexiest” list for music videos, but remember that it was the 70′s, and this was 5 years before MTV existed. Not a bad effort.

“We got two of the five Grammys – one was Best New Artist. So that was basically the kiss of death and I feel sorry for everyone who’s gotten it since.” – Taffy Nivert

The band, which consisted of two husband-and-wife couples who divorced after the band’s demise, was never able to duplicate their early success, but “Afternoon Delight” was recently given new life after being featured in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. Classy.

Most musicians would gladly trade in their entire career to make that one hit single. Bill and Taffy – who also co-wrote “Country Roads, Take Me Home” by John Denver – had two.

So perhaps she’s not bound for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but we’re glad to welcome one member to the Funny Names Hall of Fame.  Welcome, Taffy Nivert.

Taffy Nivert.

Taffy Nivert.

Taffy Nivert.

Now stop smiling into your computer screen.

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