TELL US HOW YOU FEEL ABOUT THIS NITE AND DAY: In ranking the awesomeness of all stage names in pop/rock music history, are we agreed that Al B. Sure! is at the bottom and The Edge nears the top?
[Prompted by a random tweet in my feed last night mentioning the former. Wikipedia informs me that the former Albert Brown's son is now an aspiring artist under the moniker Lil B Sure!.]
added: It occurs to me that the proper unit of measurement for the appropriateness of a stage name is the Ringo, wherein 1.0 Ringos represents a stage name as good as the former Richard Starkey. Ludacris, a/k/a Chris Bridges, rates 0.8 Ringos; Black Francis is 0.6 Ringos, and Frank Black 0.4 Ringos.
Also: it was difficult structuring that question so as not to end in a quasi-interrobang.
ReplyDeleteI have no idea who Rambo Amadeus is, but I love his stage name.
ReplyDeleteI submit that Elvis Costello ranks well up there. That name is so bad-ass, it's, like, now that's his NAME. I don't even know if Diana Krall calls him Declan.
ReplyDeleteI've always thought The Edge was a little silly, honestly. It's the THE. Bono's name is better since he stopped calling himself "Bono Vox."
ReplyDeleteNear the top: Joe Strummer (John Mellor), Iggy Pop (James Osberburg), Freddie Mercury (Frederick Blusara),and Stevie Wonder (Steveland Morris). No denying the impact of Captain Beefheart (Don Van Vliet) and Sid Viscious (John Ritchie), but they're almost trying too hard.
The early rock & blues stage names are so cool they need their own division: Bo Diddley (Elias McDaniel), Muddy Waters (McKinley Morganfield), Howlin' Wolf (Chester Burnett)....
Muddy Waters rates 1.3 Ringos.
ReplyDeleteWhat's the ruling on going from "Arnold George Dorsey" to "Englebert Humperdinck" - especially since he likely stole that name from a German composer?
ReplyDeleteI'll also submit "Mark Griffin" to "MC 900 Ft. Jesus"
900 Ringos for MC 900 Ft. Jesus (alternatively, one 900 Ft. Ringo).
ReplyDeleteBob Dylan: 1.4 Ringos
ReplyDeleteBootsy Collins: 1.3 Ringos
Catfish Collins: 1.8 Ringos
The ones that pop into my mind are Bob Dylan and David Bowie (who had a perfectly serviceable name, it was just already taken). When was the switch flipped that made it suddenly okay to rock out with ethnic sounding names? (looking your way Springsteen/Weinberg/Van Zant/Federici).
ReplyDeleteDunno - but the switch must've flipped back, at least partially, before one "John Francis Bongiovi, Jr." made his debut as Jon Bon Jovi.
ReplyDeleteI think Buck Dharma (nee Donald Roeser) of Blue Oyster Cult is above 1 Ringo, but we need some scaling and some identified markers. Is this a log scale, ala the Richter scale, or linear?
ReplyDeleteI imagine that only Billy Idol's parents call him William. Likewise Declan's mom.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy "Richard Hell." the first and last names do not obviously go together.
ReplyDeleteSting is way better than Gordon Sumner which sounds like the name of someone who would do your taxes.
ReplyDeleteYeah, Richard Hell is great. John Doe is great, Joe Strummer is great, David Bowie is acceptable, Nikki Sixx is awful, The Edge is awful, Bono is slightly less awful but awful still, Sting and Snoop Dogg were stupid at first but you get used to them, Biggie Smalls is kind of genius, Johnny Cougar and Eddie Money are embarrassing, Eminem is perfect, King Diamond and Cee-Lo are calibrated exactly to what their users are, MCA, Ad-Rock, and Mike D. are the correct order, and in the running for worst of all time are Puff Daddy, P. Diddy, and Diddy Dirty Money.
ReplyDeleteI should have said: Puffy was okay.
ReplyDeleteThere's some variance or exemption for the whole constellation of ODB monikers, right? Like, can we grade the positive and ignore the negative?
ReplyDeleteOsiris Siris is 0.1 Ringos; Big Baby Jesus 0.11 Ringos; Dirt McGirt 0.3 Ringos; Ol' Dirty Bastard itself is 0.7 Ringos.
ReplyDeleteLeadbelly (Huddie Ledbetter)
ReplyDeleteGoing to have to ask you to disclose your work papers and operating assumptions, Adam. Have you properly corrected for satirical intent?
ReplyDeleteIn other words, you want BBJ to be higher.<span> </span>
ReplyDeleteSimilar ground covered here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.rankopedia.com/Best-Musician-Pseudonym-/-Stage-Name/Step1/9915/.htm
Reminded me that Marvin Aday became MeatLoaf.
I can definitively say that Elvis Costello uses his own name in some situations. I worked for a while at a London supplier of music equipment, and answered a call where he said, "This is Declan McManus."
ReplyDeleteThe kiddo wants to submit Tre Cool, the drummer from Green Day, nee Frank Edwin Wright III, for 1.2 Ringos.
ReplyDeleteI'd put ODB higher, but maybe that's just because of ODB.
ReplyDeleteThat's Mr. Loaf, to the New York Times. Although he has switched, more or less, to the hybrid "Meat Loaf Aday" for his acting credits. Something about Meat Loaf Aday that makes me hungry....
ReplyDeleteAhh, but to my grandmother, it was always "Bruce Silverstein."
ReplyDeleteTrivia I just learned via Wikipedia's Jon Bon Jovi entry: Professor Roy Bittan played keyboards on the original recording of "Runaway" that got JBJ onto New York radio.
Alice Cooper?
ReplyDeleteThat was a direct copy and paste from Wikipedia, in case the links didn't tell you that already.
ReplyDeleteFITB! A Meat Loaf Aday keeps ___________.
ReplyDeleteLittle Richard aka Richard Pettyman.
ReplyDelete... good taste away?
ReplyDeleteDo you all think that Lady Gaga is Stefani Germanotta's real name?
ReplyDelete