❓ 𝗪𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗗𝗢𝗘𝗦 𝗣𝗟𝗔𝗖𝗘𝗕𝗢 𝗠𝗘𝗔𝗡 ❓

Today let's have a closer look at the bandname. 𝙋𝙡𝙖𝙘𝙚𝙗𝙤 𝙞𝙨 𝙇𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙣 for “I will please” or “I shall please”, and so it's a name that surely fits in the eyes of all Placebo lovers.
But Placebo was also used as a name for 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙑𝙚𝙨𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙊𝙛𝙛𝙞𝙘𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝘿𝙚𝙖𝙙 (a prayer cycle), taken from a phrase used in it, a quote from the Vulgate's Psalm 116:9.

Photo credit unknown

The word Placebo is 𝙪𝙨𝙚𝙙 𝙞𝙣 𝙖 𝙢𝙚𝙙𝙞𝙘𝙞𝙣𝙖𝙡 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙭𝙩 too, as we all know. In the past it meant any medicine “adapted more to please than to benefit the patient". Although this definition contained a derogatory implication it did not necessarily imply that the remedy had no effect. French barber surgeon Ambroise Paré used to express it like this: A Placebo has the duty to "cure occasionally, relieve often, console always".

Nowadays 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙤-𝙘𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙚𝙙 𝙋𝙡𝙖𝙘𝙚𝙗𝙤 𝙚𝙛𝙛𝙚𝙘𝙩 is defined in the dictionary as “a beneficial effect produced by a placebo drug or treatment, which cannot be attributed to the properties of the placebo itself, and must therefore be due to the patient's belief in that treatment.” Or, as Brian once incorrectly desrcibed it: “𝘼 𝙙𝙧𝙪𝙜 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙙𝙤𝙚𝙨𝙣'𝙩 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙠”. In fact a Placebo is something that works although it doesn't contain a drug or potent substance.

Photo credit: Tim Roney

📌 𝗕𝗥𝗜𝗔𝗡 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗦𝗧𝗘𝗙𝗔𝗡 𝗢𝗡 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗕𝗔𝗡𝗗𝗡𝗔𝗠𝗘 📌

📢 𝘽𝙧𝙞𝙖𝙣: "It's ironic how we came up with the name Placebo. When we formed in the mid-1990s, there were so many bands calling themselves after drugs, like Codeine. And Placebo sounded good. Then we imagined about 40,000 people screaming our name out loud, and I actually thought it was kind of funny, because we'd sort of gone against the grain by naming the band after a drug that doesn't work! What was really important to us, though, was that Placebo was a bandname people could shout in unison. It was satirical, and it would stick. Contrast our name with The Butthole Surfers, one of my favourite bands - that one's not so easy to chant."
(Belfast Telegraph, February 19th 2015)

📢 𝘽𝙧𝙞𝙖𝙣: “There's kind of a deceptive quality to the name as well which we kind of like, you know. There's a certain trickery involved isn't there which is fun and it's a good reflection of what we're like really. “
📢 𝙎𝙩𝙚𝙛𝙖𝙣: “We settled on Placebo because we thought that it sounded... if you imagine 40,000 people screaming in unison, that it sounded really good, you know. Pla-ce-bo, you know, it's kind of easy to get your mouth around.“
(In conversation with Sally Stratton, August 1998)

Photo credit: Radio XFM London

🔶🔸 𝙎𝙊𝙈𝙀𝙏𝙄𝙈𝙀𝙎 𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝘿𝙍𝙐𝙂𝙎 𝘿𝙊 𝙒𝙊𝙍𝙆... 🔸🔶

Other bands who' have chosen drug-inspired names include:

🔹 𝘎𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘋𝘢𝘺
Billie Joe Armstrong penned a song called 'Green Day' about his first experience with marijuana. It soon replaced Sweet Children as the Californian band's name.

🔹 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘤 𝘔𝘶𝘴𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘮𝘴
Allen Ginsberg gave this name to his five students at the University of Pennsylvania in the 1960s. When the band’s name was decoded by the brass at A&M Records, the single “It’s A-Happening” was pulled from stores.

🔹 𝘔𝘰𝘵𝘰̈𝘳𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥
The legendary Lemmy Kilmister led rock band's name is a slang term for "speed freak", a person addicted to amphetamines. Motörhead was founded after Lemmy was fired from Hawkwind for doing what he says were “the wrong drugs“.

🔹 𝘊𝘰𝘥𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘦
The band from New York pioneered the slowcore and sadcore subgenres of indie rock. The name comes from an opiate that is mostly used to treat pain and coughing.

🔹 𝘋𝘦𝘹𝘺'𝘴 𝘔𝘪𝘥𝘯𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘙𝘶𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘴
The Birmingham-based 'Come on Eileen' rockers led by Kevin Rowland derived their name from dexedrine, a popular recreational drug among Northern Soul fans.

🔹 𝘔𝘰𝘳𝘱𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘦
Morphine was an American alternative rock group that combined blues and jazz elements with traditional rock arrangements. According to founder Mark Sandman the band puts the listener in a dark yet comfortable state of mind like the pain medication of the opiate family does.

🔹 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘳𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘭 𝘔𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘥
Band member Ken Jordan admitted in an interview that they came up with the joke in the early 1990s before they knew exactly how bad the drug Chrystal Meth was.

🔹 𝘙𝘪𝘤𝘩 𝘒𝘪𝘥𝘴 𝘖𝘯 𝘓𝘚𝘋
The name came from a criticism of their look, though they later gained a reputation as serious users, and the band’s story ends pretty tragically, with the deaths of several members due to drug-related complications.

🔹 𝘓𝘦𝘧𝘵𝘰̈𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘊𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘬
According the frontman Scott Sturgeon it is a reference to the fact that crack-cocaine is highly addictive, and there is not likely to be much of it left over after use.

🔹 𝘚𝘱𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘣𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘉𝘢𝘣𝘺
A speedball is a mixture of heroin and cocaine, and Speedball Baby is mixture of blues and punk; hard and fast, but others than the drug it's “less likely to put you in the emergency room”.

Photo credit: JB Mondino

Post by Silke