Stage Names

Many a performer has changed his or her name to benefit their careers. A pseudonym is a fictitious name used by a person, or less often, a group.

Pseudonyms are also known as pen names (for writers), graffiti artists' tags, noms de guerre, (resistance fighters or terrorists) and stage names, for actors, musicians and other performers.

Stage names often were used to mask a person's ethnic backgrounds to avoid prejudices or to differentiate them from other performers with the same or similar names.



Bob Dylan's real is Robert Zimmerman. Around 1960, Zimmerman began introducing himself as "Bob Dylan". In his autobiography, Bob Dylan acknowledged that he had been influenced by the poetry of Dylan Thomas.

Explaining his change of name in a 2004 CBS interview, Dylan said, "You're born, you know, the wrong names, wrong parents. I mean, that happens. You call yourself what you want to call yourself. This is the land of the free."




David Bowie was born David Jones. He changed his name to avoid confusion with David (Davy) Jones of The Monkees. It's hard to believe that anyone would ever have confused Bowie and DavyJones, but...

Bowie's debut single, "Liza Jane", was credited to Davie Jones and the King Bees, but had no commercial success. After several bands and singles, he decided to use the name David Bowie after the soldier Jim Bowie and the knife he popularized, and that was the name of his first album.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_bowie

     


Though David Bowie has always had a rather androgynous personae as a performer, Wendy Carlos, the American composer and electronic musician, was born as Walter Carlos. Carlos first came to notice in the late 1960s with recordings made on the Moog synthesizer, including the soundtrack for Stanley Kubrick's film A Clockwork Orange.

Carlos underwent sex reassignment surgery in 1972 and was first credited as "Wendy" on Switched-On Brandenburgs in 1979. On her official site, her transition is discussed and she clearly values her privacy on the subject.
    


Not all pseudonyms have complicated origins. Eminem took the initials of his real name, Marshall Mathers, and rewrote it phonetically.

The Dixie Chicks

  

Accoding to Wikipedia (via a Rolling Stone article), the band name came from the song "Dixie Chicken" by Lowell George of Little Feat. However, more recently, I have read that the name was inspired by the fictional City of Thieves. That novel was written by David Benioff - who is actress Amanda Peet's husband.

The Dixie Chicks is a country music group, currently comprising Martie Maguire, Emily Robison and lead singer Natalie Maines. The group had sold 30.5 million albums in the United States through August 2009.

During a London concert ten days before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, lead vocalist Maines said, "we don't want this war, this violence, and we're ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas" (the Dixie Chicks' home state). The statement offended some people, who thought it rude and unpatriotic, and the ensuing controversy cost the group half of their concert audience attendance in the United States and led to accusations of the three women being "un-American", as well as hate mail, a death threat, and the public destruction of their albums in protest.

As of 2009, they have won 13 Grammy Awards, with 5 of them earned in 2007 including the coveted Grammy Award for Album of the Year for Taking The Long Way.


Playlist: The Very Best of Dixie Chicks
Home
Fly
Top of the World Tour
Collector's Box
Court Yard Hounds ( a spinoff project by sister Martie and Emily)



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dixie_chicks

The Doors

The Doors were an American rock band formed in 1965 in Los Angeles, California. Through most of its existence, the group consisted of vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, drummer John Densmore, and guitarist Robby Krieger.

They were among the most controversial rock acts of the 1960s, due mostly to Morrison's wild, poetic lyrics and charismatic but unpredictable stage persona. After Morrison's death in 1971, the remaining members continued as a trio until finally disbanding for good in 1973.

   

Jim Morrison was an avid poet and was struck when he read the poetry of William Blake by the lines "if the doors of perception are cleansed, everything would appear to man as it truly is, infinite."

He was also influenced by author Aldous Huxley who referred to the same Blake line when he titled his book on drug experimentation The Doors of Perception. Huxley wrote, "There are things known and things unknown and in between are the doors"

     

The band's second single, "Light My Fire", became the first single from Elektra Records to reach number one on the Billboard singles chart, selling over a million copies.

Although The Doors' active career ended in 1973, their popularity continues and they have sold over 32.5 million albums in the U.S. and over 75 million albums worldwide. Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger still tour sometimes with additional musicians as Manzarek-Krieger, performing Doors songs.


Perception (6CD/6DVD, Boxset)
The Doors
Strange Days
Waiting for the Sun
The Soft Parade
Morrison Hotel
The Future Starts Here: The Essential Doors Hits
When You're Strange (Songs From The Motion Picture)
The Very Best of the Doors
Live in New York
In Concert
Live in Pittsburgh 1970 



The Official Doors web site is at http://www.thedoors.com