Pseudonyms Used By '60s - '70s Bands And Artists Quiz

Answer: Queen

Queen is the answer. In 1972, Robin Cable from Trident Studios took on a musical project. Freddie Mercury was recruited as lead singer and shortly afterwards Brian May and Roger Taylor of Queen fame were also brought on the project. The 45 that they released was credited to Larry Lurex. It was some kind of pun on glam rock musician Gary Glitter's stage name and a type of yarn with a metallic appearance called lurex.
Roger Cable was toying around with the idea of recreating Phil Spector's "Wall Of Sound" music style so he got the guys together and recorded two songs for the 45 RPM. One side was "I Can Hear Music", which Phil Spector had a hand in writing and had been a hit for Spector's Ronettes as well as the Beach Boys. The other side contained the song "Goin' Back" which was written by Carole King and Gerry Goffin. It had been a hit for Dusty Springfield and the Byrds. The 45 was a bomb in the UK but actually managed to hit number 115 on the US Bubbling Under The Hot 100 chart.
An illegitimate bootleg of the 45 was made. It is known as the Joe Perfect demo 45 and cannot be mistaken for the original. It's an obvious fake and not meant to deceive.
Before a record is made the first step is an acetate. It's a round metal plate with vinyl on it and it's made for only a few plays and to see how the record will sound. There is one acetate of the "I Can Hear Music" 45 that was made, on which the music was credited to Larry Lurex & The Voles From Venus. It was later shortened to just Larry Lurex.

Answer: Paul and Linda McCartney

The core of The Country Hams was Paul and Linda McCartney. Other members were Denny Laine, Jimmy McCulloch, and Geoff Britton. Chet Atkins and Floyd Cramer were guests on one track as well. Original copies of The Country Hams' 45 were issued in a picture sleeve in 1974.

It was reissued in 1982 with a picture sleeve and a different colored label which was cream in color. It was also reissued as a 45 RPM picture disc. The A side of the 45, "Walking in the Park with Eloise", was written by Paul McCartney's father in the 1920s.

It was a jazzy ragtime tune. The B side, "The River Suite", was a Paul and Linda song.

Answer: Thin Lizzy

Thin Lizzy recorded the LP "Funky Junction Play a Tribute to Deep Purple." It was released in the U.S. on the Stereo Gold Award label in 1973. No mention of Thin Lizzy was made anywhere on the LP cover or label. The picture on the front cover was of a band named "Hard Stuff." Both Hard Stuff LPs were released on Purple Records which was Deep Purple's own label.
Phil Lynott from Thin Lizzy decided his voice was not conducive to sounding like Ian Gillan, the lead vocalist for Deep Purple, so he stuck to singing background vocals on the LP. Benny White was brought in to sing lead vocals instead. He was with a band named Elmer Fudd. Dave "Mojo" Lennox from Elmer Fudd was also brought in. He played keyboards since Thin Lizzy did not have a keyboard player.
This basically "thrown together" band practiced together for a few hours and then recorded the entire LP in a day. They recorded nine songs for the LP with five of them being Deep Purple cover songs. Thin Lizzy members were paid a grand total of 1,000 GBP to be split among them. White and Lennox from Elmer Fudd were paid 60 GBP each to go to De Lane Lea Studios in London, England to record the LP. Thin Lizzy, Elmer Fudd, and Funky Junction were all Irish bands.

Answer: Led Zeppelin

The answer is Led Zeppelin. On February 28, 1970 Led Zeppelin encountered a problem the day they were to play a concert in Copenhagen. Countess Frau Eva Von Zeppelin didn't like the fact that the band was making money off of her family name. She also thought that Led Zeppelin was dishonoring the name and that their use of it was insulting.
A year before this concert, Led Zeppelin had already angered her because they had appeared on a Danish TV show to tape a performance. She told Led Zeppelin they sounded like "shrieking monkeys." The band wasn't angry with the countess and even invited her to have tea with them after they taped their performance. Everything was great until the countess saw the cover of their first LP. On the front cover was a zeppelin that had burst into flames.
Since Led Zeppelin were threatened with a lawsuit from the countess, they changed their name to "The Nobs" for that night's concert in Copenhagen. The name was decided on by guitarist Jimmy Page and the band's manager Peter Grant. Led Zeppelin's European promoter was named Claude Nobs so the name they chose was a little pun on his name.
According to one source on the website feelnumb - Useful Useless Info, on the day of their Copenhagen concert Led Zeppelin had offered the countess free drugs and an "all areas" backstage pass to soften her up regarding her threat of a lawsuit. Their offer didn't work.

Answer: Procol Harum

In 1970 former and present members of Procol Harum recorded one LP under the pseudonym of Liquorice John Death and the Rock & Roll Allstars. Members included Gary Brooker, BJ Wilson, Chris Copping and Robin Trower. Jack Lancaster who was a former member of Procol Harum joined them as sax player. At the time he was with a band named Bloodwyn Pig.
One night in the winter of 1970 these five guys got together as Liquorice John Death and the Rock & Roll Allstars. They went to Abbey Road Studios and recorded over 30 songs in a period of twelve hours. The master tapes wound up locked away for six years. A London DJ named Roger Scott who worked for the London radio station, Capital, got hold of a tape. He gave the cassette to Nicky Horne who was a colleague of his. Nicky had a program called "Your Mother Wouldn't Like It." During the program on a Monday night he played the tape. That tipped off people to its existence.
The recording was not released until 1997 because the cassette that Horne had was lost, as was the 15 inch master tape. The cassette copy turned back up in the 1990s in a box of tapes returned to the band by EMI-Chrysalis. From the research I did it seems that only 13 songs were released. I heard a few of the songs on the Youtube website. The CD contains original as well as cover songs. There are oldies like "Poison Ivy" and "Kansas City." There is a cover of Bob Dylan's "Just Like A Woman" as well.

Answer: Lucifer's Friend

After much research and the fact that Lucifer's Friend members released several other LPs under various pseudonyms, the conclusion is that the band was Lucifer's Friend without their vocalist John Lawton.
The LP was released in the UK on the Europa label in 1968 and the sound was psychedelic with some good guitar and organ. There are still a few folks out there that won't let go of the fact that these guys are Deep Purple. They're not.
Lucifer's Friend was known for putting out LPs under names such as "Brother T & Family", "Electric Food", "Asterix", "Pink Mice", "Fantastic Pikes", "The Children Of Quechea", et al. All of these bands were without lead singer John Lawton. I have listened to songs by Hell Preachers Inc. on the Youtube website. Original vinyl is still available and not difficult to find.

Answer: The Rolling Stones

It's the Rolling Stones, and "The Glimmer Twins" refers to, of course, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Here is how Bill Wyman, in his 2002 book "Rolling With The Stones", says Nanker Phelge came about: "When the Stones cut "Stoned" - or "Stones", according to early misprinted pressings - as the B-side to "I Wanna Be Your Man", Brian Jones suggested crediting it to Nanker/Phelge.

The entire band would share writing royalties. Phelge came from Edith Grove flatmate Jimmy Phelge, while a Nanker was a revolting face that band members, Brian in particular, would make." Anything credited to Nanker Phelge refers to a collaboration between Mick Jagger, Brian Jones, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, and Bill Wyman. The Glimmer Twins came about while Jagger and Richards were on a cruise with their girlfriends at the end of December 1968 and the beginning of January 1969. An older couple also on the cruise knew that Jagger and Richards were famous but had no idea who they were.

The guys refused to tell them, too.

The woman kept asking them to "just give us a glimmer." Jagger and Richards got a real kick out of it.

Answer: Paul McCartney

"Thrillington" by Percy "Thrills" Thrillington was released in April of 1977 by Paul McCartney. Linda McCartney had some involvement as well. The LP was recorded in 1971 but was put on the back burner because Paul and Linda decided to form their band Wings first.
The identity of Percy "Thrills" Thrillington was kept under wraps until November of 1989 when a reporter asked Paul at an L.A. press conference what involvement he had with the LP. Here's what Paul told him: "What a great question to end the conference. The world needs to know! But seriously it was me and Linda-and we kept it a secret for a long time but now the world knows!- you blew it!" That's when the price for a copy of the LP went high.
"Thrillington" is an instrumental cover version of Paul and Linda's "Ram" LP. "Ram" was originally released in 1971. While Paul released the "Thrillington" LP, he did not play on it, he just produced it. Here are the credits: Richard Hewson: Conductor, Vic Flick: Guitars, Herbie Flowers: Bass guitar, Steve Grey: Piano, Clem Cattini: Drums, Jim Lawless: Percussion, Chris Karan: Guica, The Mike Sammes Singers: Backing vocals.
The Swingle Singers did not provide backing vocals although it was widely reported that they did. The liner notes on the back cover of "Thrillington" were credited to Clint Harrigan which was only a pseudonym for McCartney himself.

Answer: George Harrison

It was George Harrison who used the pseudonym of "L'Angelo Misterioso." He used the same pseudonym on the "Songs For A Tailor" LP by Jack Bruce. George only played on one song though, titled "Never Tell Your Mother She's Out Of Tune."
Various other pseudonyms were used by George. He was "Son Of Harry" on the song "If You've Got Love" which was on Dave Mason's album "It's Like You Never Left." He was "Hari Georgeson" on the Ravi Shankar album "Shankar Family And Friends", on several songs by the band "Splinter", and on one Billy Preston song.
George was also "Jai Raj Harisein" on several songs by Splinter on their "The Place I Love" LP and on the Billy Preston LP "I Wrote A Simple Song" which he played lead guitar on.
When the Silver Beatles first toured Scotland as a backup band for Johnny Gentle in 1960, George used the pseudonym "Carl Harrison" in honor of his idol Carl Perkins.

Answer: Bob Dylan

This question is a little different in that "The Jester" is not a name that Bob Dylan gave to himself which is actually the definition of a pseudonym. Don McLean will not confirm who The Jester may be either. Music lovers are well aware of the fact that he is referring to Bob Dylan and I'll tell you how that conclusion was arrived at. One line in "American Pie" is "Moss grows fat on a rolling stone." It's not much to start out with but "Rolling stone" may refer to a Dylan song titled "Like A Rolling Stone." That may steer us towards The Jester being Dylan.

The lyrics "the jester on the sidelines in a cast" may refer to Bob Dylan getting hurt in a motorcycle accident on July 29, 1966 and being laid up for nine months. Then we have "in a coat he borrowed from James Dean." The cover of the Bob Dylan LP titled "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan" from 1963 shows Dylan in a jacket and pose resembling a James Dean look.

In "Rebel Without a Cause" Dean wore a similar red windbreaker. Around 1972 an introduction from a Casey Kasem's American Top 40 said that a few days ago Casey had called Don McLean and although he was reluctant, McLean gave the meaning of many lyrics to Casey who passed those meanings on to the public.

In a letter to someone named Cecil, Don McLean stated the he never spoke to Kasem and never discussed the lyrics with anyone. He did admit that in the opening stanzas he was speaking of Buddy Holly. I read this letter at the following website: http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/908/what-is-don-mcleans-song-american-pie-all-about. McLean closed his letter to Cecil with the following statement: "Sorry to leave you all on your own like this but long ago I realized that songwriters should make their statements and move on, maintaining a dignified silence."