Burroughs birthed the term ‘heavy metal’

Posted on 15th April 2013

Ever wondered where bands find the inspiration for their names? I stumbled across a site which detailed the origin of band names and found these:

’90’s band Gin Blossoms name derived from late 1800’s “slang for the burst capillaries on the face from drinking for many years (WC Fields nose) – gin was a popular drink of the downtrodden back then.”

AND.. “William Burroughs published the book Soft Machine in 1961. One of the book’s characters is “Uranian Willy, the Heavy Metal kid”.

“With their diseases and orgasm drugs and their sexless parasite life forms – Heavy Metal People of Uranus wrapped in cool blue mist of vaporized bank notes – And The Insect People of Minraud with metal music – Cold insect brains like white hot buzz saws sharpened in the Ovens.”

.. No one knows exactly what was going through the brilliant and drug addled brain of Burroughs back then, but apparently Soft Machine has the earliest reference to the term ‘heavy metal'”

from Heathenworld

Posted in Music