For those of you not in the know, an "Easter Egg" is a hidden message, usually put in a computer program by a programmer who doesn't want to tell you it's there, but wouldn't mind if you got it.
Over the years, I've discovered a few odd little hidden ideas in music and I want to share them with you. I have no evidence that I didn't just make these up, but I think they're pretty compelling, and anyway, they're fun.
Where Did XTC come up with its name?
XTC is a British New Wave band that formed in 1977, popular in the late 70's and early 80's with hits like "Dear God" and "Senses Working Overtime." They haven't toured for years, but they've maintained a cult following, and their albums are quite good.
XTC is also the nickname of an empathogenic drug first synthesized in 1912 and known as MDMA. The band members have reportedly claimed that they came up with the name of their band before the drug assumed the XTC monicker. In any event, XTC obviously resembles the word "Ecstasy," and that's a desirable thing for a band to instill, so what's the mystery?
The members of the first band were Andy Partridge, Colin Moulding and Terry Chambers. Have you noticed that there is a T and a C in XTC which might stand for "Terry" and "Colin?" What about the X? Well, an X isn't really that far off from an "A." Just remove the horizontal line and extend the diagonals. An eccentric like Andy Partridge very likely might have written his initial like this for fun. Coincidence?
How was "In the Middle of the Road" written?
This probably isn't a question that anybody ever asked Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders after she released it on the Pretender's album Learning to Crawl. The song discusses the difference between the way the world looks when you're young and the way you see it when you're a good bit older. The band had been together 5 years and Hynde was obviously noticing her life as an "older" rock star "I'm not the gal I used to be. I got a kid, I'm 33."
The opening riff is extremely catchy: Three chords, A-major, G-major and E-major, played in quick succession, and repeated four times. How do you suppose she came up with that riff?
I have this vision of Hynde thinking about getting older and then noticing that the word "age" uses three letters from the musical alphabet. I imagine her playing those three chords in a row: a - g - e. Voila, an amazing hook was born. Did the words follow the hook, or did she summon the hook to fit the words she'd written? You'll have to ask Chrissie.
Where did Sting get his name?
No, you can't call him Gordon. Gordon Sumner, founding member of the British band The Police, no longer goes by that name, nor will he answer to it, not even for his mom. He's "Sting" now, and "Sting" he will remain.
There's a time-honored explanation for where the name came from. As cited in the sometimes reliable Wikipedia, he had performed onstage in the mid 1970's with the Phoenix Jazzmen wearing a black-and-yellow hoop-striped sweater. This apparently prompted someone, and then everyone, to call him "Sting."
What a boring story. I'm not buying it. You want to know why? Gordon, like Mozart, has many names. His full name is Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner. Wow, that's a lot of names. It'd be easier just to use the initials, wouldn't it? GMTS. Oh, hey, let's spell that backwards. STMG. Hmmm...you could probably break that "M" into an "IN" and it would look pretty similar, wouldn't it? Say! Doesn't that spell...
Whaddaya think?
If my explanations seem contrived to you, don't lose any sleep over it. I'm personally convinced I'm right because I've put Easter Eggs like this in my own work, and I believe some folks just think this way. I just want the credit for discovering them if Partridge, Hynde and Stmg...err...Sting...ever decide to come clean. Remember, you heard it here first.
Got one of your own? Post it in my "Comments!"
Love,
Adam