The Reason Why Gorillaz Named Two Songs After Famous Actors

Credit: HekeruiMusic » From The Vault The reason why Gorillaz named two songs after famous actors Joe Taysom@josephtaysom Wed 31 August 2022 22:00, UK Follow us on Google Discover

Song titles are important to Gorillaz frontman Damon Albarn, who carefully considers every aspect of the band’s aesthetic. There’s usually a meaning behind everything they create, and understandably, fans were intrigued when the band named songs after Clint Eastwood and Bill Murray.

Albarn didn’t invent the concept of naming songs after individuals in the public eye, but he has become the master of it. Surprisingly, ‘Clint Eastwood’ and ‘Bill Murray’ are not actually aligned, despite the titles suggesting they are part of the same series. 

‘Clint Eastwood’ was the first song Gorillaz released in their career back in 2001, and it was met with palpable excitement. The idea of a virtual band caught everybody’s attention, and their debut track was the perfect way to start.

Nowhere in the track is Eastwood mentioned, but Albarn felt it would make for a befitting score for one of his films. The former Blur frontman is a huge fan of Ennio Morricone, who produced the score for Eastwood’s A Fistful of Dollars, and the title was a nod to its influence.

Furthermore, Albarn was recording the album in Jamaica, and while he was out there, the musician initiated himself within the local culture. The reggae scene fascinated him, and coincidentally, there was a musician who released music under the alias of Clint Eastwood.

Albarn explained during a Reddit ‘Ask Me Anything’: “We were recording in Jamaica and listening to a lot of dancehall music and we imagined a cool moniker to have would be Clint Eastwood. Also I’m a great fan of the actor and of Sergio Leone and Ennio Morricone”.

Six years later, Gorillaz released the B-side, ‘Bill Murray’, another ode to an acting legend. However, the decision to title the song was less inspired than ‘Clint Eastwood’, and Albarn’s collaborator Jamie Hewlett suggested calling it ‘Bill Murray’ rather than the musician.

While speaking about his favourite Gorillaz songs, Hewlett commented: “Let’s see… there are so many good ones… well, ‘Hong Kong’, definitely. A really beautiful song. [thinks] ‘Slow Country’, off the first record. ‘Bill Murray’ as well. Actually I named that song. Damon rang me up about something when he was recording that and it had another title originally. I was just reading a magazine with Bill Murray in at the time and just suggested that as a title off the top of my head. Nothing to do with the song!”

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