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Queen fact of the day
Queen guitarist and songwriter Brian May, who gave up studying the stars to become one, will soon complete his doctorate in astrophysics.
May, 60, will submit a thesis titled Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud next week at Imperial College London.
Here is the story. Thanks to Daniel Klein for the pointer. It's long been my view that most rock stars are very very smart people.
Addendum: Read Dubner on smart rock stars.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on July 26, 2007 at 01:51 PM in Music | Permalink
Comments
Except drummers. Smart rock stars like Jagger, Townshend, and Bowie can go on and on telling stories about drummers they've known.
Posted by: Steve Sailer at Jul 26, 2007 2:39:32 PM
By the way, "musical rhythm" is the one cognitive skill that has so far been discovered that has zero correlation with g, the general factor of intelligence. (See Arthur Jensen's 1998 summa "The g Factor.")
Posted by: Steve Sailer at Jul 26, 2007 2:41:21 PM
Yeah, rock stars have found a way to have boatloads of money and attractive women. They certainly would not be the first people I thought of when asked to name idiots.
Posted by: Yancey Ward at Jul 26, 2007 2:51:40 PM
Ancient joke: a jazz band - six musicians and a drummer.
Posted by: dearieme at Jul 26, 2007 2:52:42 PM
Who is the picture of in the link "very very smart people"?
Posted by: joe at Jul 26, 2007 3:17:34 PM
Joe,
Roger McGuinn.
Posted by: Yancey Ward at Jul 26, 2007 3:41:13 PM
Not to disparage May, who is one of my all-time favorite guitarists, but since when does getting a doctorate (even one in astrophysics) indicate high intelligence?
Posted by: Bergamot at Jul 26, 2007 4:27:59 PM
I suppose he did write the only folk song about relativistic time dilation that I can think of, though...
Posted by: Bergamot at Jul 26, 2007 4:30:52 PM
Bergamot, what a pompous comment! Acknowledge May and get over it!
Posted by: at Jul 26, 2007 6:13:51 PM
Gratuity for teachers now legal in India. This can create all sorts of problems.
"Nod for gratuity for teachers
P. Sunderarajan
NEW DELHI: Teachers will now be eligible to get gratuity. The Union Cabinet on Thursday gave its approval to include them under the Payment of Gratuity Act.
Announcing this, Union Minister and Cabinet spokesperson, Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi, said the Centre would introduce a Bill in the coming monsoon session of Parliament for this purpose. The Bill would seek to amend Section 2 (e) of the Act, which defines an employee under it. "
Article can be accessed at: http://www.hindu.com/2007/07/27/stories/2007072753251700.htm
Posted by: AY at Jul 26, 2007 7:14:06 PM
Dexter Holland of "The Offspring" was on his way to a PhD in molecular biology at USC when his band really began to take off.
He's the guy that twirled his head around with the long braids in their first big hit "You gotta keep 'em separated." Or something like that.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dexter_Holland
This is a nice place. Punk rock stars and Arthur Jensen all in the same thread.
Posted by: Ray G at Jul 27, 2007 1:46:41 AM
Would be great to see Brian get a teaching position. Could end his lectures with the guitar solo from "Brighton Rock."
Posted by: Daniel Klein at Jul 27, 2007 4:04:26 AM
Tyler: Apparantly you consider Roger McQuinn very smart. Why is that?
Posted by: jmws at Jul 27, 2007 6:44:39 AM
1) Name one wealthy musician who's dumb.
2) What makes you so sure he's dumb, since he managed to accumulate a lot more than you?
Posted by: Person at Jul 27, 2007 11:15:32 AM
Person perhaps the exception that proves the rule, but Jessica Simpson is by no means bright (her father is probably not too dumb though).
Posted by: nelsonal at Jul 27, 2007 11:28:21 AM
1) Vince Neil
2) Not sure, but extensive media coverage suggests he's usually not the smartest guy in the room, even at his own concerts.
_____
1) Kurt Cobain, Jim Morrison, etc.
2) If they were so smart, why aren't they around today enjoying their wealth?
Posted by: Thelonious_Nick at Jul 27, 2007 11:52:06 AM
I've met and talked to Brian May quite a bit, shortly after the height of Queen's popularity (see below). He always seemed unusually bright to me.
FWIW #1: When I lived in London in the early 80s, I had a friend who was into stereoscopic photography. You just didn't go down to the corner and buy that equipment at the time (although I'm sure you can get it on E-Bay today). Instead, there was a club. My friend was a member (and I used to tag along) and so was Brian May.
FWIW #2: Tyler may be the only one out there to appreciate this: I have a stereoscopic photo print of me inside of Samaras' "Mirrored Room", and it is one of the freakiest photos you will ever see (http://www.albrightknox.org/ArtStart/art/Samaras.jpg).
Posted by: Dave Tufte at Jul 27, 2007 12:15:26 PM
Some rock stars tend to have a combination of brilliance and very short attention horizons that make them disastrous decisionmakers. Joe Strummer of The Clash was a classic example, as the new biography of him attests. Kurt Cobain of Nirvana was very quick but had no powers of logic.
Of course, taking lots of drugs doesn't help.
Posted by: Steve Sailer at Jul 27, 2007 2:25:47 PM
Some rock stars tend to have a combination of brilliance and very short attention horizons that make them disastrous decisionmakers. Joe Strummer of The Clash was a classic example, as the new biography of him attests. Kurt Cobain of Nirvana was very quick but had no powers of logic.
Of course, taking lots of drugs doesn't help.
Posted by: Steve Sailer at Jul 27, 2007 2:26:08 PM
Congratulations to May for getting a PhD, but his guitar playing still sucks ass.
Posted by: engels at Jul 30, 2007 8:22:33 AM
