Brainy Musicians

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Brian May aside - and I don't think he actually finished it - can anybody name any other musicians with PhDs?

― Fume Avanti, Thursday, 19 February 2004 14:02 (twenty-two years ago)

Mira Aroyo from Ladytron has a PhD from Oxford in genetics. She did explain to me once what it involved her doing but I was too thick to understand her properly.

― Kate Jane Connolly (fixitgirl), Thursday, 19 February 2004 14:06 (twenty-two years ago)

with actual PhD's? Hmmmm...Todd Rundgren, maybe? Fripp?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 19 February 2004 14:11 (twenty-two years ago)

Most of Talulah Gosh, I seem to remember.

― Jez (Jez), Thursday, 19 February 2004 14:14 (twenty-two years ago)

Hey - Brian 'The Brain' Eno, does His Enormity actually have a, waddyacallit, "degree"?

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Thursday, 19 February 2004 14:14 (twenty-two years ago)

Actually, doesn't that guy in the Offspring -- Dexter Somebody -- have an oft-cited PhD in engineering or something?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 19 February 2004 14:15 (twenty-two years ago)

Don't know his formal edumacation, but Warren Zevon was pretty darn smart (for all the dumb things he did). I also wonder about Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, what with his moonlighting as a defense department consultant. And Robert from the Apples in Stereo is working toward his PhD in math. I imagine any number of indie-rock acts have members with advanced degrees. And wassisname from Bad Religion.

Plus, don't forget Dr. Alex Patterson!

― Josh in Chicago (Josh in Chicago), Thursday, 19 February 2004 14:18 (twenty-two years ago)

Eric Sermon has a PhD in Funkology

― BrianB (BrianB), Thursday, 19 February 2004 14:20 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm not sure the likes of Zappa and Beefheart even graduated from high school - so much for formal education.

― Dadaismus (Dada), Thursday, 19 February 2004 14:21 (twenty-two years ago)

Dr. Fink from Prince's band, obviously, with a dual PhD in Funkology and Medicine.

― Josh in Chicago (Josh in Chicago), Thursday, 19 February 2004 14:22 (twenty-two years ago)

Sterling Morrison had one. So does Steve Taylor from The Fugs. Also Milo Aukerman of the Descendents. Eugene Chadbourne is a doctor of some sort, but I'm not sure if it's honorary or not (if you include honorary degrees, there's a whole slew of those -- Dizzy Gillespie, Tito Puente, Maynard Ferguson, etc.).

In response to the question above, Eno has an art degree.

― Nom De Plume (Nom De Plume), Thursday, 19 February 2004 14:26 (twenty-two years ago)

O-Okay. Rubén Blades --
(whom, amoung others, Chuck E unloves mightily (and somewhat 'incompetently', I should add)- Bladez is not 'from Brazil', for fk's sake) but anyhoo-)
-- a graduate of the University of Panama as well as Harvard Law School, waddabout Blades's degrees?!?

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Thursday, 19 February 2004 14:38 (twenty-two years ago)

Didn't Rivers Cuomo jack in Weezer to go to Harvard? Or is this bull?

― Jim Robinson (Original Miscreant), Thursday, 19 February 2004 14:41 (twenty-two years ago)

Not only did he go to Harvard, he got negged by every singing group he auditioned for (including mine).

Isn't one of the guys from Bad Religion a math professor?

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 19 February 2004 14:45 (twenty-two years ago)

Robert from the Apples in Stereo is working toward his PhD in math.

His house is the most entertaining mess right now with these ridiculously complex math textbooks and all sorts of Seuss children's books piled in the same stacks.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Thursday, 19 February 2004 14:48 (twenty-two years ago)

"I'm not sure the likes of Zappa and Beefheart even graduated from high school"

http://www.beefheart.com/zigzag/pictures/graduationzappa.jpg

http://www.beefheart.com/zigzag/pictures/graduation.jpg

It has been suggested that Don's picture may not be entirely legitimate 'though, as he supposedly dropped out shortly before graduating.... it's extraordinary the crap you can find on this interweb thingy, isn't it?

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 19 February 2004 14:53 (twenty-two years ago)

IIRC babatunde olatunji had a doctorate in urban planning

― H (Heruy), Thursday, 19 February 2004 14:58 (twenty-two years ago)

You know more about Beefheart than Beefheart does, Stewart

― Dadaismus (Dada), Thursday, 19 February 2004 15:03 (twenty-two years ago)

I think Richard Pinhas has a PHD in philosophy.

― jazz odysseus, Thursday, 19 February 2004 15:17 (twenty-two years ago)

MORTON SUBOTNICK 0WNZ ALL J0R L@ME CHOICES!!!@#

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Thursday, 19 February 2004 15:17 (twenty-two years ago)

P'haps someone (with better memory than me) should refreshen our knowledge of the formal-educational path of the likes of Iannis Xenakis also?

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Thursday, 19 February 2004 15:19 (twenty-two years ago)

Oxford alumni Andrew Eldritch to thread!

― Baaderist (Fabfunk), Thursday, 19 February 2004 15:19 (twenty-two years ago)

Xenakis studied architecture in Paris

― Dadaismus (Dada), Thursday, 19 February 2004 15:28 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh yeah, btw - Dexter Holland from The Offspring has a PhD in like micro-biology wtf? He's got one of my least favorite singing voices ever, but he wore that "Even Jesus Hates Creed" t-shirt so he's not all bad in my book.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Thursday, 19 February 2004 15:29 (twenty-two years ago)

scroll up, Nickalascivious.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 19 February 2004 15:30 (twenty-two years ago)

phil alvin of the blasters has one in mathetmatics.

warren zanes (ex-del fuego, solo artist and 33-1/3 author) has one in cultural studies or something like that.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Thursday, 19 February 2004 15:33 (twenty-two years ago)

Finally I get to use my piece of trivia! Yer lady with the glasses from THUNDERBUGS, I said THUNDERBUGS, (you remember), well she had a Ph.D in some kind of physics IIRC! She did! Smash Hits said so!

― Sarah (starry), Thursday, 19 February 2004 15:33 (twenty-two years ago)

Blades was just a LLM -- *I* have a Harvard JD.

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Thursday, 19 February 2004 15:56 (twenty-two years ago)

Wotduzzitallmean, Meeder?

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Thursday, 19 February 2004 15:58 (twenty-two years ago)

Don't mean nothing, dude. That'll be €450.

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Thursday, 19 February 2004 16:03 (twenty-two years ago)

(O fook yose'f zen, dood :)

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Thursday, 19 February 2004 16:04 (twenty-two years ago)

That costs extra.

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Thursday, 19 February 2004 16:06 (twenty-two years ago)

Donald Byrd holds a doctorate in music education.

― dleone (dleone), Thursday, 19 February 2004 16:07 (twenty-two years ago)

(meeder, zen's not calculable in moni, yo brainiac!)

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Thursday, 19 February 2004 16:10 (twenty-two years ago)

(yeah, but my time spent copulating my self unto enlightenment is!)

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Thursday, 19 February 2004 16:12 (twenty-two years ago)

(instead of copulation, use copula, dood. and enlitenment'll come at ze speed of lite)

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Thursday, 19 February 2004 16:20 (twenty-two years ago)

Tom Scholz of Boston is a MIT graduate and has a bunch of patents for various inventions.

Kris Kristofferson was a Rhodes scholar.

― earlnash, Thursday, 19 February 2004 17:54 (twenty-two years ago)

From upthread: yes, Dexter Holland from The Offspring has a Ph.D. in molecular biology from Cornell. Smart guy, too bad his band is the dumbest thing ever.
He was nearly done when the band took off in 1994, but he still went back to finish it around 1996 or so. Brian May was 99% done (Ph.D. in astronomy), he'd submitted his thesis to his advisor, who then gave it back to Brian asking him to make several corrections before his final defense -- but the band had taken off by then so he never corrected his thesis and never defended it.

― Barry Bruner (Barry Bruner), Thursday, 19 February 2004 18:01 (twenty-two years ago)

Not only did he go to Harvard, he got negged by every singing group he auditioned for (including mine).

― Jim Robinson (Original Miscreant), Thursday, 19 February 2004 18:03 (twenty-two years ago)

Guru Josh ("Infinity") was a liscenced dentist.

― Barry Bruner (Barry Bruner), Thursday, 19 February 2004 18:15 (twenty-two years ago)

... so was Keith Hudson, estimable reggae producer & artist

― Dadaismus (Dada), Thursday, 19 February 2004 18:15 (twenty-two years ago)

Rivers Cuomo dropped out of Harvard right before he got his Masters, I think (he told me in an interview he put his MTV award on his application under 'personal accomplishment', or some such category).

― Josh in Chicago (Josh in Chicago), Thursday, 19 February 2004 18:28 (twenty-two years ago)

Michael Gerald from Killdozer has a law degree and is now a practising lawyer apparently, as is Santiago Durango from Big Black.

― udu wudu (udu wudu), Thursday, 19 February 2004 18:40 (twenty-two years ago)

MY GOD HOW FANTASTIC WOULD IT BE TO BE ABLE TO SAY THAT YOUR LAWYER USED TO BE IN BIG BLACK!

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 19 February 2004 18:49 (twenty-two years ago)

as a cool alternative, you can say that your lawyer wrote "detachable penis." that is, if your lawyer is john s. hall from king missile.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Thursday, 19 February 2004 18:56 (twenty-two years ago)

After his architecture degree, Xenakis also got a doctoral degree in music from the Paris Conservatory (I think). His thesis defense was trancscribed and published as Arts/sciences: Alliages. Tournai: Casterman, 1979. Published in English as Arts/Sciences - Alloys, tr. Sharon Kanach. Stuyvesant: Pendragon Press, 1985.

Advanced degrees are common among contemporary classical composers, so it's a more interesting question w/r/t pop music.

― Paul in Santa Cruz (Paul in Santa Cruz), Thursday, 19 February 2004 20:52 (twenty-two years ago)

Bubba Bo Bob Brain

― christoff (christoff), Thursday, 19 February 2004 21:18 (twenty-two years ago)

Advanced degrees are common among contemporary classical composers, so it's a more interesting question w/r/t pop music.

Graeme Downes to thread!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 19 February 2004 21:19 (twenty-two years ago)

Anthony Braxton has some kind of advanced degree, doesn't he? I think if you combine all the diagrams he titles his pieces with, you either get a supercomputer that runs the world or your whole house blows up.

― Phil Freeman (Phil Freeman), Thursday, 19 February 2004 22:16 (twenty-two years ago)

Last I heard, Dexter Holland DIDN'T have a PhD yet because he never got around to writing his dissertation, the lazy shmuck; did he finally write it, or am I wrong? I believe the same is true for somebody in his onetime labelmates Bad Relgion (Gaffin? Gurewitz? I'm too lazy to look up the name.) Holland DID wear a "Germs" t-shirt in his "Self Esteem" video, however, somewhat amusing given his microbiology degree. Overeducation may well be the secret truth about LA punk rock, by the way -- the Angry Samoans, in addition to certified public accountant Metal Mike Saunders, also included Greg Turner, who is a math professor and thus I believe has a doctorate as well.

― chuck, Thursday, 19 February 2004 22:26 (twenty-two years ago)

David Lee Roth, who as I recall achieved perfect scores on both his math and verbal SATs, doesn't have an advanced degree, as far as I know, but maybe he should.

― chuck, Thursday, 19 February 2004 22:27 (twenty-two years ago)

Re: Dexter Holland again, as far as I know he ended up taking a few years off when the band broke but did go back for about a year to finish up.

― Barry Bruner (Barry Bruner), Thursday, 19 February 2004 22:30 (twenty-two years ago)

milo auckerman (descendents) - phD microbiology

― gygax! (gygax!), Thursday, 19 February 2004 22:40 (twenty-two years ago)

ethan port (savage republic, death ride '69) has a doctorate in math.

― dan (dan), Thursday, 19 February 2004 23:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Quick scrounge of sites indicates Holland finished it up after Smash, and also got his pilot's license at some point.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 19 February 2004 23:03 (twenty-two years ago)

David Grubbs has a Ph.D. in English literature from the University of Chicago. I think he got awarded it during the recording of Camoufleur, and then once done, he left Chicago for New York. Poor O'Rourke.

― otto, Thursday, 19 February 2004 23:05 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm sure Hstencil knows the real dope on Grubbs, but I read an interview with him a year or two ago that said he was still in the Ph.D. program (and living in NYC didn't make anything easier).

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 19 February 2004 23:21 (twenty-two years ago)

well, one of the dudes in Soledad Brothers is a doctor. And Momus, he gots an ejumacayshen, too.

― ken taylrr, Thursday, 19 February 2004 23:37 (twenty-two years ago)

Don't know if Brian Eno has any paper qualifications but he's on next weeks Question Time.

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Thursday, 19 February 2004 23:43 (twenty-two years ago)

robert ray, founder of the vulgar boatmen, was (and maybe still is) a professor at the university of florida. walter salas-humara, a member of the boatmen, not to mention founder of the silos, was one of his students.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Thursday, 19 February 2004 23:45 (twenty-two years ago)

Is Will Young's degree in political science or theatre studies? I forget.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Thursday, 19 February 2004 23:58 (twenty-two years ago)

Tomato, tomahto.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 19 February 2004 23:58 (twenty-two years ago)

Jaymc, interview with Hstencil or Grubbs? Okay, that's a dumb question. Randomly I bumped into D. Grubbs once back seven or eight years ago, and we got to talking, and he told me he was dissertating at U of C. I assumed he'd be done by now.
While we're on this, doesn't O'Rourke have an MA in music? Was Gastr the most academic band ever?

― otto, Friday, 20 February 2004 00:35 (twenty-two years ago)

ned beat me to mentioning dr downes, goddam.

― The Lady Ms Lurex (lucylurex), Friday, 20 February 2004 00:37 (twenty-two years ago)

how is doctor rock?

― the surface noise (electricsound), Friday, 20 February 2004 00:45 (twenty-two years ago)

I think Ryuji Tsuneyoshi, the guy from color filter, has a PhD in Physics.

― daavid (daavid), Friday, 20 February 2004 00:48 (twenty-two years ago)

i don't know, jim, i don't live next door to him anymore and i never brave the music department staffroom cos its full of scarey academics.

― The Lady Ms Lurex (lucylurex), Friday, 20 February 2004 00:56 (twenty-two years ago)

Grandpierre Attila from Hungarian band Vagtazo Hallotkemek (aka Galloping Coroners) has a degree in astrophysics. I think the brothers from Arcwelder both work for NASA too, but maybe they're just cleaners or something.

Didn't Graeme Downes use the first Verlaines album as part of his music degree?

― udu wudu (udu wudu), Friday, 20 February 2004 01:35 (twenty-two years ago)

puff daddy did a degree in english at harvard,iirc
dunno if he did a thesis or not,but i think he might have..

― robin (robin), Friday, 20 February 2004 02:04 (twenty-two years ago)

Neil Diamond Quit med school about a year or less shy of the finish line to become a Rock Star !?

― jim wentworth (wench), Friday, 20 February 2004 02:46 (twenty-two years ago)

The Dream Syndicate's Karl Precoda teaches English at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville

I'm a musician with a PhD but no one knows who the fuck I am so it doesn't matter ;-)

― Orbit (Orbit), Friday, 20 February 2004 02:48 (twenty-two years ago)

oh yeah and don't foget Eric from Primoridal Undermind; he has a Ph.D, in some scary lab science from CalTech and went on to a post-doc at Harvard. He was so cute crawling under the table at Bahooka after his dissertation defense.....

― Orbit (Orbit), Friday, 20 February 2004 02:56 (twenty-two years ago)

one year passes...

You may think his website is a bit cheesy, but if you look at the list of cats he's played with and the fact that he's got himself a nice post-doc position, I'd say this guy pwns the thread.

― k/l (Ken L), Monday, 13 June 2005 01:44 (twenty years ago)

don't all indie-rock musicians today have degrees from oberlin? isn't that the new definiton of "indie-rock musician"?
Ha! I've been reading the book by the Semisonic guy and apparently a couple of them went to Harvard.

― k/l (Ken L), Monday, 13 June 2005 01:46 (twenty years ago)

Wrong thread! So sorry!

― k/l (Ken L), Monday, 13 June 2005 01:49 (twenty years ago)

I dunno about that, Harvard usually = brainy.

Drew Daniel, where you at? You and MC Schmidt are both highly educated, correct?

― Mike O. (Mike Ouderkirk), Monday, 13 June 2005 02:32 (twenty years ago)

I dunno about that, Harvard usually = brainy

....or well-connected.

― PB, Monday, 13 June 2005 02:53 (twenty years ago)

All well and good, but I was replying to a specific post on this similar thread.

― k/l (Ken L), Monday, 13 June 2005 02:56 (twenty years ago)

FAT DAY are all Harvard doctors & lawyers I think.
Mike Ladd did grad school & teaches.

― autovac (autovac), Monday, 13 June 2005 03:07 (twenty years ago)

Wasn't the guy that invented t.A.T.u. a scholar of some sort? Genius.

― Nic de Teardrop (Nicholas), Monday, 13 June 2005 03:16 (twenty years ago)

I think you have to divide people with formal academic qualifications from intellectuals. An intellectual is someone who rethinks everything, and who can't keep away from ideas. Whereas a graduate merely graduated and a PhD merely phd'd, an intellectual thinks, and connects everything to everything else, unexpectedly and beyond the call of duty. There are actually very few people like that in pop music. Eno is one, another is Ian Svenonius. Dick Witts from The Passage too. Bowie sort of wants to be but isn't. DJ Spooky is a cringey parody of the type. Tom Waits is startlingly brilliant as a sort of singing man of letters, though truth for him is very much concrete: a barn, a tree, a shoe, a hearse.

― Momus (Momus), Monday, 13 June 2005 15:50 (twenty years ago)

Franklin Bruno!

― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, 13 June 2005 15:58 (twenty years ago)

puff daddy did a degree in english at harvard,iirc

Howard, not Harvard. I think he left prior to graduation to get started in the biz.

― Zack Richardson (teenagequiet), Monday, 13 June 2005 16:29 (twenty years ago)

one month passes...

Tom Morello of Audioslave/RATM went to Harvard, right?

― joe schmoe (joeschmoe), Wednesday, 10 August 2005 17:23 (twenty years ago)

xpost: doesn't Ian Svenonius have a photographic memory and know everything there is the know about WWII? I have heard these rumors...

― Outsider Enter Port City (sexyDancer), Wednesday, 10 August 2005 17:31 (twenty years ago)

xpost: doesn't Ian Svenonius have a photographic memory and know everything there is the know about WWII? I have heard these rumors...

Ph.D in photography?

― Confounded (Confounded), Wednesday, 10 August 2005 17:33 (twenty years ago)

Morello did go to Harvard. Makes me wish he'd told Zack to STFU more often.

― The Ghost of Black Elegance (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 10 August 2005 17:37 (twenty years ago)

twelve years pass...

Dr. Fink from Prince's band, obviously, with a dual PhD in Funkology and Medicine.
― Josh in Chicago (Josh in Chicago), Thursday, February 19, 2004 9:22 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

― fuck the NRA (Neanderthal), Tuesday, 3 April 2018 03:45 (eight years ago)

Yeah, should have closed the thread there...

― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Tuesday, 3 April 2018 04:24 (eight years ago)

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