Brian May of Queen gets his Ph.D. in Physics

So he's a rock legend...millionaire...and got a doctorate in Physics..

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..

...

But is he happy?

Strewth Del , He married the bird from Eastenders Anita Dobson. She did that horrible song to the theme tune called 'Anyone can fall in love' remember. At one time they had inter-changeable hair. They probably love each other. All fair enough, but what the ^*&* is this all about ! I like his axe-manship, but I ain't brave enough to go there. Can you find out for me ?

My dream faculty continues.....

APS Fellow, Dr. Bo Diddley (somebody get this man an honorary degree)

Professor Paul Weller

Pete Townshend, Ph.D.

Dr. Jimmy Page

And on and on and on....

Yeh right on...

Many many years ago (35?) I worked in a Hi-fi / electronics component store in Soho (London)

Pete Townsend came in and bought some quadrphonic headphones (Koss???).

He paid by cheque..I couldn't resist asking if he had any I.D! (with a cheeky grin on my face) .. It got a smile.

Hey Del!!

We've probably met then.... for many years I used to go up 'the smoke' to trawl through Tottenham Court road, Soho, Lisle street etc... and finally Edgeware road electronic surplus shops...

I used to spend all day just having a rummage through all those 'interesting' electronic bins, shelves and stuff, always came home with some useless tat!!!

A bit like ebay I guess - John

Yup..Lisle street..No 34 at one end and 3&4 at t'other..had to avoid getting propositioned between shops! I worked with a couple of radio hams...learned a lot.

First job having dropped out of an Applied Physics course...(wrong place wrong time wrong course)

35 years ago Koss offered the first Electrostatic 'Stereophones' as they called it then, pushing it through the "AllWave" audiophile chain, you may recall. Then came Audio-Technica with their pale low power version of this.

Ah a triumph of soft focus over reality.....beer goggles?

Love is blind...so is the barber?

Good for him! At least he did the work and wasn't awarded an honorary 'doc', like most Celeb's these days. Although I can't fault Doctor Connolly. (No, sorry, the other Doctor Connolly)

Joking aside, the man expertised in building state of the art guitars from the age of fifteen, later got involved in electronic circuit design and patented a few ideas.

Who's Joking? Physics could use the creativity.

Professor Jack White

Albert Hammond Jr. Ph.D.

Dr. C.C. Deville

(I'm having way too much fun right now)

If you do the honors of titling them: Shuggie Otis, Mike Bloomfield, Jeff Beck, Peter Green, Mick Taylor, Jeff Beck, Rick Derringer, Allan Holdsworth, Philip Catherine, Al DiMeola, Joe Walsh, pheew!

Did we forget post-post-post doctorate Johnny Winter?, ....

Although I encourage other guitarists to be added, try maybe throwing a Dr. or Professor in front of their name and paste their image underneath. To put the images in, use google image, find the one you like, copy it and then paste it (control v) into this white text box. If you mess up, I'll fix it.

For example:

Proffessor Billy Gibbons

Dr. Kirk Lee Hammett

Dr. C.C. DeVille (I don't care that I already listed him)

I get it Roge, it's this little fetish game, I'll do my best to comply:

Allan Holdsworth PhD

Dr. Philip Catherine

Prof. Rick Derringer

To be continued...

Excellent.

Professor "The Edge"

Dr. Lou Reed

Professor Emeritus Chuck Berry

and of course, Professor C.C. DeVille

Why is it that Gibbons always manage to look the coolest?

Professor John Dawson Winter III

It looks like my suspicion that interest in music and physics goes hand in hand. While studying graduate physics (I have yet to finish), all of us American students were musicians of some sort. Of our two most talented students was virtuoso violin player and a genius blues man. These guys could have easily played professionally (and may now, I have lost contact).

How about an honorary degree for Jerry Garcia?

I've limited to living guitarists thus far, for the students, but I don't see why we can't grant posthumous doctorates to worthy guitarists.

Professor Jerry Garcia

Great, now I'm going to have "St. Stephen" stuck in my head all day.

What about Professor Carlos Santana, Associate Professors Peter Framptom and J. Geils, and Professor Emeritus Jimi Hendrix?

Dr. Jeff Beck

Here, lecturing on current research findings

Here, demonstrating proper application of Data-Mining Transducer

Dr. Harvey 'Shangrenade' Mandel

Fred Frith PhD, lecturing on gravity

How about the Reverend Doctor Oswald Osbourn?

No pics, but don't forget Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen (of "Hot Rod Lincoln" fame). They actually earned graduate degrees before becoming rock stars. However, they never rose to the heights and fame of some of the folks pictured in this forum.

http://www.awpi.com/CommanderCody/history.html

Professor Peter Green

Peter Allan Greenbaum was born to a Jewish family in London England on October 29, 1946. His brother gave him his first guitar, and he taught himself to play by the age of 11.

His first experience in a band was when he played with Bobby Denim and the Dominoes, and later with Peter B Looners, and the Shotgun Express. He got his big break in 1966 when he replaced Dr.Eric Clapton in the band the Bluesbreakers. He recorded one album with them entitled A Hard Road, before leaving the band to create Fleetwood Mac with John McVie in 1967. The band was a huge success, and became one of the most successful bands of the late 60's. In 1969, they sold more singles than The Beatles and the Rolling stones combined.

At the same time, Prof. Green became a heavy drug experimenter, specifically LSD. at first it seemed that his behavior was to be blamed on the drugs he was using. He found religion, started to wear a robe all the time, and became reclusive and introverted. He gave all the royalties from his music to charity, and tried to convince his fellow band members to do the same. as he and the rest of the band found out, it was Schizophrenia.

In 1970, Prof. Green quit Fleetwood Mac, and recorded a solo album of acid-induced jams called The End Of The Game. He then gave up music completely, and began to live as a recluse. There are many rumors about how he lived in the next few years. Most say that he took on many menial jobs including a grave digger, and a hospital orderly between the times he was forced to spend in mental institutions.

In the late 70's, however, he did emerge to record some more solo albums. But they lacked the luster of the talent he showed with Fleetwood Mac.

For the 12 years following, Prof. Green was again in and out of mental institutions, and eventually ended up moving in with his brother in the early 90's.

In 1994, he resurfaced to give an interview with Mojo Magazine. In it he talked about how his medication left him too tired to play his guitar and the toll it took on him. In 1995, he made the brave decision to go off his medication, and started to practice guitar seriously again. He formed a band with long-time friend, Nigel Watson. The Splinter Group made it's debut at the German Blues Festival, and went on to play at the Guildford Folk and Blues Festival in the summer of 1996. His return prompted the support of thousands of fans. Together the band toured the UK, did a BBC television documentary, did many radio appearances, played over 50 gigs, and released an album. In late 1997, the band had some setbacks after one of the members, Spike Edney left the band, and Cozy Powell was killed in an accident.

In 1998, Peter was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame along with Fleetwood Mac Later that year, The Splinter Group released the Robert Johnson Songbook, which prompted a 13 gig US tour. The Soho Sessions were released a short time later. Sadly, this album was recorded the same night that Cozy Powell was killed. Prof. Green's latest tribute is Destiny Road, which was released in June of '99.

Professor Peter Green may be a victim of the abuses of drugs and alcohol in the 60's, but the secrecy of how he spent his life after he ended his career in 1970 have only boosted his reputation as being on of rock's "great enigmas".

So in summary, a man, a self made millionare, who decided to wear robes, believe in God, and give money away to charity was diagnosed as crazy. His "treatment" left him unable to play guitar to the same level as before. For 25 years he took the prescibe drugs to treat his "craziness" which basically ruined his life, so finally he said the hell with it, quit the "treatment" and made a triumphant comeback.

Well... He was in Israel, Gave a concert in 1998 I think, and his long-sad blues riffs are as enchanting and captivating as ever.

I could vow I saw some people in the crowd with jaws dropped, drooling, eyes glazed, you know, Rock'n'Roll magic...

I loved his guitar playing in the early Mac days and ever since 1970 wondered where was this crackpot gone to.

Fleetwood Mac 1968:

Top: Mick Fleetwood, Peter Green; Mid: Jeremy Spencer John McVie; Bottom: Danny Kirwan

Yeah....aint society great...

The Peter Green Biography above, by courtesy of http://www.guitarscanada.com

I forgot Dr. John Squire

Dr. Walter Becker (here, consulting with Donald Fagen MSc)

Below, with the rest of the research crew in the old 80's lab:

More Cowbell?

...And the late

Miller "The Joker" Steve, past Axe engineer, and present Post Doctorate, here in his "Before" and "After" shots, as captured on-site:

Before

After