Friday, August 24, 2007

Dr. Brian May

Well, it looks like the solo on "Killer Queen" has been pushed back to number two in the Brian May Top Ten Achievement List:
Guitarist and songwriter Brian May has completed his doctorate in astrophysics — three decades after he put academia on hold to form the rock group Queen. The rocker was awarded his qualification Thursday by London's Imperial College and said submitting his thesis, "Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud," to supervisors was as nerve-racking as any stadium gig.

"I'm feeling rather joyful. I cannot tell you how much of a weight off the mind it is," May said late Thursday.

May was an astrophysics student at Imperial College when he joined Freddie Mercury and Roger Taylor to form Queen in 1970, but dropped his doctorate as the glam rock band became successful. Queen became one of Britain's biggest music groups in the 1970s, with hits including "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "We Will Rock You."

...He told reporters Thursday that handing over his completed thesis — a 48,000 word study which seeks to prove planets and dust clouds in our solar system orbit in the same direction — and facing examiners for a review of his work was a tough challenge.

"It was a bit nerve-racking walking into the room, but once we got going it was fascinating," May said. "There's always that feeling they could ask that big question that could sink you, but luckily they didn't."

I'm pretty sure that "Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud" was also the name of a King Crimson album.

(Link)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are SO back...an not a moment too soon!

JW said...

When are you going to address this nick cage quote (about ghost rider):


What was something you really wanted in this character, considering how involved you were in the production?

Nicolas Cage: “It’s a deeply personal character and I was trying to find a new way of presenting how he would keep dark spirits at bay. I didn’t want him being a heavy drinker or a chain smoker. I wanted him eating jellybeans so he wouldn’t invite the devils in. I wanted him listening to Karen Carpenter to help him relax so he wouldn’t allow the devil with satanic Goth rock or something. Or, he’s watching chimpanzees do karate instead of The Exorcist. And, all three of those things I was doing in my own life. I was eating jellybeans out of a martini glass and listening to Karen Carpenter and on the Internet watching chimps do karate. And I thought, ‘Well this is funny, let’s put it in the movie.’ But it’s also true.”

Anonymous said...

that solo was the reason i bought my first guitar. it was a real disappointment to find out that waving my fingers around the twelfth fret didn't create an army of harmonized, treble-boosted guitar leads.