Brian May-Interstellar Feller

Man, do I feel dumb.

I spent the last couple of hours playing Sonny Boy Williamson songs. that’s Sonny Boy II, by the way, not Sonny Boy I.

So, I was feeling pretty good, you know. Had a nice day, felt like I was being productive.

Until, I came across this Reuters article about Brian May, the guitar player for Queen.

Brian May, lead guitarist from rock band Queen who has just completed a doctorate in astrophysics, was on Monday named as the next chancellor to Liverpool John Moores University.

May, who will take up the role early next year, became an honorary fellow of the university earlier this year in recognition of his contribution to the arts and for encouraging public understanding of science with his book “Bang! The Complete History of the Universe.”

Thanks a lot Brian May. That pretty well makes all of us look like half-wits. “I’m an international rock star but, in my spare time I’m an astrophysicist.

Even worse now, I just had to use spell check on astrophysicist.

Astrophysics, come on now. That isn’t like some country singer writing a children’s book or, Jewel writing poetry or, Jeff Beck building a hot rod. The complete history of the universe-I couldn’t tell you the complete history of my day. And, to top it off; he’s a “fellow”. A “fellow” for Christ’s sake.

May was studying astrophysics at Imperial College, London, when he formed Queen with singer Freddie Mercury and drummer Roger Taylor in 1970. He dropped his doctorate research into interstellar dust as the band met with increasing success.

In October this year, May completed his PhD thesis “A Survey of Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud.”

You’ve heard the old saying; “Don’t quit your day job”. Around here, that usually means framing houses or selling cars, something like that. Nothing about “interstellar dust”, ever. If any of the musicians I knew started chatting about “Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud” on a break, I would think they were on acid.

Seriously though, nice work Brian May. Maybe this will inspire more guitarists to chase the dream of someday being a fellow.

Ok now, I am going to throw this in as a bonus. Because I was on the Sonny Boy Williamson II trail, I went looking around YouTube to see if any cool footage exists. Sure enough, I found this great clip of “Bye, Bye Bird” from 1963. Sonny Boy does a cool, showbiz trick with the harmonica at the end of this.