# Rock star with the highest IQ **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 4, 2015, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-star-with-the-highest-iq/726986 "2015-08-04T17:22:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Octarine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/22d042/32.png) [@Octarine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Octarine)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2015, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-star-with-the-highest-iq/726986/21 "2015-08-05T00:42:38Z")
While he’s a folk guy, Art Garfunkel has an MA in mathematics from Columbia. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2015, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-star-with-the-highest-iq/726986/22 "2015-08-05T00:47:18Z")
Meat Loaf supposedly has an IQ of 200. no, not really ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2015, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-star-with-the-highest-iq/726986/23 "2015-08-05T01:05:28Z")
nearwildheaven writes: \> He [Weird Al Yankovic] is in Mensa, or at least was at one time. All it takes to get into Mensa is an I.Q. of 130, which one person in fifty has. Yankovic and probably everyone else mentioned in this thread is clearly quite a bit smarter than that. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2015, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-star-with-the-highest-iq/726986/24 "2015-08-05T01:39:22Z")
Roger Powell, besides playing keyboards for Todd/Utopia, helped develop the ARP Synthesizer. One of his jobs was to tutor new owners, including folks like Pete Townshend. He was also involved with early work on MIDI programming. He works for EA now in the “emerging musical technology” department. ---
**Author:** ![Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harvey_The_Heavy)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2015, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-star-with-the-highest-iq/726986/25 "2015-08-05T01:41:59Z")
[Jeff “Skunk” Baxter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Baxter#Defense_consulting_career) (Steely Dan, Doobie Brothers) has to be up there somewhere. I don’t know if you’d really count them as “rock stars”, but some [former](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Cooper_(biblical_scholar)) [members](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_%22Dennis%22_Greene) of [Sha Na Na](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Powell) are no slouches either. ---
**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2015, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-star-with-the-highest-iq/726986/26 "2015-08-05T02:58:12Z")
Came to say Neil Peart, Zappa and "Jeff “Skunk” Baxter. So I’ll just nominate Robert Hunter and John Perry Barlow of the Grateful Dead. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2015, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-star-with-the-highest-iq/726986/27 "2015-08-05T04:32:49Z")
> [@Harvey\_The\_Heavy](#): > > [Jeff “Skunk” Baxter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Baxter#Defense_consulting_career) (Steely Dan, Doobie Brothers) has to be up there somewhere. :eek: Did not know that! Reminds me of actress/inventor of radar Hedy Lamarr. p.s. (swallow anything in your mouth before you read this) One of Rush’s first American gigs was opening for - are you ready for this? - Sha Na Na. :eek: :eek: :eek: They were booed offstage. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2015, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-star-with-the-highest-iq/726986/28 "2015-08-05T04:47:11Z")
> [@Harvey\_The\_Heavy](#): > > I don’t know if you’d really count them as “rock stars”, but some [former](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Cooper_(biblical_scholar)) [members](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_%22Dennis%22_Greene) of [Sha Na Na](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Powell) are no slouches either. Also original member [Robert A. Leonard](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_A._Leonard), a forensic linguist. ---
**Author:** ![TCMF-2L](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tcmf-2l/32/16553_2.png) [@TCMF-2L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TCMF-2L)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2015, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-star-with-the-highest-iq/726986/29 "2015-08-05T12:47:16Z")
Obviously he’s not really a rock star but **Professor Stephen Hawking** recorded a version of the Monty Python song **Galaxy Song** which was then released on 7 inch vinyl for Record Store Day this year. Even less of a rock star but, arguably, an even better theoretical physicist **Albert Einstein** had a deep love of music from an early age, played a respectable violin and although he didn’t record anything for commercial release he played for friends and at social gatherings. TCMF-2L ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2015, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-star-with-the-highest-iq/726986/30 "2015-08-05T14:23:23Z")
Brian May isn’t just a astrophysicist and a guitar player–he also designed the [Owl Stereoscopic Viewer](http://www.londonstereo.com/shop_home3.html). ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2015, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-star-with-the-highest-iq/726986/31 "2015-08-05T14:49:31Z")
> [@Octarine](#): > > While he’s a folk guy, Art Garfunkel has an MA in mathematics from Columbia. In the Fifties, Simon and Garfunkel performed as “Tom and Jerry.” Paul was “Jerry Landis” while Art was “Tom Graph,” because he was a serious math student who was always working out equations on graph paper everywhere he went. Art originally planned to be an architect, which is why Paul Simon entitled a song about their looming split “So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright.” ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2015, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-star-with-the-highest-iq/726986/32 "2015-08-05T14:53:58Z")
Back in the Sixties, the Zombies’ bassist was a medical student named Paul Arnold. He eventually left the band to return to medical school, and became a doctor. I’d guess he’s fairly bright. ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2015, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-star-with-the-highest-iq/726986/33 "2015-08-05T16:45:51Z")
[Jacqueline Fuchs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Fox), better known as Jackie Fox of the Runaways, graduated from Harvard Law (after her time in the Runaways) and practices law in Los Angeles. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2015, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-star-with-the-highest-iq/726986/34 "2015-08-05T16:53:07Z")
> [@TCMF-2L](#): > > Obviously he’s not really a rock star but **Professor Stephen Hawking** recorded a version of the Monty Python song **Galaxy Song** which was then released on 7 inch vinyl for Record Store Day this year. Hawking also had a guest vocal on Pink Floyd’s [Keep Talking](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFZxm09G87E#t=01m10s) > [@](#): > > Even less of a rock star but, arguably, an even better theoretical physicist **Albert Einstein** had a deep love of music from an early age, played a respectable violin and although he didn’t record anything for commercial release he played for friends and at social gatherings. My grandfather played with him. Einstein was way above his class. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2015, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-star-with-the-highest-iq/726986/35 "2015-08-05T16:58:58Z")
> [@Saintly\_Loser](#): > > [Jacqueline Fuchs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Fox), better known as Jackie Fox of the Runaways, graduated from Harvard Law (after her time in the Runaways) and practices law in Los Angeles. Interestingly, she was a classmate of President Obama at Harvard Law School. And she’s said that Obama and Joan Jett are very much alike in that they both deliberately, consciously created new personalities and identities for themselves, and have tried very hard to become the characters they created. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2015, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-star-with-the-highest-iq/726986/36 "2015-08-05T17:05:33Z")
> [@blondebear](#): > > Roger Powell, besides playing keyboards for Todd/Utopia, helped develop the ARP Synthesizer. One of his jobs was to tutor new owners, including folks like Pete Townshend. He was also involved with early work on MIDI programming. He works for EA now in the “emerging musical technology” department. Yeah, he wrote _Texture_, which was (I believe) the first MIDI control software for a personal computer. He built (with one other person) a pre-MIDI “Keytar” known as the Powell Probe that controlled a rack of off-stage synths. I’m not sure what he did at Apple, Waveframe or SGI, but he’s a highly sought after programmer. Todd animated his own music videos (_Change Myself_ might look cheesy today, but at the time it was hard to believe it was done by one person on home computers), wrote one of the most popular screen savers for the Mac, built his own studio and mixing board, etc. Between Roger and Todd, \*Utopia \*might have been the geekiest rock band ever. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2015, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-star-with-the-highest-iq/726986/37 "2015-08-05T18:34:14Z")
Phil Alvin of The Blasters has a master’s in mathematics and artificial intelligence from Cal State Long Beach. Of members of the cowboy country band Riders in the Sky, lead singer Douglas B. Green has a master’s in literature from Vanderbilt; bassist Fred “Too Slim” LaBour has a master’s in wildlife management from Michigan, and fiddler Woody Paul has a Ph.D. in theoretical plasma physics from MIT. ---
**Author:** ![up\_the\_junction](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f1d935/32.png) [@up\_the\_junction](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/up_the_junction)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2015, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-star-with-the-highest-iq/726986/38 "2015-08-05T18:43:48Z")
Radiohead met at school, they all then went to uni after but I guess didn’t need to do any more academic work after that. ---
**Author:** ![It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/it_s_not_rocket_surgery/32/312_2.png) [@It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/It_s_Not_Rocket_Surgery)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2015, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-star-with-the-highest-iq/726986/39 "2015-08-05T18:54:11Z")
[Franklin Bruno](http://franklinbruno.com/contact/) of the Mountain Goats is known to be brilliant; at one point all the members of his old band, Nothing Painted Blue, had gotten perfect scores of 1600 on all their SATs. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2015, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-star-with-the-highest-iq/726986/40 "2015-08-05T20:33:07Z")
Oh, come on, the obvious answer is brain surgeon, physicist, inventor and Rocknroller Buckaroo Banzai! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-star-with-the-highest-iq/726986.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-star-with-the-highest-iq/726986.md?page=3)