Other than Edgar Allen Poe I find it surprising that you guys would be surprised.
“He was an anthropologist…” Isn’t usually the start of a description of a famous person.
“Dr. Jones, pick up the white Courtesy Phone.”
The guitarist? 
Living in the UK, I was not familiar with the name.
But ‘Sam Stone’ was quite a big hit over here in 1971/72, so it turns out I have heard his music, after all.
Have you ever heard of Kurt Vonnegut, “Slaughterhouse Five,” and the novel’s protagonist, Billy Pilgrim? None of my co-workers had, and these were intelligent, creative people in their 40s and 50s.
The name Billy Pilgrim came up at a meeting. This was the real name of a person working at one of our company’s affiliates. I commented “His parents must have been Kurt Vonnegut fans to give him that name.”
Total blanks.
I said, “Billy Pilgrim, hero of “Slaughterhouse Five,” Kurt Vonnegut’s best-selling novel and later a movie?” No recognition at all. And one of the guys is a filmmaker. I couldn’t believe they had never heard of Kurt Vonnegut, even if they had never read the book or seen the movie. I thought everybody had heard of Kurt Vonnegut. Silly literate me.
So it goes…
Arthur Brown is kind of an oddity. I think “Fire” is a pretty influential song as far as metal is concerned, but it’s not a song I can recall ever hearing on the any of the oldies stations when I was growing up. I can’t say for certain I never heard it of course, but it wasn’t in regular rotation on 98.7 KLUV in Dallas. My suspicion is that it wasn’t played very often because a lot of stations didn’t quite know how to classify the song.
Heard of him, know what he is famous and have indeed heard of Slaughterhouse Five. But I’ve never read it or even a single one of Vonnegut’s books, so ‘Billy Pilgrim’ would have gotten the same initial blank look from me. But I would have gotten it after you explained 
.
I’ve also never read any John Updike, Isabel Allende, Jack Kerouac, Joseph Heller, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Salman Rushdie or any number of other famous authors. But at least I do know who they are.
That’s the kind of song that people would call in for during the “All Request Drive at 5” or whatever. That and “The Battle of New Orleans” by Johnny Horton for some reason.
I worked for three Oldies stations. Not a one of them had “Fire” in regular rotation, but it did get played occasionally, by request.
Somewhere along the line I picked up Arthur Brown’s album in the cutout section at a record store. I still have it but I don’t think I’ve ever played it.
I’ve both heard of him and read Slaughter-House Five, but the character name would not hit me right away
At least being vaguely aware of Kurt Vonegut seems like something most educated people would know. I don’t even mean “what he wrote”, just the fact that Vonegut is an author. I mean, his name is pretty unique.
Then again, some people just have gaps in general knowledge. I am 45 and didn’t read a single one of his books until about two years ago.
Same with me.
I love the movie Crossroads and had the soundtrack album. No not the Britney Spears movie. I know Ry Cooder pretty well.
I have certainly heard of Kurt Vonnegut who co-starred with Rodney Dangerfield in Back to School. I never would have come up with Billy Pilgrim on my own.
It was definitely played on the rock/AOR stations I listened to growing up. When those stationed transitioned into Classic Rock format that song didn’t come with the new format.
Or the movie actor of Dial M For Murder who was known for hawking those classical music albums in the ‘70s (Polovetsian Dance #3 by Borodin)?
I never got mine and the check was never cashed.
I’m surprised people haven’t heard of The Residents.
I never heard of Ry Cooder until I bought his collaboration album with Ali Farka Toure – a Malian guitar player/singer-- called Talking Timbuktu. It won a Grammy in 1994 for best Best World Music Album and is still one of my favorites. Bonus: I got to see the man in concert in Bamako, Mali.
I used to blast it in my hooch in Vietnam. Drove everybody crazy.
I just want to shake my finger at all of us who assume everyone will know or be interested in what we are.
“I’m surprised people haven’t heard of The Residents”, indeed. To be surprised that ‘people’ don’t know your favorite band is… what? Short-sighted? Self-centered?
But, hey, how about that Jeb Loy? Oh, come on, you must know him…
Maybe I’m just bitter because no one else is interested in comic book inkers of the '60s, or secrets of my slot car career, or Pantone 325, or the sidekicks of classic radio detectives, or the ineffable Citröen Deux-Chevaux, or Jeb Loy’s band Fellow Travellers.
[Notice, I didn’t include a link, because… be honest, you don’t really care. And that should be okay with me.]
John Williams! He was quite a prolific actor in his day who always added style to whatever role he was asked to play.
I worked for a TV station in the 1980s that ran those commercials, and they were old even then. I think our Program Director took the order just for the laughs we all got out of seeing them. Those were called “PI” or “Per Inquiry” spots. The station would get a small cut of whatever orders were sent in, but mostly they were used to fill unsold time. We had a lot of that.
We could all practically quote them, verbatim. (“Yes, many of today’s popular melodies were actually written by the great mahsters…”) At the end he would look directly into the camera and say, in his verrrrrry cultured voice…“Here’s how to order yoooors.”
I’d be surprised if those spots aren’t floating around on YouTube somewhere.
“Who are six (three) people who have never been in my kitchen?”
Identify the famous person who said that without googling!
“Come on, people, Michael Sacks. You must know him.”
Cliff Clavin