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My apologies for ranting on you when the people who raised and educated you are the ones who deserve a good scolding. You deserve special lauding for taking an interest in Latin - the mother of Western languages.

Freddie Mercury was indeed an odd duck but still reigns as the greatest vocalist of the rock music genre. His voice spanned three octaves and, while never learning music properly, he plunked out most of Queen’s hits on a piano.

When I was 17 my music teacher introduced to us “We Will Rock You”, a song with unique timing he explained originated with Gregorian chants from ancient Catholic monks. That teacher, Mr. Pickle, looked nerdishly like his name but loved his calling so much that he fired up the love of music in his students who payed attention. His sort of teaching passion was illustrated in the film “Drumline”.

Check that song out on YouTube and note the purposeful drag between the lead and the rhythm. There’s a similar drag in the Led Zeppelin song “Kashmir” (but Queen did it first). And enjoy the following anthem of school bands everywhere, “We are the Champions”. Queen purposely placed those songs together segue. Few groups these days put craft above commercialism like they did.

Since you disparage my education, let me tell you something about myself.

Before you were born:
I had graduated from college with a BA in Poli Sci and a minor in geology.
Soldiered in Korea.
Had two and a half years of graduate training at the East Asian Institute at Columbia U.
Worked two years as a translator through a CIA grant abstracting Chinese, Japanese and Korean scientific articles.
Save up half enough for further education in science.

When you were still in Kindergarten:
I had sailed a boat from D. C. to the Florida Keys.
Enrolled in a graduate School for a degree in Biology.
Gotten a single and multi engine pilot license.

Before you had graduated from elementary school:
I had finished a PhD in Biology.
Worked two years during research in a nuclear center in Mayaguez, P.R.
Bought a airplane.
Gotten married to a women who is still my wife.

Before you were out of junior high:
I had quite government and academia in disgust and started a consulting firm.
Been elected president of a tax-exempt research foundation.

By the time you were in college:
I had retired to a life of reading, pistol and rifle shooting, and beer drinking.

You asked me if I had ever heard about Sousa, Sinatra, Beethoven:
In high school I marched in FDR's last inaugural parade to music Sousa had written for my cadet corps.
In high school during WW II, when the girls were literally swooning over Sinatra's silly crooning, my associates held him in contempt for being a skinny little rat who had weaseled out of military service while his country was at war. At he time we all expected to be fighting in a few years.
Beethoven? I can't sing, but at thirteen, I could recite Schiller's "An die Freude" by heart; a poem Beethoven used (and slightly changed) as lyrics for his Ninth Symphony.
Would you care to tell me about you own educational achievements (which I'm sure are impressive).

Follow up on my earlier post.

If you care to, you can order my dissertation from the Ann Arbor facility associated with the University of Michigan. It used to cost about $30. There may be an abstract of it on line. I will email you the info if you like. I only have about a one-page list of publications because I got out of the academic "publish or perish" routine (unlike my wife who has well over 200 pubs, mostly peer reviewed).

My taste in music? What can I say? Basically, I don't like ugly music! I like baroque and classical. I am very fond of German Lieder and only sort of agree with Mencken who said, “There are two types of music; German music and bad music." He also said something to the effect that Puccini reminded him of silver macaroni, exquisitely intertwined. Personally, I think Puccini's music is very pretty. That may not be a compliment in this day and age.
I don't turn Vivaldi or Corelli off if they come on the radio. Copland, Gershwin and that ilk usually last about 10 seconds. Russians like Tschovsky and Borodin are okay; Stravinsky and the other Stalin suck-ups I can take or leave.
According to Mark Steyn, I'm a real low-brow, because (like Hitler) I would rather listen to Lehár than Wagner (altho Meistersinger is kind of fun). I also like Kálmán and some of the other Austrian light-opera composers (like Strauss). I don't particularly like Richard Strauss, although I have a video of Rosenkavalier with Schwarzkopf, Jurinac and Rothenberger that I watch fairly frequently, probably because Anneliese was such a cute young thing and Schwarzkopf was a noble beauty with a great voice even though no longer young.
Years ago I took a car ride from Wheeling, WV to Fort Brag, NC (going back to camp) with Patsy Cline and her husband. She sat on the back seat and sang unaccompanied in what I thought was a pretty, untrained voice with a rather endearing countryfied accent. Her husband had told me she was a professional singer.
Almost all modern crooning and pop/rock/rap music I can’t stand. If you’re into queer rock-music singers (I’m trying to avoid any double entendre here), have fun. But don’t disparage my education or musical taste because I don’t share you enthusiasm.