Musical scholars might assume that this site takes its name from Kay Kyser’s Kollege of Musical Knowledge, a popular musical game show (sort of a cross between Your Hit Parade and Name That Tune) that ran on NBC Radio from 1939 to 1949 and was hosted by bandleader Kay Kyser. During his musical career, Kyser had 11 number one hits, was the first bandleader to perform for military personnel, and worked with Mike Douglas, Frank Sinatra, and Dinah Shore at various times. (We used to post under the name “The Professor” as a tip of the cap to “The Ol’ Perfessor” the name that Kyser used while hosting The Kollege of Musical Knowledge, but frankly, it just sounded so pretensious that we stopped using that ID.)
However, we must admit that the first time we came across the phrase “the College of Musical Knowledge” was while listening to a live J. Geils record. Singer Peter Wolf shouts it out before the band starts “Homework” on Full House (mom’s favorite record to listen to while vacuuming). Having gotten his start in the 60’s as music director and DJ at WBCN (one of the country’s first FM stations), Wolf possesses an extensive knowledge of many musical styles (jazz, blues, folk, doo-wop, rock and roll, R&B) and a record collection to match. In addition, he has a personal history with numerous musical legends; Woody Guthrie, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Howlin’ Wolf, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, the Butterfield Blues Band, the Velvet Underground, Dr. John, plus Norman Rockwell, David Lynch, Bill Graham, Jon Landau, Faye Dunaway, and many more. In many ways, he’s a rock and roll Forrest Gump.
So, with these dual inspirations, The College of Musical Knowledge aims to post information on music and performers of all kinds. Questions will vary from educational to trivial; sometimes easy and other times difficult, with the goal of having a little something for everyone. Though music aficionados might scoff that the multiple-guess format makes some questions too easy, we don’t presume that every visitor will be familiar with the work of the three Louis’ (Armstrong, Jordan, and Prima) or know exactly how Jack and Meg White are related. Nor do we pretend to know everything ourselves; many times we will come up with a question and then learn twenty new things while researching the answer.
So, that’s the deal. We hope you enjoy your time here and come back to visit again. Even better, we hope you discover something you didn’t know before and are inspired to do further digging, either on the internet or at your local record store or library. Feel free to send questions, corrections, suggestions, compliments, and complaints to chocomel(at)gmail.com.