I've known only one genius in my life. I met him when we were both starting 4th grade at a new Elementary School that was just opening in Cupertino California. He had already been put ahead ("skipped") two grades, and the school wanted to do a third, but his parents (his mother a Professor at San Jose State, his father a Jazz Drummer) refused, not wanting him to be any more younger than his classmates than he already was (two years, obviously). I didn't really know him, just of him, until the Summer before our Senior year at Cupertino High, when the Garage Band he was in (on guitar, a Gretsch Tennessee, plugged into a Fender Bandmaster amp) asked me to join. He was a The Beatles fanatic, knowing their music like no one else I've known. I had heard about and was completely obsessed with Brian Wilson's aborted Smile album, which had come out as the lesser Smiley Smile (the whole Smile saga is well worth your time investigating). After I played it for him, he became at least as obsessed with it as I, and Brian became his primary musical interest (along with Bob Dylan and The Band).
We went on to College, where he majored in Music, learning all about theory, composition, etc. His abilities at advanced math and other abstract concepts served him well in understanding music on the technical and theoretical level, and though he remained interested in Brian Wilson (as well as Bob Dylan and The Band), he became far more interested in first Beethoven, then Mozart, and finally, after transferring to UC Riverside (known for it's excellent music department), J.S. Bach, who became his primary musical interest for the rest of his short life (he died at 56, of a heart attack, the result of his extremely poor diet).
After earning a couple of Masters degrees (Music of course, but also Education), he ended up at Hewlett-Packard in Palo Alto, first designing programs, then teaching other programmers. He also became a member of Mensa, and spent his free time playing computer chess and recording Bach Cantatas (played on his piano and guitar).
We went our separate ways, and hadn't seen each other in about twenty years until a mutual friend put us back in touch. I visited him in N. California, and he I in SoCal. I learned that he had completely lost interest in Dylan (who could blame him, after those three 90's albums of Bob singing the songs of others?!) and all other Pop music. So I played him a recent album I thought might change that, Dylan's "Love and Theft". Yessir, that did the trick---he loved it!
I offer all of the above to make the point that, yes, Classical music has more to offer he or she than Pop in some ways, but the best Pop music is not without it's own rewards. They can't be compared to each other, as they are completely different disciplines, one the Music of The Royalty/Elite/Privileged/Educated (at the time of it's conception, that is), the other the music of the working class. The two music's also serve different functions, Bach's in the service of glorifying God, Rock n' Roll to dance to (originally)!
Still, I have to share something Brian Wilson said to his brother Carl during the recording of the Smile album. Brian had been listening to a lot of Classical the past year ('66), and as he and Carl were floating in the pool as the last notes of one of the Beethoven Symphonies faded away, he said to Carl "It's nice to know you're a musical midget"!
