And For All of Those Who Said that Peter Jeffrey was a Loon, Here's a Story That, Well, Shows Peter Jeffrey Really is a Loon

I really have tried to be respectful at this blog to people with opposing views but I stumbled upon this here when I was working on a new blog post:

Ten years ago, Princeton Scheide Professor of Music History and Gregorian chant expert Peter Jeffrey went to a rock concert for the first time in his life to watch/pick up his son. Eight years ago today, he went to court to sue the Smashing Pumpkins, Fountains of Wayne, the Frogs, the New Haven Coliseum, Virgin Records, and earplug manufacturer Siebe North for 150,000 dollars, claiming the single performance, even as heard through the protection of the earplugs, had caused irreparable damage. His lawyer stated Mr. Jeffrey "has chronic tinnitus and also suffers from sleep deprivation". At one point he even appeared on the Today Show - you think he was trying to make a point about that loud rock music?

This is like suing the prostitute you picked up to have unprotected sex in the alley way for giving you an STD don't you think? Well apparently a judge agreed as we read here:

Dr. Peter Jeffrey, a professor of music history at Princeton University, sued the rock group Smashing Pumpkins after attending one of their concerts with his son because it gave him chronic tinnitus (ringing in the ears). He didn’t win his case because the court ruled that he should have been aware of the risks involved with attending a rock concert. To which he responded, “Huh?” The average decibel count at a rock concert is 130. That’s comparable to sitting in an enclosed arena for a few hours listening to a jet rev its engines.

Wow! This may be old news to some, but this was the first time that I ever heard it. Other sources for the story are the Daily Princetonian,, CNN and others.

I remember getting the feeling that Jeffrey took too great an interest in trying to prove that Morton Smith was mentally unbalanced in his book. Now I know why ...