96 Tears

96 Tears

I decided to listen to a song by the band Question Mark and the Mysterians, since I have been named after them (so I am the second most famous mysterian in history). They are known as a one-hit wonder, dating from the Sixties. I came across 96 Tears, which reached number one in the US charts. It’s a good song, with an excellent riff played on keyboards. The boys were Latin-American immigrants, which endears them to me (I also like Chris Montez and Ritchie Valens, and I live in Miami). I thought they might be some sort of cheesy American band. But is there anything mysterious about them (apart from why they called themselves that)? Well, why did they say specifically 96 tears—why not 95 or 97? And then it came to me: if someone said it takes precisely 24,331 neurons to create consciousness, you would ask why that specific number and not some other number. That would be a complete mystery. So, there is an affinity over and above the mere sharing of a name. Rudy Martinez is the original mysterian.