For more than 50 years, Dr. Isenberg has been rewriting the lyrics to popular songs by many artists, including Elvis Presley and Bruce Springsteen, and performing them at UCL holiday parties, medical conferences and charity events. He has also recorded nine CDs with his band—Lupus Dave and the Davettes. (Scroll down to see video of the band playing at The Lupus Academy’s sixth annual meeting, and click these links to hear two more songs here and here.)
His medical career has been gratifying, says Dr. Isenberg, but his creativity has mostly been channeled toward his musical interests, which include playing the guitar. Meanwhile, he says there are still many more patients to treat, research to do, lyrics to write and songs left to sing.
Paul Simon Would Be Proud
Top: Dr. Isenberg performs with his neighbor, Heidi Hutchence, a London schoolteacher, at a 2015 UCL seminar where Bob Dylan first played in London.
Bottom: Lupus Dave and the Davettes perform in 2018 after a rheumatology meeting hosted by The Royal Society of Medicine. From left: Eleana Ntatsaki, FRCP, MA, FHEA (Fellow of the Higher Education Academy), consultant rheumatologist, Ipswich Hospital, London; Dr. Isenberg; Peter Lydyard, BSc, MSc, PhD, emeritus professor of immunology, UCL; Jude Bubbear, PhD, consultant rheumatologist, Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, Stanmore, England; Jessica Manson, PhD, consultant rheumatologist, UCL; Heidi Hutchence, schoolteacher and Dr. Isenberg’s neighbor.
As a child, Dr. Isenberg attended summer camp for several years. On the last evening, the camp supervisors and some of the children would perform funny skits. Although he can’t remember how he came up with the idea, Dr. Isenberg rewrote the lyrics to “La Bamba” to focus on the man who ran the summer camp.
The fledgling songwriter continued this hobby through high school, college and even medical school. He also learned to play the guitar. Years later, he became involved with a musical theater group called the National Pruning Board (don’t ask him how that name was chosen) and later formed Lupus Dave and the Davettes.
“I’m really a frustrated lyricist,” he says, adding that most of his lyrics are funny and reflect his life in medicine. “I mostly look for a reflective or humorous edge and write songs that will make people smile, even laugh.”
Take Paul Simon’s song, “Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover.” He rewrote it as “Fifty Ways to Treat Arthritis.”
Then there’s a re-written version of The Beatles song, “Things We Said Today.” Here’s how that song starts:
You say you will help me with my experiment
Reagents have gone missing and my
pipette is bent
The centrifuge is leaking
My incubator’s on the blink
I called our chief technician, but she’d gone to her shrink!
The band’s humor extends beyond songs. When performing, the Davettes wear wigs with outrageous colors.
Over the years, the band has performed at medical conferences in the U.K., Portugal, France, U.S. and Israel. But due to music copyright laws, Dr. Isenberg says no money ever changes hands.
In 2004, the band recorded its first CD and has since distributed all nine for free to colleagues or anyone else who wants them. He says that Peter Lydyard, BSc, MSc, PhD, emeritus professor of immunology at UCL, is not only a talented singer and guitarist in the band but also its sound engineer who records the CDs.
“Lupus Dave and the Davettes are a musical phenomenon,” says fan Susan Manzi, MD, MPH, chair at the Medicine Institute, Allegheny Health Network, and professor of medicine at Temple University School of Medicine, Philadelphia. “Even the pandemic did not slow down production of their latest album, Cloud Nine. In fact, it provided plenty of material for song lyrics. A few of my favorites are ‘Stir Crazy,’ ‘Home Schooling,’ ‘Lullaby’ and the best one of all, ‘To Meet on Zoom.’ They have entertained us for years and their live performances should be on everyone’s bucket list … bright-colored wigs and all!”
