cover me impressed

R. J. Dubbengoth III (a.k.a. “RDubbs”) has devoted the better part of four decades towards listening to music he enjoys. His sacrifice and dedication to musical enjoyment have resulted in an uncanny knowledge of useless musical factoids as well as an unfortunate lack of marketable skills and income.

Cover Songs

RDubbs considers himself to be a preeminent authority on the research and enjoyment of cover songs. Although widely reviled in the music industry of the ‘70s and ‘80s as mere album-filler and/or an indication of a band’s creative deficiencies, RDubbs has long embraced the cover song as a reliable source of enjoyment and often imaginative artistry. In fact RDubbs fought long and hard in the early 1980’s to enact legislation that would require a minimum of two cover songs to be included on each new album release. Unfortunately, though his tireless efforts – some might say maniacal tirades – were garnering growing support for his bill (i.e. the “Americans Who Love Freedom Also Love Cover Songs Act”), ultimately RDubbs simply could not raise the required dollar amount to purchase its passage. Sadly RDubbs’ concurrent efforts to have Billy Joel’s vocal chords forcibly removed (i.e. the “Americans Who Love Freedom Demand The Removal of Billy Joel’s Vocal Chords Act”) similarly fell short of passage.

Fortunately the defeat of his bill proved to only be a temporary setback in RDubbs pursuit of cover song proliferation. In 1989 the music world witnessed the release of the first tribute album, The Bridge: A Tribute to Neil Young. Still one of the finest tributes ever produced, The Bridge ushered in the Golden Age of Cover Songs, which endures to this day. And it should certainly be noted that although he had absolutely nothing to do with its conception or production, RDubbs did think The Bridge was “a really good idea” thereby solidifying his already unassailable stature as the foremost shining light of a growing phenomenon. Unfortunately, although The Bridge hastened the renaissance of the modern cover song it did nothing to hasten the forcible removal of Billy Joel’s vocal chords.

Educational Background

RDubbs’ educational background includes a Master of Sound in Stereo with a concentration in Distortion from Faber University’s Institute of Complicated Things and a Bachelor of Science in Phantasmagoria & Lagomorphology from the Dowd College of Last Resort. Designations include Much Exalted Music Person (“MEMP”), Chartered Song Listener (“CSL”) and Accredited Senior Odd Fellow in Duplicative Music (“ASOF-DM”). RDubbs is a Senior Tunage Emeritus of the American Society of Nice Music as well as an at-times respected member of the Association for Cover Song Research and Veneration. RDubbs has taught accredited classes in song indulgence and gratification for the American Institute of Chartered Song Listeners (“AICSL”).

Despite his admissions to the rampart use and consumption of human growth hormones, sleep deprivation psychosis and the occasional pineal gland, RDubbs was one of three inductees of the inaugural class into the Cover Tune Hall of Fame. He subsequently became the sole Cover Tune Hall of Fame inductee from that initial class when the governing body of the Academy for the Adoration of Cover Tunes was made aware at the awards banquet that the other two inductees, Thaddeus Ginnygog and Serge Fury, were in fact pseudonyms for one, RDubbs.