Louie, Louie

230. Louie, Louie by The Kingsmen, The Beach Boys, Frank Zappa, The Kinks, Paul Revere and The Raiders, every garage band ever, and roughly 1,000 others was written by Richard Berry, a song whose popularity, for lack of a better term, was just wacko, that grew from the idea that the lyrics were extremely sextual. In 1955 Richard Berry recorded the song with his band, The Pharaohs. It was based on a West Indian song about a sailor who is looking forward to seeing his lover after being at sea for three days. The lyrics and Caribbean phrasing are clear in the Pharaohs version. “Fine little girl she waits for me / Me catch the ship for cross the sea / I sail the ship all alone / I never think me make it home”. The Pharaohs’ version was popular enough that it was put on venue jukeboxes that were played between band sets. One of these venues had two house bands, The Kingsmen and Paul Revere and the Raiders. Both groups noted that “Louie, Louie” was a constant jukebox play, and both groups decided to try and capitalize on the song’s popularity, and both decided to record a cover version, which they happened to do at the same recording studio within days of each other. The Raiders were a far superior band. The Kingsmen were, at best, a mediocre garage band. The Kingsmen were in a hurry to cut their version and could only afford a single take. Their lead singer, Jack Ely, had braces, and on the day of the recording he was hoarse, the mic was positioned too far over his head forcing him to shout which resulted in lyrics that sounded all mumble jumble.

Cut to a Boston DJ who after hearing the song decided to play the 1957 Kingsman’s version on his show as the worst song he had ever heard. No one could understand the lyrics, but teens assumed that because the lyrics were so mumbled, they must be dirty, and so they loved it, rushed to buy copies, which moved it up the charts. And what do we do when we don’t understand the lyrics? We make them up.  Lyric interpretations were numerous -- all of them very obscene. As the story goes, to understand the song you had to play it at different speeds, or backwards if you could figure out how to do that,

Then in 1964, due to a public outcry and concerns about obscenity, the FBI investigated the lyrics of the song. The investigation lasted several months. They played the 45 rpm record at 78 and 33 1/3 rpms, they played the 33 1/3 rpm record at 45 and 78 rpms, and had the technology to play it backwards. They concluded that the lyrics were largely unintelligible and therefore could not be ruled obscene.

 So basically, if the FBI just contacted Richard Berry or played the Pharaohs version, they would have discovered that it is just a simple Caribbean love song – a calypso version of Van Morrison’s “Into the Mystic” and would have saved themselves a lot of time. Also of note: In the fall of 1963, “Louie, Louie” went to number 2 on the Billboard charts. Number 1 on the charts was “Dominique” , a song by a Belgian Nun who sang in French.  The opening line of the song is “Dominique, nique, nique”, and the English translation would be, “Dominique, fuck, fuck”. So, the FBI should have looked to the Singing Nun for obscenity instead of the Caribbean torch song or waited a few years and listen to Aerosmith “Big Ten Inch”, Led Zepplin’s “Whole Lotta’ Love”, or for Iggy Pop’s 1972  “Louie, Louie” interpretation in which he decided to record the lyrics that everyone thought they heard.

 I’m sorry if this information has ruined the song's mythos for you. But feel free to sing the lyrics as you’ve come to interpret them. The FBI has already ruled they’re fine. 

 ---Source: “A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs” by Andrew Hickey. Episode 106 “Louie, Louie” by the Kingsmen.

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