The history of the song "Louie Louie"

(marketplace.org 3-23-18)

Back in the 1960s, the FBI starts hearing about a song with filthy lyrics. Lyrics so dirty that they launch an 18-month investigation to prove how obscene that song really is.

Three nights and days I sailed the sea

Me think of girl constantly 

On the ship, I dream she there

I smell the rose in her hair 

Louie Louie, oh no, me gotta go, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, baby 

Yes, that song is the Kingsmen’s cover of “Louie Louie,” and the reason people initially thought the song was obscene was because the lyrics were so incoherent that they didn’t actually know what the singers were saying.

“[J. Edgar Hoover] has got all these FBI agents listening to ‘Louie Louie’ at different speeds trying to hear these supposed dirty lyrics,” said David Weinberg, a producer with KCRW. “They send a couple of agents to follow the Kingsmen on their tour and watch them play the song. The crazy thing is that ultimately, the FBI conclusion is that they don’t even know what they’re saying. They’re like, ‘we just can’t figure it out.’”

The new KCRW anthology “Lost Notes” chronicles music stories throughout history and features an episode on “Louie Louie’s” strange journey. Weinberg, who helped produce the episode, joined us to teach us about the song’s trajectory.

-The origins of Louie Louie-

That version from the Kingsmen — a ’60s beat/garage-rock band from Portland, Oregon — sold millions and millions of copies. But it’s actually a cover of a song written by an African-American singer and songwriter named Richard Berry.

Berry in turn based “Louie Louie” on a Latin song called “El Loco Cha Cha” that he heard while he was backstage at a show.

His version was a regional hit, performing well on the West Coast before eventually dying out. Later, he sold the rights to a handful of his songs —  including “Louie Louie” — to Flip Records Label for $750 so that he could afford an engagement ring for his future wife, and fellow singer, Dorothy Adams.

Today, that’s equivalent to about $6,280.

-The cover is, objectively, terribly produced-

 The strange thing about the Kingsmen’s version is that it’s a bad recording.

“Like, famously bad,” Weinberg said.  “They’re teenagers. They didn’t know what they were doing. The lead singer was singing into the wrong part of the microphone. He had braces. He comes in too early on a verse.”

At one point, the drummer drops his drumsticks and yells an F-bomb in the middle of the song. 

While you’d expect them to start over, the record producer running the session was a “cheapskate,” Weinberg said, and decided that they should just move on to the next song.

Yep, the Kingsmen’s version of “Louie Louie” was recorded in one take.

“It may be one of the only hit songs to get played continuously with an F-bomb in it that I’m aware of,” Weinberg added.

There are multiple covers of the song, and based on the quality of those recordings, Weinberg said he would place the Kingsmen’s version at the very bottom of that list.

But it turns out that terribleness was a feature, not a bug.

-How the FBI gets involved-

A radio DJ in Boston named Arnie Ginsburg hosted a segment called “Worst Record of the Week.” He picked the Kingsmen’s version of “Louie Louie” for the segment, but people ended up loving it and the song became a nationwide hit.  

“Because the lyrics are so unintelligible and you can’t understand what they’re saying — all these kids get it in their head that the lyrics are dirty, that they’re about sex, and so they write down what they think of the dirty lyrics,” Weinberg said.

Their parents find out about these lyrics and complain to elected officials. The complaints eventually make their way to the  governor of Indiana.

He plays it at low speeds and claims that “his ears tingled because the lyrics were so filthy, and he bans it,” Weinberg said. “And you know when you ban something, it’s like the best advertising you can get.”

That’s when J. Edgar Hoover gets wind of it and tries to crack down with his FBI investigation. 

-Continued success-

Since the Kingsmen’s cover, there have been several resurgences of the song in TV ads and movies.  

“A lot of people, when you say ‘Louie Louie,’ they think of ‘Animal House,’ (1978) which came out years and years after it was a hit. And that sort of brought it back to life,” Weinberg said.

It’s become an easily recognizable song that got a lot of licensing deals and made a lot of money for a lot of people, according to Weinberg. “The Kingsmen made some money off it too, but they also were not getting rich off of ‘Louie Louie,'” he said. 

“[Richard Berry] fought to get that [$750] and thought he had done really well. He just didn’t know what was about to happen to that song,” Weinberg added. “There’s no way he could have known that it would have gone on to become this massive hit and generate millions and millions of dollars.”

https://www.marketplace.org/2018/04/23/history-song-louie-louie/

'Louie Louie': The story behind the song everyone knows but no one understands

(npr.org 10-31-23)

"Louie Louie," recorded by the Kingsmen, began climbing the pop charts 60 years ago. It's a song almost everybody can recognize, but almost nobody understands the words to. And even fewer people know the story of the song's evolution – how it went from West Coast dance hit, to party anthem, with an FBI investigation and Supreme Court case along the way.

The first recording of the song dates back to 1957. Richard Berry, an L.A. musician, recorded a song about a sailor who has to ship out, and leave his girl behind. While the words – written in a fake-Jamaican patois – were an attempt to tap into the calypso music popular at the time (Harry Belafonte was topping the charts), the melodic riff came from a song called El Loco Cha Cha, recorded by Cuban-American band leader René Touzet.

According to music writer Peter Blecha, author of Stomp and Shout: R&B and the Origins of Northwest Rock and Roll, the song found popularity in the L.A. area first. But then Berry took it on tour up and down the West Coast, and its popularity spread.

The song's rhythm made it a favorite on jukeboxes and at teenage dances. Rather than featuring free-form dancing, says Blecha, dances at that time would often require specific steps to specific songs or beats – the mashed potato, the stroll, the watusi. The cha-cha was on the list as well, and "Louie Louie" had a great cha-cha beat.

"It became the required song that every Northwest teenage band had to play at every dance every week," says Blecha.

One of those teenage bands was the Kingsmen. Now there have been other versions recorded by other bands. But this was the one that took the song from regional dance standard to a national phenomenon – even though it's not the best recording.

"The studio that these bands were going in to record had very little experience recording bands – rock bands were sort of new in the area," says Blecha. "It was a jingle studio. They made radio ads for, you know, car lots and for bakeries and for radio stations. So I don't think that they were used to setting up the microphones properly for a loud, pounding rock band." Band members have said the engineer hung a microphone high above them, causing Jack Ely, the singer, to have to shout to be heard. And his enunciation wasn't helped by the fact that he wore braces.

It turned out having words nobody could understand would prove surprisingly important. Dick Peterson joined the band in 1963, stepping in after the original drummer was drafted. And he says when kids couldn't understand the song, they came up with their own lyrics. Dirty lyrics.

"We were on the front page of every newspaper saying that we were corrupting the moral fiber of the youth of America," remembers Peterson. "And J. Edgar Hoover launched an investigation – they woke us up in the middle of the night pounding on the door: 'FBI, FBI!'"

In addition to the obscenity investigation, the song was banned by the Governor of Indiana, and investigated by the FCC, who the Kingsmen eventually testified in front of.

"The magistrate, I guess he's called, or judge, he said, 'let me hear it,'" says Peterson. "And he thought, 'Why are you fighting over this? It's a piece of junk.' And so he said, 'Listen, nobody can tell what it says. I'm going to deem it unintelligible at any speed, and lift the ban.'"

Peterson says the controversy is part of what kept it on the charts. "The kids thought we got away with murder. And from then on we were able to go on television shows – we went on Shindig! five times, Hullabaloo, American Bandstand," says Peterson. "We just went around the country playing concerts and playing to huge crowds."

"Louie Louie" has now been covered a ridiculous number of times.It's a marching band standard, and has been featured in countless advertisements and movies.

It's also been part of a royalty lawsuit Dick Peterson took all the way up to the Supreme Court.

That's a pretty big story for a pretty simple song. But music writer Peter Blecha says that simplicity – in addition to all the drama – is part of why it's been so enduring. He quotes the musician Paul Revere, who recorded another popular early version with his band Paul Revere and The Raiders.

"He said the reason for the popularity is because of its simpleness, its stupidness," quotes Blecha. "He goes, 'three chords and the most mundane beat possible.' He goes, 'any idiot could learn it, and they all did.'"

60 years later, they're still playing it. Because music isn't always about complexity, or even skill. Sometimes it's just about a song that makes you feel good. Even if you can't understand the words.

https://www.npr.org/2023/10/31/1209181745/louie-louie-the-story-behind-the-song-everyone-knows-but-no-one-understands

The Woody Wagon - pop culture icon

 (from tunnelram.net)

“I got a ‘30 Ford wagon and we call it a woodie…you know it’s not very cherry it’s an oldie but a goodie” - lyrics to Jan & Dean’s 1963 number one hit ‘Surf City’

The iconic American woody  (or woodie) wagon dates back to the very beginning of automobile manufacture when car frames were originally made of timber. As metal took over and timber content diminished throughout the 1920s - certain models stubbornly refused to go all-metal. The sheer craftsmanship required to fashion doors, frames and panels out of wood necessitated more time, care and cost. As a result, station wagons with wooden bodies took on an aura of prestige and old world elegance. Pulling up to the country club or golf course in a wooden-bodied wagon became fashionable.

As the automobile matured, so did steel-stamping techniques. Over the decades, steel replaced hardwood in many applications, including frames, fenders, and hoods. Yet manufacturers and custom-body builders still used wood for major sections from the windshield back for station wagons, sedans, convertibles, and trucks. The 1929 Ford Model A station wagon is widely believed to be the first truly mass-produced woodie wagon.

As use of steel became more widespread, designers used wood more for styling. Steel improved body strength and durability, but customers continued to call for the warm look of wood. In a reversal of sorts, as steel stamping became cheaper and commonplace, genuine wood trim became a luxury, the workmanship recalling old-worlde charm. 

While genuine woodies fell out of favor with mainstream buyers and manufacturers due to a lack of durability and increasing cost of production, pre-loved examples found a second life in Southern California. The climate helped preserve the wood, while the commodious interiors proved ideal for surfers to haul their friends and boards to SoCal beaches.

The woody wagon was for several decades the equivalent to today’s high-end SUV and so remained on many auto-makers books long after they should have been consigned to history. The last true American woody was the 1953 Buick Estate Wagon, though even it had all steel doors with wood panels. 

In England, thanks to the Morris Traveler and Mini Clubman - the woody lived on a while longer in diminutive form. The Austin Mini Countrymen was made right up until 1969 and along with the Morris Traveler remains a much-loved classic woody in the British Isles. 

From 1954 the true American woody wagon was no more, in its place manufacturers offered station wagons with wood paneling only. Within a few years even the paneling was no longer made of timber. From the mid to late 1950s manufacturers evoked timber construction with vinyl appliques of  simulated wood grain, often augmented with simulated framework, and later by a simple series of indented grooves in the bodywork. 

Meanwhile the price of original woodies soared as they became scarce. Wood rot saw most end up in scrapyards or left to slowly die on farms, but many have been painstakingly restored and are prized by those with a love for west coast surf culture. Commanding respect now, a restored woody is a bona fide classic car fetching high prices at auction. 

The iconic status of woody wagons has nothing to do with their original  estate pretensions, but due to their use by young surfers as a cheap  way to get their malibu boards from beach to beach through the ‘50s and ‘60s. Some 60 years later it’s impossible to overstate how incredibly influential surfing culture became almost overnight in the US. Kids were buying surfboards in the midwest, attaching boards to the roof of their jalopy despite being 500 miles from the nearest beach.  The Beachboys were the biggest band in America - spreading the gospel of SoCal surf culture from coast to coast and everywhere in between. Suddenly everyone wanted an old woody wagon just like the kids on surfin’ safaris in Beachboys and Jan and Dean songs. The woody was cool.

Thanks to numerous, expensive restoration projects, woody  wagons can once again be seen in the parking lots at Little Rincon, Big  Sur and Malibu. No longer cheap jalopies - a restored woodie is now an expensive, prized possession. 

Although not a true woody, in the 1980s the Wagon Queen Family Truckster as featured in National Lampoon’s Vacation is probably the most famous woody of them all. Based on a 1979 Ford LTD Country Squire woody wagon, legendary customizer George Barris turned it into something gloriously ugly for the cult movie featuring the Griswold family. 

Even Clark Griswold didn’t want the car, but car salesman Ed (Eugene Levy)  convinces him: ‘This is a damn fine automobile if you want my honest opinion. You think you hate it now, but wait until you drive it!’ With Chevy Chase at the wheel on a cross-country road trip to Walley World - the Family Truckster drove itself into immortality. 

The true woody wagon was already there…not at Walley World, but at immortality - all thanks to surf mad teenagers and the Beachboys, 60 years ago. Long live the  woodie. 

https://www.tunnelram.net/news-blog/2020/7/14/the-woody-wagon-a-pop-culture-icon

You thought I had been captured?

Like a pirate of old, I had gone missing for awhile. 

But I was just out hunting for prizes and spending my ill-gotten treasure in Tortuga. 

I am back now and hoping to settle down for awhile in Nassau and enjoy the pirate life. Thanks for sticking with me and for being part of my crew.