Song of the Day 4/10: The Kingsmen, “Louie Louie”
Guest post by Nathan Arizona
Tomorrow is International Louie Louie Day. Not every song gets a Day, but “Louie Louie” isn’t every song. It’s been almost fanatically celebrated from the time it was a Top 10 hit in 1963.
Venerable rock critic Dave Marsh wrote a book that ranked the 1,001 greatest singles of all time. “Louie Louie” was No. 11, just three spots behind “Like a Rolling Stone,” two ahead of “Shake, Rattle and Roll” and 12 above “Born to Run.” It has been called “the party anthem of the universe.”
“Louie Louie” has been covered more than any other song, at least 1,600 times by one count. A lot of folks think it’s the father of garage and/or punk music. It was a memorable feature of “Animal House.” Philadelphia used to hold an annual Louie Louie parade.
But for millions of teenagers in the mid-’60s, “Louie Louie” was mainly one thing: dirty. That will sell a lot of records.
Nobody could really understand the mumbled words; the braces on the lead singer’s teeth probably didn’t help. But that’s one reason kids went around quoting the perceived obscene lyrics or wrote them out and passed them around. The lyrics were a blank slate that horny high schoolers put their own meaning to.
The FBI thought about banning it but didn’t because investigators couldn’t understand the words either. The Governor of Indiana did ban it. Radio stations, too.
The real lyrics are about a sad Caribbean sailor telling a bartender he misses his girlfriend back home. Or so it was said. Teenagers weren’t buying it.
As they heard it, the singer was gonna “grab her way down low.” Real words: “Oh, no/Said me gotta go.” They heard something like “on my bed I’ll lay her there.” Real lyrics: “Oh that ship, I dream she’s there.” It could get pretty crude. The kids heard: “She had a rag on, I moved above/It won’t be long she’ll slip it off.” Real words: “Me see Jamaica, the moon above/It won’t be long me see me love.”
“Louie Louie” was written in 1955 and recorded the next year by Richard Berry, who based it partly on a popular Cuban-American song. He had some success with it in the Pacific Northwest. Cover bands picked it up and there was a second recording that also became a regional hit.
Then Portland’s Kingsmen checked in. About the same time another Pacific Northwest band recorded a slightly more polished version. It went nowhere. But Paul Revere and the Raiders did pretty well later on.
On the record and this video you can’t miss the singer yelling “OK, let’s give it to ’em right now!” just before what became a famous guitar break. Marsh writes that he “went for it so avidly you’d have thought he’d spotted the jugular of a lifelong enemy.” They pronounce it “Louie Lou-eye,” but nobody seems to know why.
Here’s Berry’s version. The island flavor is more pronounced than on the Kingsmen record.
This is Paul Revere and the Raiders’ less successful version. Maybe it wasn’t time yet for funny clothes.
