Louie Louie, the F.B.I. and 1960s America

Not many songs can lay claim to being an early pioneer of a genre, have an investigation done by the FBI, be called one of the most influential songs in rock, and have a substantial cultural impact at the same time; “Louie Louie” is undoubtedly one of these songs. This song has captured the minds and hearts of musicians, teenagers, and conspiracy nuts. There is a mistake in one of the covers that is still copied to this day. “Louie Louie” is a game-changer. It was an innocuous R&B-inspired song that became one of the most talked-about and influential songs in music history.

The saga of “Louie Louie” began in 1957 when the song was written by Los Angeles singer/songwriter Richard Berry. Berry was inspired by a single called “El Loco Cha-Cha” by Cuban bandleader Rene Touzet which was a regional hit on the west coast. One of the earliest cover versions of the song was Rockin’ Robin Roberts and the Fabulous Wailers, released on the Wailers’ Etiquette Records in 1961. This version is heard by The Kingsman, who played it as part of their setlist and recorded it in 1961. The Kingsman cover will be the focus today.

 

The Kingsmen recorded the song in one take. The recording was not very sophisticated, with the members crowded in a circle around a single microphone dropped from the ceiling. Jack Ely, the lead singer, wearing braces at the time of the recording, had to sing louder over the band instruments. During the recording, an error occurred that has gone down in music history as one of the most re-recorded mistakes in music history. Right after the guitar break at the 1:58 mark, 

Ely came in early but stopped as the band continued the song's signature riff one more time. Ely had stopped, realizing his mistake, and drummer Lynn Easton saved the recording with a quick-thinking drum fill. As the song was done in one take due to cost, the error was kept in, and subsequent cover versions have copied the mistake, perhaps thinking that is the way it was supposed to sound. 

This cover is considered by many to be an early version of garage rock. A three-chord song built around a trebly guitar, blaring organ and murky vocals (perhaps due to the mic’s position and Ely’s mouthful of braces) gave a lo-fi sound that could be considered the template for the garage rock sound. Initial sales of the record were slow but picked up quickly after popular DJ Arnie Ginsburg heard the ragged and sloppy three-chord record and played it during his “Worst Record of the Week” segment. Despite the negative review, the song reached number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and stayed on the chart for 16 weeks.

The story of “Louie Louie” becomes interesting at this point. The recording was not well done. No one could understand the garbled lyrics of Ely. Rumours began circulating that the lyrics had been intentionally slurred to cover up the fact that they were “dirty.” Teenagers began passing pieces of paper around to each other, claiming they had the “real words.” The notoriety, no doubt, helped propel the song to its number 2 position. Then the FBI got involved.

The controversy began when two teenagers sent a letter to Indiana Governor Matthew Welsh complaining of the lyric’s obscene nature. Welsh sent an aide to buy a copy of the record and sat down to listen to the words. According to Jack New, the Governor’s aide, the Governor’s ears “tingled” and sent a letter to the president of the Indiana Broadcasters Association. This letter prompted the ban of the song and an investigation. Other sources have concerned parents writing letters to Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. Whichever way it began, the FBI soon opened a file and started an investigation for obscenity. 

The moral climate in the United States in the early 1960s was at a crossroads. The generation gap had become concerning and was getting wider. Linda Martin and Kerry Segrave described the culture war going on at that time in their book, Anti-Rock: The Opposition to Rock ‘n’ Roll (Hamden: Archon Books, 1988):

The major reason for attacking rock and roll was that it was

the music of the young. It symbolized the generation gap.

Rock expressed the kind of freedom that was unavailable to a 

responsible adult. By presenting an alternative to established 

norms, the music threatened those standards.

The music that adults could not understand had to be obscene and, therefore, threatening to all that was good and moral. This view was at odds with the counterculture youth embracing a new type of freedom centred around, among other things, music. One or two well-meaning teens may 

have started the movement against “Louie Louie,” but it was an uptight, conservative, narrow point of view that caused the out-of-control spiral. 

On and off, for two years, the FBI investigated the recording. They played the song backwards, forwards, at different speeds listening and looking for any ‘dirty’ lyrics. The FBI tracked down Richard Berry, the song’s original composer,  the Kingsmen, the song’s publisher, and the record company executives. The Kingsmen were shocked, insisting they sang the lyrics faithfully to the Richard Berry version. As far as anyone who was asked knew, the song was about a tale about a sailor lamenting about his girlfriend to a bartender named Louie. Despite the efforts by the Bureau to mollify outraged parents, it was determined that the lyrics were “indecipherable at any speed” and closed the case.

The Kingsmen did not last beyond the notoriety of their song and disbanded shortly after the release. They remain one of the mainstream examples of garage rock in its formative years.

Despite more than 1000 cover versions that have been released, The Kingsmen rendition is the most enduring cover. The song has appeared in 46 movies and has been recognized in several lists such as Rolling Stone “The 100 Best Singles of the Last 25 Years” and “40 Songs That Changed the World”, Paste Magazine “The 50 Best Garage Rock Songs of All Time” and Mojo Magazine “100 Greatest Singles of All Time.”

In 1985, comedy host and writer Ross Shafer spearheaded an effort to have “Louie Louie” replace “Washington, My Home” as the official state song.  While the House did not pass the resolution, it did declare April 12, 1985, as “Louie Louie” Day. April 11th (Richard Berry’s birthday) is celebrated as International “Louie Louie” Day. The city of Tacoma, Washington held a summer music festival from 2003 to 2012 called LouieFest, Peoria, Illinois has held a “Louie Louie” Street Party and Festival every year since 1988. Most recently a sculpture titled “Louie Louie” by Las Vegas-based artist Tim Bavingto is displayed on the wall of a federal building in Portland, Oregon.

“Louie Louie” has remained a cultural icon in our society. Versions of the song have inspired entire music genres. The outrage of the ‘dirty lyrics’ and subsequent FBI investigation has shown the absurd lengths people will go to remain on a higher “moral” ground. Finally, the garbled words of a singer with a mouth full of braces singing during a single recording session show how a lousy recording session and misheard lyrics can be woven into our musical consciousness forever.

Sources for this article include:

Linda Martin and Kerry Segrave, Anti-Rock: The Opposition to Rock ‘n’ Roll (Hamden: Archon Books, 1988).