Talkin’ Music 9/4/2013

 Talkin’ Music with Jack

9-4-13

          So I’m riding in my van, riding along, riding along, riding along, you know how that goes, station to station just singing along with whatever tickles my vocal chords.  So I’m on the oldies station and I hear that little organ chirping away, Da-da,– da-da-da,–da-da,–da-da-da and I slam right into it, Louie Louie, whoa, whoa yea we gotta go now, Da-da.  Oh I can sing it baby but I got to thinking what the hell am I singing.  Ya gotta love the internet.

I knew about Richard Berry, he was a Los Angeles doo-wop guy in the 1950’s.  One night back in 1955 Berry was waiting backstage at the Harmony Club Ballroom when he came up with some lyrics to the rhythm of “El Loco Cha Cha.”  During a quick search for some paper to jot down a few lyrics he grabbed some toilet paper and documented his lyrics.  The lyrics were about a bartender named Louie who listens to a customer talk of his desire to go back home to his girlfriend in Jamaica. So Berry records the song a year later as a B side.  While it got very little air play the song sat dormant until 1961 when Rockin’ Robin Roberts found the record in a bargain bin at a record store in Seattle, and cut his own version of the song.  The song became popular throughout the northwestern part of the country.

A group called the Kingsmen, from Portland Oregon, who was a basic cover band ended their show with a five minute instrumental version of Louie Louie.   The audience loved the instrumental version of the song and in 1963 the Kingsmen played their entire 45 minute set with Louie Louie.  The following day the group was invited into a studio by Ken Chase, a local disc jockey, to cut Louie Louie using the original lyrics.  Jack Ely, lead singer for the Kingsmen had heard the lyrics on a jukebox a couple times and was happy to give the song a try.  The studio was never set up to handle a full band so microphones had to be placed throughout the studio to balance the sound.  Jack’s microphone hung from the ceiling and Jack had to stand on his toes to get near the mike.  Eventually they moved Jack back, about four or five feet from the microphone for the recording, and that my friends is why you can’t understand the words.

The Kingsmen recorded the song in April 1963, and got very little airplay.  The group was led to a New York based record company that featured black artists, the record company had no idea the Kingsmen were white.  By the time Wand Records
caught on that the Kingsmen were white, the song “Louie Louie” was climbing the charts.  It was a very common tactic in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s to not put images of black bands and black recording artists on the album covers, somehow record executives believed that white America would not allow their sons and daughters to purchase records with black artists and play these records in their home.  However putting white artists on the album covers was never a problem, The Kingsmen had absolutely no photographs on the album cover fearing the black consumers would refuse to purchase the album.

And then the “Louie Louie” hit record, “hit the fan.”  As one author said “Louie Louie was a song with the foulest lyrics never written.”  In 1963 the record shot to national and international fame.  The rumor of dirty lyrics in the song started down south, by the time word of the dirty lyrics spread to the Midwest the record was selling faster than the presses could put them on the store shelves.  Apparently young girls throughout the Bible belt were telling their mothers about the dirty song, and the mothers in turn raced to their priest, who in turn went to the governor, who started banning the record throughout the country.  A  lot of people and radio stations claimed the actual dirty lyrics could be heard if the 45 rpm record was played at a different speed, like at 33rpm’s or 78 rpm’s.  It was reported at that time that more than 35 different versions of the lyrics were printed throughout different portions of the country and none of them were the actual lyrics.  The lyrics of “Louie Louie” were later investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  Remember the cause for all the hub-bub was Jack Ely being forced to stand four feet from the microphone blurring the lyrics ever so slightly.  The conclusion of an investigation by both the FCC and the FBI following interviews with both Richard Berry and Jack Ely determined that the song’s lyrics by Ely were unintelligible.

The song has been recorded more than 1,000 times over the years, you can hear it live on Halloween Day every year when the Conshohocken Elementary School marches up Fayette street to the beat of the Plymouth Whitemarsh High School Marching Band beating  out what has become known as the “Louie Louie” Conshohocken Halloween Parade.

A song recorded 1,000 times would make any writer a multi-millionaire, but not Richard Berry.  Mr. Berry sold the rights of the song back in 1959 for $750.00, the money paid for his wedding.  Berry later said in a 1993 interview that he was never bitter at the record companies, “They provided a vehicle for five young black dudes to make a record.”

Berry would get his in the end, by the mid 1980’s Richard was living on welfare at his mother’s house in South Central L.A.  A drink company California Cooler wanted to use “Louie Louie” in a commercial and discovered they needed Berry’s signature to use it.  A lawyer representing the drink company visited Berry and convinced him he was still entitled to some financial gain.  The publishers settled out of court, and Berry became a millionaire.

Berry’s new found wealth was short lived as he passed away less than ten years later in January 1997.

Just a few interesting “Louie Louie” notes: the day after the Kingsmen recorded “Louie Louie,” Paul Revere and the Raiders, another Portland group went into the same studio and also recorded “Louie Louie”, the Raiders version became a regional hit.

In 1985 the Washington State legislature voted down a resolution to make “Louie Louie” the state song.

“Louie Louie” is still the second most recorded song of all time, and ranked 55 on Rolling Stone Magazine’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

The Kingsmen second biggest hit came in 1965, “The Jolly Green Giant”, the song peaked at #4.

The Kingsmen broke up in 1968.

 OK, Let’s All Do This Together

 Louie Louie

Louie Louie                                       Louie Louie

Oh no, me gotta go.                          Oh no, me gotta go, yea, yea, yea, yea,

Louie Louie                                        Louie Louie

Oh baby, me gotta go                        Oh baby, me gotta go.

A fine little girl, she wait for me,        (Okay, let’s give it to ‘em right now!)

Me catch the ship across the sea.

I sailed the ship all alone,                  Me see Jamaica moon above

I never think how I’ll make it home.    It won’t be long me see my love

Me take her in my arms and then

Louie Louie                                         I tell her I’ll never leave again

Oh no, no, no, me gotta go, oh no

Louie Louie                                         Louie Louie

Oh baby, me gotta go                         Oh no, me gotta go

Louie Louie

Three nights and days I sail the sea   Oh baby, me gotta go

Me think of girl constantly                    I said we gotta go

On the ship I dream she there             Lets get on outta here.

I smell the rose in her hair.                  Let’s go.

Since 1963 I’ve been singing

Louie Louie

Oh no, WE gotta go

Not ME gotta go

Answer to last week’s Triva Question

Paul Vance wrote a song back in 1959 that was inspired by watching his two year old daughter play on the beach in her bikini, Brian Hyland had a number one hit with it in 1960.

I’ll give you a hint, Paul’s daughter was wearing a her yellow polka-dot bikini.

 Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini

This week’s Trivia Question

 What band recorded a number one song called “Afternoon Delight.”  It was released in 1976, and I’m sure we all sang it at one time or another. 

Gonna find my baby, gonna hold her tight

Gonna grab some afternoon delight.

Come on you know that song, who sang it?

Remember, no looking it up, who did it?