February 18, 2025 • 47 mins
The Kingsmen's cover of "Louie, Louie" is one of the world's most famously unintelligible songs -- and this haunted the FBI. In this episode, Ben and Noel recount the evolution of "Louie, Louie", as well as Uncle Sam's insanely thorough (and hilariously unsuccessful) attempt to figure out the song's lyrics. The guys also rack up some extra credit with their special guest Christopher Hassiotis, who introduces them to the wide, wide world of "Louie, Louie" cover songs across multiple musical genres.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Lou Louie b.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. All right, So the
FBI is super weird about some things, right. They're very smart,
they they make they love a list, and they also
have a myopic focus at times on pop culture. Noel,
(00:26):
you and I were just sort of doing a I
would say, a rendition of a song by the Kingsman
called Louie Louis.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Yeah, and the aforementioned FBI was often looking for enemies,
I guess, of these United States and places that might
seem a little odd, including popular music. So we're gonna
hear a bunch of examples of the song Louie Louis
in this special episode where Christophrasiotis is not only here
in spirit, but here in the flesh.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Let's roll the tape. Ridiculous History is a production of
iHeart Radio.
Speaker 4 (01:28):
Oh yeah, you.
Speaker 5 (01:30):
Know what that sound means? A Delphic Keys and.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Yeah and do I oh, oh gravy.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
You gotta go, here you go.
Speaker 6 (01:49):
Here's the part where it really gets understand, that's my
shoes history, these are the Kingsmen, this is Louis Louie.
Speaker 4 (02:11):
Here we are. Wow, what a day, What a time
to be alive.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
And that music comes to us, of course, courtesy of
our super producer, Casey Pegrom. But no, why are we
playing Louis Louie.
Speaker 4 (02:25):
Today, because you see, Ben Louie.
Speaker 7 (02:28):
Louie has a bit of a sordid past the song,
this version in particular by the Kingsman, in that it
was investigated by none other than the Federal Bureau of
Investigation for being potentially obscene. And if you couldn't tell
by our rambling sing along at the beginning of the show,
this is kind of a bit of a joke because
you can't really understand a word these guys are saying.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Right, The FBI did not just give this a cursory investigation.
They investigated this particular version of the song. It is not,
as some people believe, the original version of the song,
it's cover, and they investigated the Kingsman version for two years.
Specifically it's crazy, yeah, specifically the lyrics of the song,
(03:14):
which might sound kind of crazy and a weird order
of priorities for the FBI, but it's actually part of
their job to fight obscenity.
Speaker 7 (03:22):
They take these kinds of complaints from angry, waspy middle
class mothers very seriously, and that is exactly what kicked
off this investigation, my friend.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Right, they received a letter from someone at Sarasota High
School who said the lyrics to the song were quote
so filthy that I cannot endorse them. In this letter,
we all know there is obscene materials available for those
who seek it. But when they start sneaking in this
material in the guys of the latest teenage rock and
(03:55):
roll hit record, these morons have gone too far.
Speaker 7 (03:59):
Oh these more well, which more ons you're talking about,
like the purveyors of said smut?
Speaker 2 (04:04):
I guess so some international conspiracy.
Speaker 4 (04:06):
You guys in the band spread dirty words. Who were
the guys in the band? What's the history of the Kingsman?
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Excellent question, Nold. The Kingsmen were, or excuse me, they're
still around, a garage rock band from Portland, Oregon. And
the guy who ended up singing this version of Louis
Louis that we opened the show with was invited to
the band in nineteen fifty nine.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
I believe he got the boot pretty shortly after.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Yeah, he didn't sing on all their songs, but he
did sing on the one that I would say they're
most well known for this song. Would you agree?
Speaker 4 (04:42):
I certainly don't know them for anything else.
Speaker 7 (04:44):
Yeah, And it's interesting too because this band does live
on this particular version of this song as an influence
from for a lot of like kind of grungy garage
punk type stuff, everything from like Black Flag to iggy pop.
And we'll get into a little bit more of that
kind of rock and roll history connection a little further
down the line. So the original Kingsmen were Don Glucci,
(05:08):
Jack Eli, who was the singer in question, Lynn Easton,
Mike Mitchell, and Bob Norby, and these fellas booked a
recording session at a studio in Portland, Oregon, which was
at Northwest thirteenth Avenue in Burnside Street. And it was
a little bit of an odd setup, wasn't it.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Ben It was Noel First, which established the session only
cost fifty bucks. The band split it amongst themselves because.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
They didn't have a label. They were just doing this
on spec.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Right, And their producer for the session was a guy
named Ken Chase, a local radio personality at a station
called ninety one kisn or wait for it, Kissing. He
also owned a nightclub where the Kingsmen regularly performed, so
(05:58):
he was the producer, and that was the connect that
was there in their actual audio engineer was the guy
who owned the studio, whose name was Robert Lindall, and
apparently he had some really particular ideas about how the
studio should be set up. You can hear Jack Eli
explaining some of the physicalities of the room.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
Let's let's just throw to a clip of him in
his own words.
Speaker 8 (06:24):
In order to capture what Ken thought was the live sound,
he had us set up in a circle with me
standing in the middle singing into the mic, and it
still didn't sound quite right. He had to run through
about eight bars or so, and it still didn't sound
quite right to him. So he had a technician come
in and take the mic and put it on a
(06:44):
boom and stick it up at the ceiling. That's about
a fifteen foot ceiling. So the mic was hanging probably
i don't know, eighteen to twenty four inches off the ceiling,
and I was directly under it, leaning my head back,
yelling up at this mic. Well, it didn't have anything
to do really with how far the mic was away
from me. What it really had to do with is
(07:07):
how words get enunciated when your head's tipped all the
way back and you're yelling up because you see Louie
Louie didn't come out like Louis Louie. I would say
it when I'm standing facing normal, when my head's all
stretched up and back, it came out Louli light.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
So eventually, long story short, they end up putting these
microphones on the ceiling and it's like fifteen feet high.
Speaker 7 (07:33):
I don't quite understand the function of that. I read
somewhere saying so it would sound like a live concert,
but it was like, is it literally a one mic setup?
That's because it's so funny when you hear the recording. Yeah,
it's it sounds, you know, kind of raunchy and lo fi,
but there's pretty good separation. But that vocal is what
(07:54):
really stands out, because it does sound very low in
the mix. So I imagine had to have been a
very minimally mic such situation where this mike was a
high and apparently he had to crane his neck at
like a forty five degree angle yeah, and kind of
shout saying up and up into the air to get
over the din of the of the band, and the
drummer is just pound in a way, it's like, well.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Yeah, yeah, he he does mention that it's difficult to
enunciate in a normal way when you have your neck
physically positioned to aim in a shout at the ceiling
because he's also shouting to be heard over the music.
Speaker 7 (08:30):
And he had braces that had just been tightened. That's
such a such a funny detail, such a strange aspect
to the story. For anyone interested. You can also go
on YouTube and see some early live appearances. There are
the Kingsmen run a show called Shindig, and it's much
easier to hear what Jack is saying, or we should say,
(08:52):
rather to discern what Jack is saying. But most people,
(09:22):
let's be honest, they're not going to be watching that
live version.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
They're going to listen to the iconic.
Speaker 4 (09:29):
That's right.
Speaker 7 (09:29):
And I'll tell you man, Shindig was a pretty risque
show at the time, because I swear some of these
gals are showing shin it's happening, you know, when they're
cutting their rugs, you know.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
And so this this song, it hits the charts, but
it doesn't quite get to number one. And I think
there's a story that that you found particularly fascinating about
the song that beat it.
Speaker 7 (09:53):
Yeah, it's a little weird, kind of melancholy aside, but
why not, We're all.
Speaker 4 (09:57):
About little asides.
Speaker 7 (09:58):
It's a song called Dominique and it is a French
language song, which is so interesting to me that that
topped the charts. And you may have heard this song
if you watched the show American Horror Story, specifically the
Asylum season.
Speaker 4 (10:31):
A Domini.
Speaker 7 (10:40):
You might remember this is the one that Sister Jude
was the only song that she approved of, and there's
an interesting reason behind it. There's a great article on
Noisy called what you Didn't Know about that song you
hear on American Horror Story every week from back when
this show was current. So the woman credited with this
hit was a Belgian singer by the name of Janine
Decker's and she went by the name the singing None
(11:02):
or it need you to help me out with this Casey.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
On the case.
Speaker 5 (11:07):
Yeah, that would be pronounced sir sir Year, which is
sister Smile in French.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Sister smile ladies and gentlemen, Casey on the case. So
she's Sister Smile.
Speaker 7 (11:19):
Or aka the singing Nun aka Jannine Deckers.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
And the Singing None in English speaking countries.
Speaker 4 (11:25):
That's right, that's right. And this song was a huge hit.
Speaker 5 (11:27):
It was number one.
Speaker 7 (11:28):
It totally bumped the It didn't give the Kingsmen a
chance for It's just crazy to me that this song
was such a massive hit and it's so kind of
more or less forgotten now, you know, compared to Louis Louis,
which is iconic in many ways.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
It was an interesting it was an interesting year for music.
This is specifically nineteen sixty three, right, right, Yeah, it
is interesting because we've got one song that's entirely in
French and then one song that is considered more or
less largely unintelligible. But there's a little more to the
story of the Singing Nun.
Speaker 5 (12:02):
There is.
Speaker 7 (12:03):
One of the interesting things that this Noisy article points
out is that Dominique, the saint in question, was the
founder of the particular religious order that brought about the
Spanish Inquisition. So that goes hand in hand with some
of the grizzliness on American horror story. And this is
interesting this Genine Decker ended up having a female partner
(12:30):
back during a time where open, you know, homosexuality was
just very very taboo, and she ended up signing or
agreeing to a suicide pact with her. And in nineteen
eighty five, when they're still together, they overdosed on barbituates
together and left a note that said, we have reached
the end spiritually and financially, and now we go to God.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
And that was her partner was Annie Petcher, that's right,
who was I think a little bit younger, but they
had a very deep in life relationship.
Speaker 7 (13:00):
And now it's such a sad story, but I think
so interesting, absolutely worth Mentioning.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Back to the Kingsman, it's a fantastic article in The
New Yorker by Unwin Crawford called is this the dirtiest
song of the sixties? And again, for at least two years,
the FBI certainly thought so. So Robert Kennedy. It gets
involved in this because.
Speaker 4 (13:30):
He Robert Kennedy.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
He Robert Kennedy because he receives letters personally complaining about
the songs possible or perceived obscenity. Once it blows up
and it's number two on the Billboard single chart, and
a father of a teenage girl in particular, writing to Kennedy, said,
this land of ours is headed for an extreme state
of moral degradation, and people started sending in various versions
(13:56):
of what they perceived the lyrics to be. And they're
pretty they're pretty filthy. Have you read some of the oh?
Speaker 4 (14:03):
I have?
Speaker 7 (14:04):
And it just goes to show that like the most
puritanical seeming mind can still be in the gutter when
you think you're trying to find filth everywhere.
Speaker 4 (14:14):
Yeah, that's the thing.
Speaker 7 (14:15):
This is such a warshack test kind of thing for me,
because the lyrics really are utter gobbledegook, right, you could
you could read the real lyrics here and there.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
If you haven't seen the real lyrics yet, then do
check them out. But wait till the end of this podcast.
Just keep go with us a little bit further. We
promise it's worth it. Some of the perceived lyrics, where
the lyrics that people thought they were hearing are things
like we'll have to do an edited version of this.
But every night and day I play with my thing,
(14:50):
bleep your girl, all kinds of ways.
Speaker 7 (14:53):
All the ways, multitudes six ways to Sunday as they say, Yeah,
and it's it's interesting to be because when this really
starts to heat up and this investigation is going on
apparently what they call him g men. Right, Sure, they'd
go to the clubs and can see the band and
try to like read their lips or whatever to try
(15:15):
to like see what the secret lyrics.
Speaker 5 (15:17):
Right.
Speaker 7 (15:17):
I just think this is such a funny witch hunt
kind of situation.
Speaker 4 (15:21):
Yeah, because jay Ed Groover was involved. Man, he was
on the case.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
They have other stuff to do in nineteen sixty three,
So this intense concern on the part of the FBI
even went to the levels of laboratory investigations. Right. They
played the record multiple times, sometimes at different speeds.
Speaker 4 (15:46):
That's right. Yeah, And it's crazy.
Speaker 7 (15:49):
You can actually get like there's a collection of memos
on the FBI's website Vault dot FBI dot gov Louis Dash,
Louis Dash, the Dash song Slash Louis Dash, Louis dah
Da song Slash view, and you can see this entire
collection of every document associated with it, including the original complaints,
including the perceived lyrics and several other things, and including
(16:13):
ultimately the fact that yeah, there really wasn't anything there.
It was a whole lot of inks built for nothing.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
And I'll tell you why.
Speaker 7 (16:21):
The original version of this song was written by a
guy named Richard Barry, and he was trying to capitalize
on this like Calypso craze, you know, like Harry Belafonte
and you know, come Miss Missed, tally Man, Tally Me
Banana and all that stuff.
Speaker 5 (16:40):
Deo.
Speaker 7 (16:41):
So he sang this song in that style with kind
of a fake Jamaican patois right?
Speaker 4 (16:48):
Can we hear a little clip of that true.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Waiting for me?
Speaker 2 (17:01):
We kids the scene, cross the scene, I see the
scene alone, a never thing.
Speaker 9 (17:12):
You know.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
And something happened to Barry that was unfortunately common for
a lot of musicians at this time. He signed away
his rights to the song in nineteen fifty nine, so
he was not widely associated with it, nor did he
reap any profit. But you can agree just with that cursory. Listen,
it's a much different version, Isn't that correct?
Speaker 4 (17:34):
It's a much different version.
Speaker 7 (17:36):
And it also points out that the lyrics, if sung
as written, are pretty benign. There's a little talk of
the love of a lady, but it's all very you know, gentlemanly,
and it's about missing your gal when you're when you're
a sailor and you're you're off to sea and waiting
to get back to her, and it's all very romantic
(17:57):
and not at all Six Ways to Sunday not.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
At all untoured. And that goes back to what I
was saying earlier about how you can see the Kingsman
versions live when they're not shouting at the ceiling. Oh
do we also mention that when they were in the studio,
the engineer and producer had the entire band surround Jack
Eli in a circle while they were awayaleing on that stuff.
Speaker 4 (18:20):
So yeah, it sounds like this guy was not exactly
a pro.
Speaker 7 (18:24):
But I think in those days there was a lot
more like sharing microphones and just kind of like the
tiny desk concert treatment, right right, I have that one
mic and you arrange everybody so that they get a
good spread of sound, but it's all going to this
one capturing.
Speaker 4 (18:40):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
The weird thing about this investigation too, is you heard
us mention the laboratory examinations. They did play the record
at different speeds, they attempted to discern or divine a
meaning that did not necessarily exist, and they found that
even in their examine in an FBI lab, they found
(19:02):
the lyrics still to be unintelligible, which I think is
a bit a bit absurd, but even more absurd, at
no time ever did they write to Jack Eli, the
guy who sang the song. It was as simple as
just asking him.
Speaker 5 (19:18):
Hey, what is this?
Speaker 7 (19:20):
Yeah, exactly, And it did come out later from Eli
himself when quizzed about this eventually that he that it
was a faithful cover of the the original version by
Richard Barry and if you didn't catch it, And when
we played it back, the lyrics to that are Louis Louis,
Oh baby me, me gotta go right and then a
(19:42):
fine little girl, she waits for me, catch the ship
across the sea. I sailed the ship all alone. I
never think I'll make it home, you know. But that
little one two three one two one two three is
just rife for just put in whatever syllables you want
and just just freestyle it, you know.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
And that riff, that riff actually didn't come from Barry,
did it.
Speaker 4 (20:05):
It didn't. It came from what was it?
Speaker 7 (20:06):
A Cuban American band leader named Renee Tousey's tune El
Loco cha cha.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
His his version had it played on piano with a
nice brass song. But even that song reputedly is based
on another Cuban tune.
Speaker 4 (20:25):
Yeah, it's crazy.
Speaker 7 (20:26):
How you see that happening with things kind of mutating
over time or just being wholesale ripped.
Speaker 4 (20:33):
Off to check out?
Speaker 2 (20:34):
How still how square the government comes across At this point,
Uncle Sam reaches out through multiple institutions, not just the FBI,
A guy named Ben F. Wopple, who I will reluctantly say,
go Ben's to because he doesn't sound like a bad person,
just super confused. He wrote to WAND Records. Who's the
(20:54):
secretary of the Federal Communications Commission and or FCC? He
wrote in October of nineteen sixty three to the record
company and asked whether, even though unobjectionable lyrics were used
in recording the song, there was improper motivation on the
parts of the singers in making the recorded lyrics so
(21:15):
unintelligible as to give rise to reports that they were obscene.
Speaker 7 (21:19):
Whoa whoa, whoa, whoa whoa America, Get your mind out
of the gutter, is what I say to that.
Speaker 4 (21:24):
That's so ridiculous. That is the dumbest thing I've ever
heard in my life.
Speaker 7 (21:28):
How dare you shroud the content of your lyrics in
mumbly faraway recordedness because my mind is obviously going to
turn them into smut.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
Right, and it's phrased in such a circuitous, unnecessarily verbose way.
That's that's it's like a conspiracy theory. He's asking them
about a conspiracy. We also want to point out the
Kingsmen did not directly. They didn't see Barry song and
say ah, that's mine now. They took it from another
(22:04):
cover version by a group called the Whalers.
Speaker 4 (22:07):
Like Bob Marley and the Whalers.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
I don't think so. I don't think so. Their version
of the song came out in nineteen sixty one.
Speaker 7 (22:16):
Noah, it's way earlier for that for them Whalers, different Whalers.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
And again, you know, the Kingsmen here are not like
these sharky people out to rip off and plagiarize. This
is a song they heard on jukeboxes around Portland and
Jack Eli brought it to rehearsal because he thought it
was cool. They were a house band.
Speaker 7 (22:36):
Oh, not to mention they are just a pack of
dapper young lads, fresh faced us. Look like they'd be,
you know, playing the Enchantment, under the Sea Dance and
back to the Future. I mean, really clean cut. They
do not look like some kind of you know, raunchy greasers.
Speaker 4 (22:52):
But it's cool though.
Speaker 7 (22:53):
When you hear the recording, it has this fun, live,
raw quality to it.
Speaker 4 (22:58):
Yeah, the way the vocals are.
Speaker 7 (23:00):
The way the drums are so in your face, the
way that keyboard sounds that I understand what an influential
recording this was, separated from all the controversy.
Speaker 4 (23:11):
Yeah, it's catchy.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
It's catchy enough that you don't have to speak English
or know what they're saying to enjoy the actual song itself. Again,
if you don't believe us, and do you think there
is something a bit sinister and raunchy about this song,
please go check out their live performances. They're doing that
little jaunty move where they go shoulder to shoulder up
(23:35):
and down when they're singing or playing, the way that
a lot of fifties and sixties boy bands they're popping. Yeah,
they're bopping or poppin', and it looks like the most
innocuous thing. It looks.
Speaker 4 (23:47):
It looks like a guy.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Honestly, it looks like a guy who has never been
a sailor singing a song he heard about a girl
from a sailor.
Speaker 7 (23:56):
Yeah, well, man, I have a proposition for you.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
I think I can anticipate this proposition.
Speaker 7 (24:05):
What do you say we extend this conversation, widen this
net with a little extra credit.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
Sounds great. This is our second time doing our extra
credit segment.
Speaker 4 (24:23):
Which is the second time.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
Yeah, only second time, which is where we go above
and beyond and look to our wonderful friends, colleagues and
collaborators for some assistance and friends, neighbors. We mention one
guy on our show quite a bit, but you may
be wondering if he's a real person or if we
just made him up. Well, the rumors are true. He
(24:45):
is real. We have him here today, Friends and neighbors.
Christopher hasiotis you guys?
Speaker 5 (24:51):
I am real. I've I've been sitting over there this
whole time.
Speaker 7 (24:54):
In here. He's always He's like Jack Torrance in the Shining.
I've always been there.
Speaker 5 (25:01):
Wherever there's a need for research on a podcast, You're
just there.
Speaker 4 (25:05):
We're lucky to have you as our research caretaker.
Speaker 5 (25:08):
I'm happy to be here.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Thanks for coming on the show. Man Now off air,
you reached out to us because this really inspired you
to dig into the story. Right, like Louie Louie, I
feel like it struck a personal chord with you.
Speaker 5 (25:21):
Well, I know, in a past life, if I'm honest,
I was a music journalist. And that's not just an
imaginary past life. That's a real past life, and a
lot of my career early on, I was out late
at clubs seeing rock bands, just kind of soaking in music.
I used to DJ dance parties and what yeah, yeah,
like I said, a past life. But yeah, so I
(25:44):
spent probably, I don't know, an hour more than I
should have, just digging deep into different versions of Louie Louie,
because it's one of the most covered, most recorded songs
out there, if not the most, And I honestly I
could have spent hours more doing it, but I thought
I would bring you guys some of those versions.
Speaker 7 (26:05):
Oh I'm sorry, I had to retroactively make a joke.
This song must have actually struck three chords with you,
A D and E minor.
Speaker 5 (26:13):
Is that where you were looking up?
Speaker 4 (26:14):
Yeah, that's job. Yeah, it was.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
Worth it, So Christophers, you know, since you were here
the whole time. Earlier we talked a little bit about
the origins of Louie Louis and I did not know
it was so extensively covered until you showed us this
astonishing list which has some surprising bands on it. Did
you notice that long?
Speaker 4 (26:36):
I did.
Speaker 7 (26:36):
I have a theory though, because it's such an open
ended song that's three chords and it's just easy to
just to kind of go to town on vocally, as
evidence by the Kingsman version, and why it was such
a headache for the FBI, because this guy's just kind
of like mumbling all this crazy stuff.
Speaker 4 (26:52):
It could be anything.
Speaker 7 (26:53):
I think that's got like an appeal where it's like
I want to do my own crazy rambling version of
Louis lou.
Speaker 5 (26:58):
Yeah, it's it's it's a pretty basic song, and that
goes back to actually its origins, which you guys talked
about a little bit. But the origins of rock and
roll are in rhythm and blues and the African American
musical experience. But one of the most ridiculous things about
rock history is the under explored influence of Latin music
(27:18):
on rock and roll. Usually I would say Cuban American music.
So Richard Barry, who wrote Louie Louie back in nineteen
fifty five, he was at a club and he heard
this band, Ricky Rieira and the Rhythm Rockers say it
five times fast. Nope, Ricky Rieira and the Rhythm Rockers,
(27:39):
And they were playing a cover version of a song
popular at the time in the mid fifties, a song
by Renee Tuse. It was called Eloco Chacha. So I
look at you, guys. I think you're gentlemen of the world.
You're probably skilled a ballroom dance. Oh yeah, so you
take your typical cha cha and how does that go?
You've got one one to two chat cha three four exactly.
(28:03):
Now what's really crazy? What's really loco? What if you
flipped it to chat chat chaw one two chat chat
cha three four.
Speaker 4 (28:15):
Genius? So uh, flipping the scrip making a whole new thing, exactly.
Speaker 5 (28:19):
And and we've actually, we've got Renee Tuesday's version of
al loco chat Cha. Maybe Casey can queue it up
a bit.
Speaker 4 (28:25):
I would love to hear it in real time. Let's
check it out at that nice Latin cow bell action.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
I feel good for everybody listening. We all instantly started nodding,
Oh hear that horn section.
Speaker 5 (28:40):
Yeah yeah. And so this is the tune that Richard
Barry heard a cover version of and the story goes
he he loved it so much that he said, I
want to write a song to this tune, which you know,
I guess you could do it the day.
Speaker 7 (28:56):
Yeah, so just a very diplomatic way of saying, I'm
a that.
Speaker 5 (29:00):
I like this. Yeah, I don't want to work too hard, right,
so I'm going.
Speaker 4 (29:03):
To take this well he wrote his own lyrics, he.
Speaker 5 (29:05):
Did, and reportedly he wrote them that night at the
club on either depending on who you hear from, a
napkin or a piece.
Speaker 4 (29:14):
Of toilet paper, perhaps a matchbook. Yeah, I don't know,
that's my version.
Speaker 7 (29:17):
We talked a little bit earlier in the show about
the fact that there was this kind of Calypso craze
at the time that was hot business, and Barry, in
addition to being having a very perceptive ear picking up
on something that he thought might hit, he also wanted
to capitalize on this Calypso craze. And it totally works
(29:39):
in that genre, especially the fact that he's sang it
with kind of a fake Jamaican petois, right.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
Exactly, and that what we've confirmed, right that is absolutely affectation.
Speaker 4 (29:48):
Correct.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
Yes, So in this strange agglomeration of what could be
called aggressive covering or plagiarization, we see a pattern that
continue even to the modern day. What are some of
the strangest covers you found?
Speaker 5 (30:04):
So there's a wide variety of covers of this song,
from the traditional to the really kind of off the wall.
I wanted to start out with one that is from
nineteen sixty five. We're here in Georgia recording, so I
thought i'd go with a Georgia recording artist, mister Otis Redding.
Oh yeah, all right, so you've got it kind of
a really soulful R and B version of Louis Louis.
Speaker 4 (30:27):
Oh I love me some Otis. Let's hear it. Oh buddy,
I like it. Interesting change up there.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
He's making it his own, he doesn't have to go.
Speaker 7 (30:48):
And he's doing a bit of a Louis Lua yeah,
which I like.
Speaker 4 (30:51):
Yeah, we see what I'm saying.
Speaker 7 (30:53):
Though.
Speaker 4 (30:54):
It's just rife for ad libbing, right.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
It's almost like a modern folk bay where it seems
no one really owns it and everyone makes it their
own when they record it. Well.
Speaker 5 (31:05):
And one of the things I like about Louie Louie,
and especially its tradition of having unintelligible lyrics to a
certain degree, is it. I think it really shines when
the singer's voice itself just has a feeling, and I
think that is I mean, otis reading his voice. He
could sing whatever, and clearly he is, and you just
feel it, you know, I mean, sing the phone Book.
Absolutely So. In the sixties, there are a lot of
(31:27):
other covers of Louie Louie that kind of go along
the same lines as the Kingsman version. You know, You've
got the Trogs. The Sonics do a much kind of
dirtier garage rock version. Those are all great, but let's
dive into one that's a little weirder. This is still
sort of in the rock genre. But got a guy
named Mike Dezy, now Mike Dezy. He's a studio pro,
(31:48):
He's a guitar guy. So this guy has appeared on
recordings by the Everly Brothers by Richie Vallens. He toured
with the Coasters. He was in the Wrecking Crew, which
was the famous recording band who recordings like pet Sounds.
He played on albums by The Monkeys by Michael Jackson,
Frank Zappa, Sinatra, streisand this guy Mike Deasy was one
(32:10):
of the guitarists on the stage for Elvis Presley's nineteen
sixty eight comeback special, That TV special where Yeah the
Black Leather Yeah Yeah, and Mike Deasy was one of
the guitarists. So this guy Mike has a long career
of backing up other folks, but in nineteen sixty seven
he put out his own solo album to show off
(32:30):
his guitar virtuosity under the name Friar Tuck and his
Psychedelic Guitar.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
I've got a screwed to the edge of my seat
for guess what. Yeah, Casey, can you hit it for us?
Speaker 4 (32:50):
Oh? I love this all right so much? Oh, there
we go.
Speaker 5 (33:00):
So it's it's it's mellow.
Speaker 4 (33:04):
You can see me right now. I'm swaying back and
forth with a goofy grin of.
Speaker 5 (33:07):
My no looks dreamy.
Speaker 4 (33:12):
There we go.
Speaker 5 (33:17):
So it's got that sort of dawzy psychedelic this.
Speaker 4 (33:23):
Yeah, right up my house.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
I'm gonna play this.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (33:26):
He is my favorite so far, big time.
Speaker 7 (33:31):
I always want to hear up to the verse because
everyone does their own thing. They change the lyrics, they
do their own different Cadence. I want to hear what
this does with it.
Speaker 4 (33:42):
No, I think that maybe maybe they're not even gonna
do a verse.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
I love the finger People too.
Speaker 5 (33:47):
I mean, this is it's Friar talk and his psychedelic guitar.
And I would totally recommend looking up this record online
because the cover of the album is pretty stellar. Looks
like a total weirdo.
Speaker 4 (33:59):
I love the fact if there are no verses, it's
all just vamps. It's about the experience. Yeah, now this
is dope.
Speaker 5 (34:05):
I love it. I mean again, the verses, if you
can't understand them, do you need them?
Speaker 2 (34:09):
No nights.
Speaker 4 (34:10):
Yeah, it's about the feeling about.
Speaker 5 (34:12):
The feeling, And it looks like you guys, to those
of you listening who can't see Nolan Benner feeling this,
Oh I'm feeling it hard.
Speaker 4 (34:20):
Yeah, I think that's going.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
To stay with men. I'm kind of sad that we
am kind of sad that we can't just play that
entire song right now. But what's the next cover?
Speaker 5 (34:29):
So here we're going to go forward a couple of years.
We're still sticking in the sixties. So nineteen sixty nine.
The singer Julie London, she is famously known for having
this really kind of mellow affect, really nice, kind of soft, hazy,
smoky vocals. And she put out a record called Yummy, Yummy,
Yummy in nineteen sixty nine, and her version of Louis
(34:50):
Louis closes out that album, and it's just got sort
of a really quiet, almost narcotic vibe going on. It's
unlike most of the other versions you hear, which are
a little more upbeat.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
Can I say, just before we roll this, you were
doing a fantastic job curating this music for us. Do
you make mixtapes?
Speaker 5 (35:11):
I do make mixtapes, mix CITs, all that liner notes,
whatever you need. Were you a younger person and I
a younger person, I might, you know, put together a
mixtape to try to woo you. And these are the
things a younger man does.
Speaker 7 (35:24):
Oh yeah, it's the lost art the mixtape. Now it's
just the Spotify playlist, which isn't nearly as sexy.
Speaker 4 (35:30):
What's the works you know?
Speaker 7 (35:31):
Oh yeah, it's it's woo worthy. I used to get
Smashing Pumpkins bootlegs in the mail. I would trade with
people on message boards and they would always take the
rest of the tape that wasn't full of the bootleg
and put Filler songs on it, And that's how I
learned about a lot of new music back in the day.
It was from Filler on Smashing Pumpkins bootleg. Yes, all right,
(35:51):
but yeah, Casey, can we can we hear the Julie
London version from sixty nine?
Speaker 2 (35:57):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (35:59):
Already dramatic.
Speaker 4 (36:10):
I was not expecting that because super.
Speaker 5 (36:13):
Ben's eyebrows just arch stuff.
Speaker 4 (36:19):
Hmm, I really go, I gotta go.
Speaker 5 (36:26):
Yeah, it's a little bit of a Dusty Springfield vibe. Dude.
Speaker 7 (36:29):
I was just about to say, I've been listening to
nothing but Dusty and Memphis for the past couple of weeks.
Speaker 4 (36:35):
So good, very much so.
Speaker 7 (36:37):
Yeah, it's almost got that kind of Nico narcotic, kind
of like hazy vibe.
Speaker 5 (36:43):
Well, here we go.
Speaker 4 (36:44):
I'll hear this first.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
I liked how they're putting in almost any instrument that
what gets It's amazing.
Speaker 5 (36:53):
Yeah, and I always really enjoy when a song will
flip the gender. You know, she's singing about a boy
across the sea as I was to a girl.
Speaker 4 (37:00):
Yeah, and this feels very intimate.
Speaker 2 (37:04):
Yeah, you know, her voice feels very close but also.
Speaker 7 (37:07):
Very cinematic because it's like that schmaltzy Burt backer Aki
kind of arrangement, and then her vocal is very front
and center. Such a departure from the Kingsman where the
vocals a mile away and completely unintelligible.
Speaker 4 (37:20):
I love this's let's go on.
Speaker 5 (37:23):
Yeah cool.
Speaker 4 (37:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (37:24):
So this next version, we're going back to the islands
where the song kind of has its origins in that
crossing the Sea Calypso Vibe. Toots in the May Towels
are an acclaimed iconic band from Jamaica from the sixties
and the seventies, and this version from the early seventies,
Toots Hibbert's just kind of he just sings his heart
out on this reggae, ska and rock setti inspired version.
Speaker 4 (37:48):
Let's hear it, there we go.
Speaker 2 (38:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (38:08):
It just makes you want to kind of sit on
a beach.
Speaker 2 (38:10):
Yeah, I want to leave the studio hop on a plane.
Speaker 5 (38:14):
You know again, you can kind of just do whatever
you want with the song, yeah, and make it your own.
It's very true. It's very true. It's great vamps. Yeah,
we could stay here all day listening to all these two.
But let's I'm gonna I'm gonna bring the next one
is a lot harsher, a lot louder. But the reason
I wanted to play this song for you it's by
(38:36):
Iggy and the Stooges, so famously Iggy Pop and his
and his band Punk Pioneer. The reason I wanted to
play this song. The version I'm Gonna play for You
is off of the nineteen seventy four record Metallic Ko,
which is a live album, and it's a live recording
of the Stooge's last two shows ever in Detroit. They
wouldn't play again together until they reunited. I don't know
(38:58):
ten years ago or since I'm on that tour at
the forty what in a Georgia, But the very last
song they played at their very last show in the
seventies was Louie Louie. And one thing that's particularly resonant
about this song the Stooges have a personal connection to
Louie Louis. It's not just that they love the song,
although they love all that classic rock and roll. Dan Galucci,
(39:20):
who played keyboards on the Kingsman version of Louie Louie,
he was kicked out of the band he was too
young to go on tour.
Speaker 4 (39:28):
That's what I heard that.
Speaker 5 (39:29):
Yeah, his parents would not let him go out on
tour from whatever. Yeah, so Dan, but he played keys
on the recording. What he ended up doing with his
life though, he was a record producer, Yeah, and Elektra
for Electra and Electra put out a lot of the
Stages records. Dan Galucci produced The Stooge's Fun House, which
(39:50):
is an iconic, iconic album.
Speaker 4 (39:52):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 5 (39:53):
So they've got the Stuges have this personal connection to
Louie Louis. The live version, they get wild, they get aucus,
they get pretty vulgar. You can find some some B
sides and some studio outtakes of a cleaner version. But
I wanted to play this live version just because it
was the very last song they played at their very
last show.
Speaker 2 (40:11):
I'm gonna stand up for this week, Yes.
Speaker 5 (40:21):
You see.
Speaker 7 (40:30):
To me, this is like full circle back to the
uh the original version with the Kingsman. It's got that thrashy,
bashy drum sound, that irreverent snotty kind of vocal.
Speaker 5 (40:42):
It is really dirty garage.
Speaker 2 (40:44):
And didn't they purposely change the lyrics to be offensive or.
Speaker 5 (40:49):
Yeah, we're gonna have to fade this out pretty soon,
because I do get pretty old.
Speaker 4 (40:53):
Let it right, we'll give it a bleed we get
we'll give it the bleep.
Speaker 5 (40:55):
Treatment I want to hear.
Speaker 4 (41:02):
So that's a taste of it. That's a taste.
Speaker 7 (41:05):
Well, what's funny is he's doing kind of the lyrics
that the FBI said were the lyrics to the song
that they.
Speaker 2 (41:13):
Weren't exactly definitely doing something similar.
Speaker 5 (41:16):
Yeah, you think this is vulgar, Let's make it vulgar.
Speaker 2 (41:18):
Right, which is smart. I think that's tremendously clever. So
it sounds like we have time for just one more
cover that might surprise some people.
Speaker 5 (41:29):
Yeah, we're gonna go to nineteen eighty three Brooklyn for
this one. We're going away from rock and roll and
we're going to early rap. The Fat Boys The Year
of my birth Oh at fat Boy, Happy birthday, Thanks Budding. Yeah,
I'm glad you're here. Me too, Glad you're here. Oh guys, Well,
I'm glad we're gonna listen to this song. The Fat
Boys they are Brooklyn Trio, iconic rap group, kind of
(41:51):
a jokey rap group, but they took a really meta
approach to their version of Louie Louis, and they talked
about what we've been talking about for a while.
Speaker 4 (42:01):
Full circle, my friend, it's a party jam. Yeah, yeah,
(42:23):
this is a banger.
Speaker 9 (42:28):
About music. What day she told me about this song
cock a big frumble, big thought it was hilpy coock
the word what the lyrics.
Speaker 5 (42:48):
Won.
Speaker 2 (42:50):
So this is fantastic because this song is about the
history of the song they are covering exactly.
Speaker 4 (42:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (42:56):
Yeah, So you get into the sort of meta commentary
where the the singer is talking about a song that
his mom heard and his mom is telling him about it,
and then they're singing it and there's all these layers.
So you tie in this idea of profanity, of violating
social norms, of words causing outrage but also words causing
tons of joy.
Speaker 2 (43:17):
So break it down for us, Christopher, if you could.
Was there any actual validity to the rumors of obscenity
and the Kingsman's Louis Louis? Was there any reason for
the beef?
Speaker 5 (43:31):
Absolutely not and totally here kay, here's the last bit
of extra credit that I'm gonna give you, guys. The
lyrics of Louie Louis contained no obscenities, but the recording.
Did the drummer drops one of his drumsticks and he
shouts out an obscenity in the background, and it made
(43:53):
it on the record. Nobody noticed, The FBI didn't notice,
and this is confirmed later in interviews with the drummer.
In interviews with the band, they said, Yeah, there's a
bad word in there, and if you turn up the song,
you know, you wouldn't know it at first, but if
you know what you're looking for, you're gonna hear a
knotty word.
Speaker 4 (44:11):
Oh wow.
Speaker 7 (44:12):
Man, just goes to show like misdirection is a hell
of a thing, right, Not not that either they were
trying to misdirect anybody, but people were so caught up
on the unintelligibility of the lyrics that their minds created
this problem that just wasn't there. All from a couple
of angry letters from irate moms and I think a
dad as well.
Speaker 2 (44:33):
Yeah, and then went on to make a conspiracy.
Speaker 4 (44:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (44:35):
It goes to show you can you can affect change
by writing a letter.
Speaker 4 (44:39):
M h and uh, but maybe maybe you should, maybe
you just don't. Yeah, I just want to go Christopher, though.
Speaker 2 (44:46):
We don't want to let this segment go. Thank you
so much for coming on to extra credit. Thank you
for appearing on our show.
Speaker 5 (44:54):
So great to be here, you guys. And and you know,
if listeners dig this, there are tons of other cover
songs for Louis Louis they can dive into. There's Joan Jet.
There is a Barry White cover that I really really
wanted to play for you guys, but maybe we'll do
that in private.
Speaker 7 (45:08):
Ye yeah, whoa, you know it's Barry White, that's true.
I remember hearing it was actually on the Wayne's World soundtrack.
I believe a Robert Plant version of it where he's,
you know, singing in his classic Zep voice and you know,
just really wailing and I couldn't understand the lyrics then either.
Speaker 5 (45:25):
Yeah, there's there's a lot of live versions of Zeppelin.
There's a great live Bruce Springsteen version from a couple
of years ago. There's a Smashing Pumpkins version. Noel, Yeah,
I gotta say it's not that great.
Speaker 4 (45:35):
Well, I can't imagine it would be. And I'm also
there dead to me.
Speaker 2 (45:38):
So at this at this point, to me, this is
this is an historic moment for our show, because folks
ridiculous his stories. You're finally able to meet the guy
that we talk about so much, and I think he
measures up to the height.
Speaker 4 (45:54):
Hi, everybody, I agree, this is a lot of fun.
So thank you Christopher for joining us.
Speaker 7 (45:59):
Thanks to our super producer Casey Pegram and Alex Williams,
who composed our theme.
Speaker 2 (46:04):
Most importantly, thanks to you for tuning in if you
had twenty percent as much fun listening to this as
we did recording it. That our work here is done,
stay tuned and check us out our next episode, we
explore the Albasas War, a forty year conflict sparked by
(46:28):
and you guys know this is big for me because
iways talking about feathers on camel's backs sparked by feathers
a camel. Oh So in the meantime, let us know
what your favorite cover of Louie Louis is. You can
find us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, where we are
Ridiculous History or some variation thereof. You can also check
(46:50):
out our community page Ridiculous Historians.
Speaker 5 (46:53):
And Ben maybe we can post some of these versions
in that community group.
Speaker 4 (46:56):
Oh, I think that's a great idea perfect. See you
next time, everybody.
Speaker 7 (47:05):
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Lou Louie b.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. All right, So the
FBI is super weird about some things, right. They're very smart,
they they make they love a list, and they also
have a myopic focus at times on pop culture. Noel,
(00:26):
you and I were just sort of doing a I
would say, a rendition of a song by the Kingsman
called Louie Louis.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Yeah, and the aforementioned FBI was often looking for enemies,
I guess, of these United States and places that might
seem a little odd, including popular music. So we're gonna
hear a bunch of examples of the song Louie Louis
in this special episode where Christophrasiotis is not only here
in spirit, but here in the flesh.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Let's roll the tape. Ridiculous History is a production of
iHeart Radio.
Speaker 4 (01:28):
Oh yeah, you.
Speaker 5 (01:30):
Know what that sound means? A Delphic Keys and.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Yeah and do I oh, oh gravy.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
You gotta go, here you go.
Speaker 6 (01:49):
Here's the part where it really gets understand, that's my
shoes history, these are the Kingsmen, this is Louis Louie.
Speaker 4 (02:11):
Here we are. Wow, what a day, What a time
to be alive.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
And that music comes to us, of course, courtesy of
our super producer, Casey Pegrom. But no, why are we
playing Louis Louie.
Speaker 4 (02:25):
Today, because you see, Ben Louie.
Speaker 7 (02:28):
Louie has a bit of a sordid past the song,
this version in particular by the Kingsman, in that it
was investigated by none other than the Federal Bureau of
Investigation for being potentially obscene. And if you couldn't tell
by our rambling sing along at the beginning of the show,
this is kind of a bit of a joke because
you can't really understand a word these guys are saying.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Right, The FBI did not just give this a cursory investigation.
They investigated this particular version of the song. It is not,
as some people believe, the original version of the song,
it's cover, and they investigated the Kingsman version for two years.
Specifically it's crazy, yeah, specifically the lyrics of the song,
(03:14):
which might sound kind of crazy and a weird order
of priorities for the FBI, but it's actually part of
their job to fight obscenity.
Speaker 7 (03:22):
They take these kinds of complaints from angry, waspy middle
class mothers very seriously, and that is exactly what kicked
off this investigation, my friend.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Right, they received a letter from someone at Sarasota High
School who said the lyrics to the song were quote
so filthy that I cannot endorse them. In this letter,
we all know there is obscene materials available for those
who seek it. But when they start sneaking in this
material in the guys of the latest teenage rock and
(03:55):
roll hit record, these morons have gone too far.
Speaker 7 (03:59):
Oh these more well, which more ons you're talking about,
like the purveyors of said smut?
Speaker 2 (04:04):
I guess so some international conspiracy.
Speaker 4 (04:06):
You guys in the band spread dirty words. Who were
the guys in the band? What's the history of the Kingsman?
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Excellent question, Nold. The Kingsmen were, or excuse me, they're
still around, a garage rock band from Portland, Oregon. And
the guy who ended up singing this version of Louis
Louis that we opened the show with was invited to
the band in nineteen fifty nine.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
I believe he got the boot pretty shortly after.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Yeah, he didn't sing on all their songs, but he
did sing on the one that I would say they're
most well known for this song. Would you agree?
Speaker 4 (04:42):
I certainly don't know them for anything else.
Speaker 7 (04:44):
Yeah, And it's interesting too because this band does live
on this particular version of this song as an influence
from for a lot of like kind of grungy garage
punk type stuff, everything from like Black Flag to iggy pop.
And we'll get into a little bit more of that
kind of rock and roll history connection a little further
down the line. So the original Kingsmen were Don Glucci,
(05:08):
Jack Eli, who was the singer in question, Lynn Easton,
Mike Mitchell, and Bob Norby, and these fellas booked a
recording session at a studio in Portland, Oregon, which was
at Northwest thirteenth Avenue in Burnside Street. And it was
a little bit of an odd setup, wasn't it.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Ben It was Noel First, which established the session only
cost fifty bucks. The band split it amongst themselves because.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
They didn't have a label. They were just doing this
on spec.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Right, And their producer for the session was a guy
named Ken Chase, a local radio personality at a station
called ninety one kisn or wait for it, Kissing. He
also owned a nightclub where the Kingsmen regularly performed, so
(05:58):
he was the producer, and that was the connect that
was there in their actual audio engineer was the guy
who owned the studio, whose name was Robert Lindall, and
apparently he had some really particular ideas about how the
studio should be set up. You can hear Jack Eli
explaining some of the physicalities of the room.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
Let's let's just throw to a clip of him in
his own words.
Speaker 8 (06:24):
In order to capture what Ken thought was the live sound,
he had us set up in a circle with me
standing in the middle singing into the mic, and it
still didn't sound quite right. He had to run through
about eight bars or so, and it still didn't sound
quite right to him. So he had a technician come
in and take the mic and put it on a
(06:44):
boom and stick it up at the ceiling. That's about
a fifteen foot ceiling. So the mic was hanging probably
i don't know, eighteen to twenty four inches off the ceiling,
and I was directly under it, leaning my head back,
yelling up at this mic. Well, it didn't have anything
to do really with how far the mic was away
from me. What it really had to do with is
(07:07):
how words get enunciated when your head's tipped all the
way back and you're yelling up because you see Louie
Louie didn't come out like Louis Louie. I would say
it when I'm standing facing normal, when my head's all
stretched up and back, it came out Louli light.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
So eventually, long story short, they end up putting these
microphones on the ceiling and it's like fifteen feet high.
Speaker 7 (07:33):
I don't quite understand the function of that. I read
somewhere saying so it would sound like a live concert,
but it was like, is it literally a one mic setup?
That's because it's so funny when you hear the recording. Yeah,
it's it sounds, you know, kind of raunchy and lo fi,
but there's pretty good separation. But that vocal is what
(07:54):
really stands out, because it does sound very low in
the mix. So I imagine had to have been a
very minimally mic such situation where this mike was a
high and apparently he had to crane his neck at
like a forty five degree angle yeah, and kind of
shout saying up and up into the air to get
over the din of the of the band, and the
drummer is just pound in a way, it's like, well.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Yeah, yeah, he he does mention that it's difficult to
enunciate in a normal way when you have your neck
physically positioned to aim in a shout at the ceiling
because he's also shouting to be heard over the music.
Speaker 7 (08:30):
And he had braces that had just been tightened. That's
such a such a funny detail, such a strange aspect
to the story. For anyone interested. You can also go
on YouTube and see some early live appearances. There are
the Kingsmen run a show called Shindig, and it's much
easier to hear what Jack is saying, or we should say,
(08:52):
rather to discern what Jack is saying. But most people,
(09:22):
let's be honest, they're not going to be watching that
live version.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
They're going to listen to the iconic.
Speaker 4 (09:29):
That's right.
Speaker 7 (09:29):
And I'll tell you man, Shindig was a pretty risque
show at the time, because I swear some of these
gals are showing shin it's happening, you know, when they're
cutting their rugs, you know.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
And so this this song, it hits the charts, but
it doesn't quite get to number one. And I think
there's a story that that you found particularly fascinating about
the song that beat it.
Speaker 7 (09:53):
Yeah, it's a little weird, kind of melancholy aside, but
why not, We're all.
Speaker 4 (09:57):
About little asides.
Speaker 7 (09:58):
It's a song called Dominique and it is a French
language song, which is so interesting to me that that
topped the charts. And you may have heard this song
if you watched the show American Horror Story, specifically the
Asylum season.
Speaker 4 (10:31):
A Domini.
Speaker 7 (10:40):
You might remember this is the one that Sister Jude
was the only song that she approved of, and there's
an interesting reason behind it. There's a great article on
Noisy called what you Didn't Know about that song you
hear on American Horror Story every week from back when
this show was current. So the woman credited with this
hit was a Belgian singer by the name of Janine
Decker's and she went by the name the singing None
(11:02):
or it need you to help me out with this Casey.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
On the case.
Speaker 5 (11:07):
Yeah, that would be pronounced sir sir Year, which is
sister Smile in French.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Sister smile ladies and gentlemen, Casey on the case. So
she's Sister Smile.
Speaker 7 (11:19):
Or aka the singing Nun aka Jannine Deckers.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
And the Singing None in English speaking countries.
Speaker 4 (11:25):
That's right, that's right. And this song was a huge hit.
Speaker 5 (11:27):
It was number one.
Speaker 7 (11:28):
It totally bumped the It didn't give the Kingsmen a
chance for It's just crazy to me that this song
was such a massive hit and it's so kind of
more or less forgotten now, you know, compared to Louis Louis,
which is iconic in many ways.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
It was an interesting it was an interesting year for music.
This is specifically nineteen sixty three, right, right, Yeah, it
is interesting because we've got one song that's entirely in
French and then one song that is considered more or
less largely unintelligible. But there's a little more to the
story of the Singing Nun.
Speaker 5 (12:02):
There is.
Speaker 7 (12:03):
One of the interesting things that this Noisy article points
out is that Dominique, the saint in question, was the
founder of the particular religious order that brought about the
Spanish Inquisition. So that goes hand in hand with some
of the grizzliness on American horror story. And this is
interesting this Genine Decker ended up having a female partner
(12:30):
back during a time where open, you know, homosexuality was
just very very taboo, and she ended up signing or
agreeing to a suicide pact with her. And in nineteen
eighty five, when they're still together, they overdosed on barbituates
together and left a note that said, we have reached
the end spiritually and financially, and now we go to God.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
And that was her partner was Annie Petcher, that's right,
who was I think a little bit younger, but they
had a very deep in life relationship.
Speaker 7 (13:00):
And now it's such a sad story, but I think
so interesting, absolutely worth Mentioning.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Back to the Kingsman, it's a fantastic article in The
New Yorker by Unwin Crawford called is this the dirtiest
song of the sixties? And again, for at least two years,
the FBI certainly thought so. So Robert Kennedy. It gets
involved in this because.
Speaker 4 (13:30):
He Robert Kennedy.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
He Robert Kennedy because he receives letters personally complaining about
the songs possible or perceived obscenity. Once it blows up
and it's number two on the Billboard single chart, and
a father of a teenage girl in particular, writing to Kennedy, said,
this land of ours is headed for an extreme state
of moral degradation, and people started sending in various versions
(13:56):
of what they perceived the lyrics to be. And they're
pretty they're pretty filthy. Have you read some of the oh?
Speaker 4 (14:03):
I have?
Speaker 7 (14:04):
And it just goes to show that like the most
puritanical seeming mind can still be in the gutter when
you think you're trying to find filth everywhere.
Speaker 4 (14:14):
Yeah, that's the thing.
Speaker 7 (14:15):
This is such a warshack test kind of thing for me,
because the lyrics really are utter gobbledegook, right, you could
you could read the real lyrics here and there.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
If you haven't seen the real lyrics yet, then do
check them out. But wait till the end of this podcast.
Just keep go with us a little bit further. We
promise it's worth it. Some of the perceived lyrics, where
the lyrics that people thought they were hearing are things
like we'll have to do an edited version of this.
But every night and day I play with my thing,
(14:50):
bleep your girl, all kinds of ways.
Speaker 7 (14:53):
All the ways, multitudes six ways to Sunday as they say, Yeah,
and it's it's interesting to be because when this really
starts to heat up and this investigation is going on
apparently what they call him g men. Right, Sure, they'd
go to the clubs and can see the band and
try to like read their lips or whatever to try
(15:15):
to like see what the secret lyrics.
Speaker 5 (15:17):
Right.
Speaker 7 (15:17):
I just think this is such a funny witch hunt
kind of situation.
Speaker 4 (15:21):
Yeah, because jay Ed Groover was involved. Man, he was
on the case.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
They have other stuff to do in nineteen sixty three,
So this intense concern on the part of the FBI
even went to the levels of laboratory investigations. Right. They
played the record multiple times, sometimes at different speeds.
Speaker 4 (15:46):
That's right. Yeah, And it's crazy.
Speaker 7 (15:49):
You can actually get like there's a collection of memos
on the FBI's website Vault dot FBI dot gov Louis Dash,
Louis Dash, the Dash song Slash Louis Dash, Louis dah
Da song Slash view, and you can see this entire
collection of every document associated with it, including the original complaints,
including the perceived lyrics and several other things, and including
(16:13):
ultimately the fact that yeah, there really wasn't anything there.
It was a whole lot of inks built for nothing.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
And I'll tell you why.
Speaker 7 (16:21):
The original version of this song was written by a
guy named Richard Barry, and he was trying to capitalize
on this like Calypso craze, you know, like Harry Belafonte
and you know, come Miss Missed, tally Man, Tally Me
Banana and all that stuff.
Speaker 5 (16:40):
Deo.
Speaker 7 (16:41):
So he sang this song in that style with kind
of a fake Jamaican patois right?
Speaker 4 (16:48):
Can we hear a little clip of that true.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Waiting for me?
Speaker 2 (17:01):
We kids the scene, cross the scene, I see the
scene alone, a never thing.
Speaker 9 (17:12):
You know.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
And something happened to Barry that was unfortunately common for
a lot of musicians at this time. He signed away
his rights to the song in nineteen fifty nine, so
he was not widely associated with it, nor did he
reap any profit. But you can agree just with that cursory. Listen,
it's a much different version, Isn't that correct?
Speaker 4 (17:34):
It's a much different version.
Speaker 7 (17:36):
And it also points out that the lyrics, if sung
as written, are pretty benign. There's a little talk of
the love of a lady, but it's all very you know, gentlemanly,
and it's about missing your gal when you're when you're
a sailor and you're you're off to sea and waiting
to get back to her, and it's all very romantic
(17:57):
and not at all Six Ways to Sunday not.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
At all untoured. And that goes back to what I
was saying earlier about how you can see the Kingsman
versions live when they're not shouting at the ceiling. Oh
do we also mention that when they were in the studio,
the engineer and producer had the entire band surround Jack
Eli in a circle while they were awayaleing on that stuff.
Speaker 4 (18:20):
So yeah, it sounds like this guy was not exactly
a pro.
Speaker 7 (18:24):
But I think in those days there was a lot
more like sharing microphones and just kind of like the
tiny desk concert treatment, right right, I have that one
mic and you arrange everybody so that they get a
good spread of sound, but it's all going to this
one capturing.
Speaker 4 (18:40):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
The weird thing about this investigation too, is you heard
us mention the laboratory examinations. They did play the record
at different speeds, they attempted to discern or divine a
meaning that did not necessarily exist, and they found that
even in their examine in an FBI lab, they found
(19:02):
the lyrics still to be unintelligible, which I think is
a bit a bit absurd, but even more absurd, at
no time ever did they write to Jack Eli, the
guy who sang the song. It was as simple as
just asking him.
Speaker 5 (19:18):
Hey, what is this?
Speaker 7 (19:20):
Yeah, exactly, And it did come out later from Eli
himself when quizzed about this eventually that he that it
was a faithful cover of the the original version by
Richard Barry and if you didn't catch it, And when
we played it back, the lyrics to that are Louis Louis,
Oh baby me, me gotta go right and then a
(19:42):
fine little girl, she waits for me, catch the ship
across the sea. I sailed the ship all alone. I
never think I'll make it home, you know. But that
little one two three one two one two three is
just rife for just put in whatever syllables you want
and just just freestyle it, you know.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
And that riff, that riff actually didn't come from Barry,
did it.
Speaker 4 (20:05):
It didn't. It came from what was it?
Speaker 7 (20:06):
A Cuban American band leader named Renee Tousey's tune El
Loco cha cha.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
His his version had it played on piano with a
nice brass song. But even that song reputedly is based
on another Cuban tune.
Speaker 4 (20:25):
Yeah, it's crazy.
Speaker 7 (20:26):
How you see that happening with things kind of mutating
over time or just being wholesale ripped.
Speaker 4 (20:33):
Off to check out?
Speaker 2 (20:34):
How still how square the government comes across At this point,
Uncle Sam reaches out through multiple institutions, not just the FBI,
A guy named Ben F. Wopple, who I will reluctantly say,
go Ben's to because he doesn't sound like a bad person,
just super confused. He wrote to WAND Records. Who's the
(20:54):
secretary of the Federal Communications Commission and or FCC? He
wrote in October of nineteen sixty three to the record
company and asked whether, even though unobjectionable lyrics were used
in recording the song, there was improper motivation on the
parts of the singers in making the recorded lyrics so
(21:15):
unintelligible as to give rise to reports that they were obscene.
Speaker 7 (21:19):
Whoa whoa, whoa, whoa whoa America, Get your mind out
of the gutter, is what I say to that.
Speaker 4 (21:24):
That's so ridiculous. That is the dumbest thing I've ever
heard in my life.
Speaker 7 (21:28):
How dare you shroud the content of your lyrics in
mumbly faraway recordedness because my mind is obviously going to
turn them into smut.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
Right, and it's phrased in such a circuitous, unnecessarily verbose way.
That's that's it's like a conspiracy theory. He's asking them
about a conspiracy. We also want to point out the
Kingsmen did not directly. They didn't see Barry song and
say ah, that's mine now. They took it from another
(22:04):
cover version by a group called the Whalers.
Speaker 4 (22:07):
Like Bob Marley and the Whalers.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
I don't think so. I don't think so. Their version
of the song came out in nineteen sixty one.
Speaker 7 (22:16):
Noah, it's way earlier for that for them Whalers, different Whalers.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
And again, you know, the Kingsmen here are not like
these sharky people out to rip off and plagiarize. This
is a song they heard on jukeboxes around Portland and
Jack Eli brought it to rehearsal because he thought it
was cool. They were a house band.
Speaker 7 (22:36):
Oh, not to mention they are just a pack of
dapper young lads, fresh faced us. Look like they'd be,
you know, playing the Enchantment, under the Sea Dance and
back to the Future. I mean, really clean cut. They
do not look like some kind of you know, raunchy greasers.
Speaker 4 (22:52):
But it's cool though.
Speaker 7 (22:53):
When you hear the recording, it has this fun, live,
raw quality to it.
Speaker 4 (22:58):
Yeah, the way the vocals are.
Speaker 7 (23:00):
The way the drums are so in your face, the
way that keyboard sounds that I understand what an influential
recording this was, separated from all the controversy.
Speaker 4 (23:11):
Yeah, it's catchy.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
It's catchy enough that you don't have to speak English
or know what they're saying to enjoy the actual song itself. Again,
if you don't believe us, and do you think there
is something a bit sinister and raunchy about this song,
please go check out their live performances. They're doing that
little jaunty move where they go shoulder to shoulder up
(23:35):
and down when they're singing or playing, the way that
a lot of fifties and sixties boy bands they're popping. Yeah,
they're bopping or poppin', and it looks like the most
innocuous thing. It looks.
Speaker 4 (23:47):
It looks like a guy.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Honestly, it looks like a guy who has never been
a sailor singing a song he heard about a girl
from a sailor.
Speaker 7 (23:56):
Yeah, well, man, I have a proposition for you.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
I think I can anticipate this proposition.
Speaker 7 (24:05):
What do you say we extend this conversation, widen this
net with a little extra credit.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
Sounds great. This is our second time doing our extra
credit segment.
Speaker 4 (24:23):
Which is the second time.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
Yeah, only second time, which is where we go above
and beyond and look to our wonderful friends, colleagues and
collaborators for some assistance and friends, neighbors. We mention one
guy on our show quite a bit, but you may
be wondering if he's a real person or if we
just made him up. Well, the rumors are true. He
(24:45):
is real. We have him here today, Friends and neighbors.
Christopher hasiotis you guys?
Speaker 5 (24:51):
I am real. I've I've been sitting over there this
whole time.
Speaker 7 (24:54):
In here. He's always He's like Jack Torrance in the Shining.
I've always been there.
Speaker 5 (25:01):
Wherever there's a need for research on a podcast, You're
just there.
Speaker 4 (25:05):
We're lucky to have you as our research caretaker.
Speaker 5 (25:08):
I'm happy to be here.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Thanks for coming on the show. Man Now off air,
you reached out to us because this really inspired you
to dig into the story. Right, like Louie Louie, I
feel like it struck a personal chord with you.
Speaker 5 (25:21):
Well, I know, in a past life, if I'm honest,
I was a music journalist. And that's not just an
imaginary past life. That's a real past life, and a
lot of my career early on, I was out late
at clubs seeing rock bands, just kind of soaking in music.
I used to DJ dance parties and what yeah, yeah,
like I said, a past life. But yeah, so I
(25:44):
spent probably, I don't know, an hour more than I
should have, just digging deep into different versions of Louie Louie,
because it's one of the most covered, most recorded songs
out there, if not the most, And I honestly I
could have spent hours more doing it, but I thought
I would bring you guys some of those versions.
Speaker 7 (26:05):
Oh I'm sorry, I had to retroactively make a joke.
This song must have actually struck three chords with you,
A D and E minor.
Speaker 5 (26:13):
Is that where you were looking up?
Speaker 4 (26:14):
Yeah, that's job. Yeah, it was.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
Worth it, So Christophers, you know, since you were here
the whole time. Earlier we talked a little bit about
the origins of Louie Louis and I did not know
it was so extensively covered until you showed us this
astonishing list which has some surprising bands on it. Did
you notice that long?
Speaker 4 (26:36):
I did.
Speaker 7 (26:36):
I have a theory though, because it's such an open
ended song that's three chords and it's just easy to
just to kind of go to town on vocally, as
evidence by the Kingsman version, and why it was such
a headache for the FBI, because this guy's just kind
of like mumbling all this crazy stuff.
Speaker 4 (26:52):
It could be anything.
Speaker 7 (26:53):
I think that's got like an appeal where it's like
I want to do my own crazy rambling version of
Louis lou.
Speaker 5 (26:58):
Yeah, it's it's it's a pretty basic song, and that
goes back to actually its origins, which you guys talked
about a little bit. But the origins of rock and
roll are in rhythm and blues and the African American
musical experience. But one of the most ridiculous things about
rock history is the under explored influence of Latin music
(27:18):
on rock and roll. Usually I would say Cuban American music.
So Richard Barry, who wrote Louie Louie back in nineteen
fifty five, he was at a club and he heard
this band, Ricky Rieira and the Rhythm Rockers say it
five times fast. Nope, Ricky Rieira and the Rhythm Rockers,
(27:39):
And they were playing a cover version of a song
popular at the time in the mid fifties, a song
by Renee Tuse. It was called Eloco Chacha. So I
look at you, guys. I think you're gentlemen of the world.
You're probably skilled a ballroom dance. Oh yeah, so you
take your typical cha cha and how does that go?
You've got one one to two chat cha three four exactly.
(28:03):
Now what's really crazy? What's really loco? What if you
flipped it to chat chat chaw one two chat chat
cha three four.
Speaker 4 (28:15):
Genius? So uh, flipping the scrip making a whole new thing, exactly.
Speaker 5 (28:19):
And and we've actually, we've got Renee Tuesday's version of
al loco chat Cha. Maybe Casey can queue it up
a bit.
Speaker 4 (28:25):
I would love to hear it in real time. Let's
check it out at that nice Latin cow bell action.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
I feel good for everybody listening. We all instantly started nodding,
Oh hear that horn section.
Speaker 5 (28:40):
Yeah yeah. And so this is the tune that Richard
Barry heard a cover version of and the story goes
he he loved it so much that he said, I
want to write a song to this tune, which you know,
I guess you could do it the day.
Speaker 7 (28:56):
Yeah, so just a very diplomatic way of saying, I'm
a that.
Speaker 5 (29:00):
I like this. Yeah, I don't want to work too hard, right,
so I'm going.
Speaker 4 (29:03):
To take this well he wrote his own lyrics, he.
Speaker 5 (29:05):
Did, and reportedly he wrote them that night at the
club on either depending on who you hear from, a
napkin or a piece.
Speaker 4 (29:14):
Of toilet paper, perhaps a matchbook. Yeah, I don't know,
that's my version.
Speaker 7 (29:17):
We talked a little bit earlier in the show about
the fact that there was this kind of Calypso craze
at the time that was hot business, and Barry, in
addition to being having a very perceptive ear picking up
on something that he thought might hit, he also wanted
to capitalize on this Calypso craze. And it totally works
(29:39):
in that genre, especially the fact that he's sang it
with kind of a fake Jamaican petois, right.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
Exactly, and that what we've confirmed, right that is absolutely affectation.
Speaker 4 (29:48):
Correct.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
Yes, So in this strange agglomeration of what could be
called aggressive covering or plagiarization, we see a pattern that
continue even to the modern day. What are some of
the strangest covers you found?
Speaker 5 (30:04):
So there's a wide variety of covers of this song,
from the traditional to the really kind of off the wall.
I wanted to start out with one that is from
nineteen sixty five. We're here in Georgia recording, so I
thought i'd go with a Georgia recording artist, mister Otis Redding.
Oh yeah, all right, so you've got it kind of
a really soulful R and B version of Louis Louis.
Speaker 4 (30:27):
Oh I love me some Otis. Let's hear it. Oh buddy,
I like it. Interesting change up there.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
He's making it his own, he doesn't have to go.
Speaker 7 (30:48):
And he's doing a bit of a Louis Lua yeah,
which I like.
Speaker 4 (30:51):
Yeah, we see what I'm saying.
Speaker 7 (30:53):
Though.
Speaker 4 (30:54):
It's just rife for ad libbing, right.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
It's almost like a modern folk bay where it seems
no one really owns it and everyone makes it their
own when they record it. Well.
Speaker 5 (31:05):
And one of the things I like about Louie Louie,
and especially its tradition of having unintelligible lyrics to a
certain degree, is it. I think it really shines when
the singer's voice itself just has a feeling, and I
think that is I mean, otis reading his voice. He
could sing whatever, and clearly he is, and you just
feel it, you know, I mean, sing the phone Book.
Absolutely So. In the sixties, there are a lot of
(31:27):
other covers of Louie Louie that kind of go along
the same lines as the Kingsman version. You know, You've
got the Trogs. The Sonics do a much kind of
dirtier garage rock version. Those are all great, but let's
dive into one that's a little weirder. This is still
sort of in the rock genre. But got a guy
named Mike Dezy, now Mike Dezy. He's a studio pro,
(31:48):
He's a guitar guy. So this guy has appeared on
recordings by the Everly Brothers by Richie Vallens. He toured
with the Coasters. He was in the Wrecking Crew, which
was the famous recording band who recordings like pet Sounds.
He played on albums by The Monkeys by Michael Jackson,
Frank Zappa, Sinatra, streisand this guy Mike Deasy was one
(32:10):
of the guitarists on the stage for Elvis Presley's nineteen
sixty eight comeback special, That TV special where Yeah the
Black Leather Yeah Yeah, and Mike Deasy was one of
the guitarists. So this guy Mike has a long career
of backing up other folks, but in nineteen sixty seven
he put out his own solo album to show off
(32:30):
his guitar virtuosity under the name Friar Tuck and his
Psychedelic Guitar.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
I've got a screwed to the edge of my seat
for guess what. Yeah, Casey, can you hit it for us?
Speaker 4 (32:50):
Oh? I love this all right so much? Oh, there
we go.
Speaker 5 (33:00):
So it's it's it's mellow.
Speaker 4 (33:04):
You can see me right now. I'm swaying back and
forth with a goofy grin of.
Speaker 5 (33:07):
My no looks dreamy.
Speaker 4 (33:12):
There we go.
Speaker 5 (33:17):
So it's got that sort of dawzy psychedelic this.
Speaker 4 (33:23):
Yeah, right up my house.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
I'm gonna play this.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (33:26):
He is my favorite so far, big time.
Speaker 7 (33:31):
I always want to hear up to the verse because
everyone does their own thing. They change the lyrics, they
do their own different Cadence. I want to hear what
this does with it.
Speaker 4 (33:42):
No, I think that maybe maybe they're not even gonna
do a verse.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
I love the finger People too.
Speaker 5 (33:47):
I mean, this is it's Friar talk and his psychedelic guitar.
And I would totally recommend looking up this record online
because the cover of the album is pretty stellar. Looks
like a total weirdo.
Speaker 4 (33:59):
I love the fact if there are no verses, it's
all just vamps. It's about the experience. Yeah, now this
is dope.
Speaker 5 (34:05):
I love it. I mean again, the verses, if you
can't understand them, do you need them?
Speaker 2 (34:09):
No nights.
Speaker 4 (34:10):
Yeah, it's about the feeling about.
Speaker 5 (34:12):
The feeling, And it looks like you guys, to those
of you listening who can't see Nolan Benner feeling this,
Oh I'm feeling it hard.
Speaker 4 (34:20):
Yeah, I think that's going.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
To stay with men. I'm kind of sad that we
am kind of sad that we can't just play that
entire song right now. But what's the next cover?
Speaker 5 (34:29):
So here we're going to go forward a couple of years.
We're still sticking in the sixties. So nineteen sixty nine.
The singer Julie London, she is famously known for having
this really kind of mellow affect, really nice, kind of soft, hazy,
smoky vocals. And she put out a record called Yummy, Yummy,
Yummy in nineteen sixty nine, and her version of Louis
(34:50):
Louis closes out that album, and it's just got sort
of a really quiet, almost narcotic vibe going on. It's
unlike most of the other versions you hear, which are
a little more upbeat.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
Can I say, just before we roll this, you were
doing a fantastic job curating this music for us. Do
you make mixtapes?
Speaker 5 (35:11):
I do make mixtapes, mix CITs, all that liner notes,
whatever you need. Were you a younger person and I
a younger person, I might, you know, put together a
mixtape to try to woo you. And these are the
things a younger man does.
Speaker 7 (35:24):
Oh yeah, it's the lost art the mixtape. Now it's
just the Spotify playlist, which isn't nearly as sexy.
Speaker 4 (35:30):
What's the works you know?
Speaker 7 (35:31):
Oh yeah, it's it's woo worthy. I used to get
Smashing Pumpkins bootlegs in the mail. I would trade with
people on message boards and they would always take the
rest of the tape that wasn't full of the bootleg
and put Filler songs on it, And that's how I
learned about a lot of new music back in the day.
It was from Filler on Smashing Pumpkins bootleg. Yes, all right,
(35:51):
but yeah, Casey, can we can we hear the Julie
London version from sixty nine?
Speaker 2 (35:57):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (35:59):
Already dramatic.
Speaker 4 (36:10):
I was not expecting that because super.
Speaker 5 (36:13):
Ben's eyebrows just arch stuff.
Speaker 4 (36:19):
Hmm, I really go, I gotta go.
Speaker 5 (36:26):
Yeah, it's a little bit of a Dusty Springfield vibe. Dude.
Speaker 7 (36:29):
I was just about to say, I've been listening to
nothing but Dusty and Memphis for the past couple of weeks.
Speaker 4 (36:35):
So good, very much so.
Speaker 7 (36:37):
Yeah, it's almost got that kind of Nico narcotic, kind
of like hazy vibe.
Speaker 5 (36:43):
Well, here we go.
Speaker 4 (36:44):
I'll hear this first.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
I liked how they're putting in almost any instrument that
what gets It's amazing.
Speaker 5 (36:53):
Yeah, and I always really enjoy when a song will
flip the gender. You know, she's singing about a boy
across the sea as I was to a girl.
Speaker 4 (37:00):
Yeah, and this feels very intimate.
Speaker 2 (37:04):
Yeah, you know, her voice feels very close but also.
Speaker 7 (37:07):
Very cinematic because it's like that schmaltzy Burt backer Aki
kind of arrangement, and then her vocal is very front
and center. Such a departure from the Kingsman where the
vocals a mile away and completely unintelligible.
Speaker 4 (37:20):
I love this's let's go on.
Speaker 5 (37:23):
Yeah cool.
Speaker 4 (37:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (37:24):
So this next version, we're going back to the islands
where the song kind of has its origins in that
crossing the Sea Calypso Vibe. Toots in the May Towels
are an acclaimed iconic band from Jamaica from the sixties
and the seventies, and this version from the early seventies,
Toots Hibbert's just kind of he just sings his heart
out on this reggae, ska and rock setti inspired version.
Speaker 4 (37:48):
Let's hear it, there we go.
Speaker 2 (38:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (38:08):
It just makes you want to kind of sit on
a beach.
Speaker 2 (38:10):
Yeah, I want to leave the studio hop on a plane.
Speaker 5 (38:14):
You know again, you can kind of just do whatever
you want with the song, yeah, and make it your own.
It's very true. It's very true. It's great vamps. Yeah,
we could stay here all day listening to all these two.
But let's I'm gonna I'm gonna bring the next one
is a lot harsher, a lot louder. But the reason
I wanted to play this song for you it's by
(38:36):
Iggy and the Stooges, so famously Iggy Pop and his
and his band Punk Pioneer. The reason I wanted to
play this song. The version I'm Gonna play for You
is off of the nineteen seventy four record Metallic Ko,
which is a live album, and it's a live recording
of the Stooge's last two shows ever in Detroit. They
wouldn't play again together until they reunited. I don't know
(38:58):
ten years ago or since I'm on that tour at
the forty what in a Georgia, But the very last
song they played at their very last show in the
seventies was Louie Louie. And one thing that's particularly resonant
about this song the Stooges have a personal connection to
Louie Louis. It's not just that they love the song,
although they love all that classic rock and roll. Dan Galucci,
(39:20):
who played keyboards on the Kingsman version of Louie Louie,
he was kicked out of the band he was too
young to go on tour.
Speaker 4 (39:28):
That's what I heard that.
Speaker 5 (39:29):
Yeah, his parents would not let him go out on
tour from whatever. Yeah, so Dan, but he played keys
on the recording. What he ended up doing with his
life though, he was a record producer, Yeah, and Elektra
for Electra and Electra put out a lot of the
Stages records. Dan Galucci produced The Stooge's Fun House, which
(39:50):
is an iconic, iconic album.
Speaker 4 (39:52):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 5 (39:53):
So they've got the Stuges have this personal connection to
Louie Louis. The live version, they get wild, they get aucus,
they get pretty vulgar. You can find some some B
sides and some studio outtakes of a cleaner version. But
I wanted to play this live version just because it
was the very last song they played at their very
last show.
Speaker 2 (40:11):
I'm gonna stand up for this week, Yes.
Speaker 5 (40:21):
You see.
Speaker 7 (40:30):
To me, this is like full circle back to the
uh the original version with the Kingsman. It's got that thrashy,
bashy drum sound, that irreverent snotty kind of vocal.
Speaker 5 (40:42):
It is really dirty garage.
Speaker 2 (40:44):
And didn't they purposely change the lyrics to be offensive or.
Speaker 5 (40:49):
Yeah, we're gonna have to fade this out pretty soon,
because I do get pretty old.
Speaker 4 (40:53):
Let it right, we'll give it a bleed we get
we'll give it the bleep.
Speaker 5 (40:55):
Treatment I want to hear.
Speaker 4 (41:02):
So that's a taste of it. That's a taste.
Speaker 7 (41:05):
Well, what's funny is he's doing kind of the lyrics
that the FBI said were the lyrics to the song
that they.
Speaker 2 (41:13):
Weren't exactly definitely doing something similar.
Speaker 5 (41:16):
Yeah, you think this is vulgar, Let's make it vulgar.
Speaker 2 (41:18):
Right, which is smart. I think that's tremendously clever. So
it sounds like we have time for just one more
cover that might surprise some people.
Speaker 5 (41:29):
Yeah, we're gonna go to nineteen eighty three Brooklyn for
this one. We're going away from rock and roll and
we're going to early rap. The Fat Boys The Year
of my birth Oh at fat Boy, Happy birthday, Thanks Budding. Yeah,
I'm glad you're here. Me too, Glad you're here. Oh guys, Well,
I'm glad we're gonna listen to this song. The Fat
Boys they are Brooklyn Trio, iconic rap group, kind of
(41:51):
a jokey rap group, but they took a really meta
approach to their version of Louie Louis, and they talked
about what we've been talking about for a while.
Speaker 4 (42:01):
Full circle, my friend, it's a party jam. Yeah, yeah,
(42:23):
this is a banger.
Speaker 9 (42:28):
About music. What day she told me about this song
cock a big frumble, big thought it was hilpy coock
the word what the lyrics.
Speaker 5 (42:48):
Won.
Speaker 2 (42:50):
So this is fantastic because this song is about the
history of the song they are covering exactly.
Speaker 4 (42:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (42:56):
Yeah, So you get into the sort of meta commentary
where the the singer is talking about a song that
his mom heard and his mom is telling him about it,
and then they're singing it and there's all these layers.
So you tie in this idea of profanity, of violating
social norms, of words causing outrage but also words causing
tons of joy.
Speaker 2 (43:17):
So break it down for us, Christopher, if you could.
Was there any actual validity to the rumors of obscenity
and the Kingsman's Louis Louis? Was there any reason for
the beef?
Speaker 5 (43:31):
Absolutely not and totally here kay, here's the last bit
of extra credit that I'm gonna give you, guys. The
lyrics of Louie Louis contained no obscenities, but the recording.
Did the drummer drops one of his drumsticks and he
shouts out an obscenity in the background, and it made
(43:53):
it on the record. Nobody noticed, The FBI didn't notice,
and this is confirmed later in interviews with the drummer.
In interviews with the band, they said, Yeah, there's a
bad word in there, and if you turn up the song,
you know, you wouldn't know it at first, but if
you know what you're looking for, you're gonna hear a
knotty word.
Speaker 4 (44:11):
Oh wow.
Speaker 7 (44:12):
Man, just goes to show like misdirection is a hell
of a thing, right, Not not that either they were
trying to misdirect anybody, but people were so caught up
on the unintelligibility of the lyrics that their minds created
this problem that just wasn't there. All from a couple
of angry letters from irate moms and I think a
dad as well.
Speaker 2 (44:33):
Yeah, and then went on to make a conspiracy.
Speaker 4 (44:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (44:35):
It goes to show you can you can affect change
by writing a letter.
Speaker 4 (44:39):
M h and uh, but maybe maybe you should, maybe
you just don't. Yeah, I just want to go Christopher, though.
Speaker 2 (44:46):
We don't want to let this segment go. Thank you
so much for coming on to extra credit. Thank you
for appearing on our show.
Speaker 5 (44:54):
So great to be here, you guys. And and you know,
if listeners dig this, there are tons of other cover
songs for Louis Louis they can dive into. There's Joan Jet.
There is a Barry White cover that I really really
wanted to play for you guys, but maybe we'll do
that in private.
Speaker 7 (45:08):
Ye yeah, whoa, you know it's Barry White, that's true.
I remember hearing it was actually on the Wayne's World soundtrack.
I believe a Robert Plant version of it where he's,
you know, singing in his classic Zep voice and you know,
just really wailing and I couldn't understand the lyrics then either.
Speaker 5 (45:25):
Yeah, there's there's a lot of live versions of Zeppelin.
There's a great live Bruce Springsteen version from a couple
of years ago. There's a Smashing Pumpkins version. Noel, Yeah,
I gotta say it's not that great.
Speaker 4 (45:35):
Well, I can't imagine it would be. And I'm also
there dead to me.
Speaker 2 (45:38):
So at this at this point, to me, this is
this is an historic moment for our show, because folks
ridiculous his stories. You're finally able to meet the guy
that we talk about so much, and I think he
measures up to the height.
Speaker 4 (45:54):
Hi, everybody, I agree, this is a lot of fun.
So thank you Christopher for joining us.
Speaker 7 (45:59):
Thanks to our super producer Casey Pegram and Alex Williams,
who composed our theme.
Speaker 2 (46:04):
Most importantly, thanks to you for tuning in if you
had twenty percent as much fun listening to this as
we did recording it. That our work here is done,
stay tuned and check us out our next episode, we
explore the Albasas War, a forty year conflict sparked by
(46:28):
and you guys know this is big for me because
iways talking about feathers on camel's backs sparked by feathers
a camel. Oh So in the meantime, let us know
what your favorite cover of Louie Louis is. You can
find us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, where we are
Ridiculous History or some variation thereof. You can also check
(46:50):
out our community page Ridiculous Historians.
Speaker 5 (46:53):
And Ben maybe we can post some of these versions
in that community group.
Speaker 4 (46:56):
Oh, I think that's a great idea perfect. See you
next time, everybody.
Speaker 7 (47:05):
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History News
Hosts And Creators
Ben Bowlin
Noel Brown
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