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CLASSIC: The FBI's Quest to Understand "Louie, Louie" · Ridiculous History

0:00
Speaker 1: Lou Louie b.
0:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. All right, So the
0:10
Speaker 2: FBI is super weird about some things, right. They're very smart,
0:17
Speaker 2: they they make they love a list, and they also
0:21
Speaker 2: have a myopic focus at times on pop culture. Noel,
0:26
Speaker 2: you and I were just sort of doing a I
0:30
Speaker 2: would say, a rendition of a song by the Kingsman
0:34
Speaker 2: called Louie Louis.
0:36
Speaker 3: Yeah, and the aforementioned FBI was often looking for enemies,
0:41
Speaker 3: I guess, of these United States and places that might
0:44
Speaker 3: seem a little odd, including popular music. So we're gonna
0:47
Speaker 3: hear a bunch of examples of the song Louie Louis
0:50
Speaker 3: in this special episode where Christophrasiotis is not only here
0:54
Speaker 3: in spirit, but here in the flesh.
0:56
Speaker 2: Let's roll the tape. Ridiculous History is a production of
1:02
Speaker 2: iHeart Radio.
1:28
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, you.
1:30
Speaker 5: Know what that sound means? A Delphic Keys and.
1:34
Speaker 1: Yeah and do I oh, oh gravy.
1:47
Speaker 4: You gotta go, here you go.
1:49
Speaker 6: Here's the part where it really gets understand, that's my
1:57
Speaker 6: shoes history, these are the Kingsmen, this is Louis Louie.
2:11
Speaker 4: Here we are. Wow, what a day, What a time
2:14
Speaker 4: to be alive.
2:15
Speaker 2: And that music comes to us, of course, courtesy of
2:18
Speaker 2: our super producer, Casey Pegrom. But no, why are we
2:24
Speaker 2: playing Louis Louie.
2:25
Speaker 4: Today, because you see, Ben Louie.
2:28
Speaker 7: Louie has a bit of a sordid past the song,
2:31
Speaker 7: this version in particular by the Kingsman, in that it
2:34
Speaker 7: was investigated by none other than the Federal Bureau of
2:39
Speaker 7: Investigation for being potentially obscene. And if you couldn't tell
2:43
Speaker 7: by our rambling sing along at the beginning of the show,
2:46
Speaker 7: this is kind of a bit of a joke because
2:48
Speaker 7: you can't really understand a word these guys are saying.
2:53
Speaker 2: Right, The FBI did not just give this a cursory investigation.
2:57
Speaker 2: They investigated this particular version of the song. It is not,
3:03
Speaker 2: as some people believe, the original version of the song,
3:05
Speaker 2: it's cover, and they investigated the Kingsman version for two years.
3:10
Speaker 2: Specifically it's crazy, yeah, specifically the lyrics of the song,
3:14
Speaker 2: which might sound kind of crazy and a weird order
3:17
Speaker 2: of priorities for the FBI, but it's actually part of
3:20
Speaker 2: their job to fight obscenity.
3:22
Speaker 7: They take these kinds of complaints from angry, waspy middle
3:28
Speaker 7: class mothers very seriously, and that is exactly what kicked
3:32
Speaker 7: off this investigation, my friend.
3:34
Speaker 2: Right, they received a letter from someone at Sarasota High
3:37
Speaker 2: School who said the lyrics to the song were quote
3:41
Speaker 2: so filthy that I cannot endorse them. In this letter,
3:45
Speaker 2: we all know there is obscene materials available for those
3:49
Speaker 2: who seek it. But when they start sneaking in this
3:52
Speaker 2: material in the guys of the latest teenage rock and
3:55
Speaker 2: roll hit record, these morons have gone too far.
3:59
Speaker 7: Oh these more well, which more ons you're talking about,
4:01
Speaker 7: like the purveyors of said smut?
4:04
Speaker 2: I guess so some international conspiracy.
4:06
Speaker 4: You guys in the band spread dirty words. Who were
4:09
Speaker 4: the guys in the band? What's the history of the Kingsman?
4:12
Speaker 2: Excellent question, Nold. The Kingsmen were, or excuse me, they're
4:17
Speaker 2: still around, a garage rock band from Portland, Oregon. And
4:23
Speaker 2: the guy who ended up singing this version of Louis
4:26
Speaker 2: Louis that we opened the show with was invited to
4:29
Speaker 2: the band in nineteen fifty nine.
4:32
Speaker 4: I believe he got the boot pretty shortly after.
4:35
Speaker 2: Yeah, he didn't sing on all their songs, but he
4:38
Speaker 2: did sing on the one that I would say they're
4:40
Speaker 2: most well known for this song. Would you agree?
4:42
Speaker 4: I certainly don't know them for anything else.
4:44
Speaker 7: Yeah, And it's interesting too because this band does live
4:47
Speaker 7: on this particular version of this song as an influence
4:51
Speaker 7: from for a lot of like kind of grungy garage
4:55
Speaker 7: punk type stuff, everything from like Black Flag to iggy pop.
4:58
Speaker 7: And we'll get into a little bit more of that
5:01
Speaker 7: kind of rock and roll history connection a little further
5:03
Speaker 7: down the line. So the original Kingsmen were Don Glucci,
5:08
Speaker 7: Jack Eli, who was the singer in question, Lynn Easton,
5:12
Speaker 7: Mike Mitchell, and Bob Norby, and these fellas booked a
5:16
Speaker 7: recording session at a studio in Portland, Oregon, which was
5:20
Speaker 7: at Northwest thirteenth Avenue in Burnside Street. And it was
5:24
Speaker 7: a little bit of an odd setup, wasn't it.
5:26
Speaker 2: Ben It was Noel First, which established the session only
5:30
Speaker 2: cost fifty bucks. The band split it amongst themselves because.
5:34
Speaker 4: They didn't have a label. They were just doing this
5:36
Speaker 4: on spec.
5:37
Speaker 2: Right, And their producer for the session was a guy
5:40
Speaker 2: named Ken Chase, a local radio personality at a station
5:46
Speaker 2: called ninety one kisn or wait for it, Kissing. He
5:53
Speaker 2: also owned a nightclub where the Kingsmen regularly performed, so
5:58
Speaker 2: he was the producer, and that was the connect that
6:00
Speaker 2: was there in their actual audio engineer was the guy
6:03
Speaker 2: who owned the studio, whose name was Robert Lindall, and
6:07
Speaker 2: apparently he had some really particular ideas about how the
6:11
Speaker 2: studio should be set up. You can hear Jack Eli
6:14
Speaker 2: explaining some of the physicalities of the room.
6:20
Speaker 4: Let's let's just throw to a clip of him in
6:22
Speaker 4: his own words.
6:24
Speaker 8: In order to capture what Ken thought was the live sound,
6:28
Speaker 8: he had us set up in a circle with me
6:31
Speaker 8: standing in the middle singing into the mic, and it
6:35
Speaker 8: still didn't sound quite right. He had to run through
6:37
Speaker 8: about eight bars or so, and it still didn't sound
6:40
Speaker 8: quite right to him. So he had a technician come
6:43
Speaker 8: in and take the mic and put it on a
6:44
Speaker 8: boom and stick it up at the ceiling. That's about
6:46
Speaker 8: a fifteen foot ceiling. So the mic was hanging probably
6:51
Speaker 8: i don't know, eighteen to twenty four inches off the ceiling,
6:54
Speaker 8: and I was directly under it, leaning my head back,
6:57
Speaker 8: yelling up at this mic. Well, it didn't have anything
7:00
Speaker 8: to do really with how far the mic was away
7:03
Speaker 8: from me. What it really had to do with is
7:07
Speaker 8: how words get enunciated when your head's tipped all the
7:10
Speaker 8: way back and you're yelling up because you see Louie
7:15
Speaker 8: Louie didn't come out like Louis Louie. I would say
7:20
Speaker 8: it when I'm standing facing normal, when my head's all
7:23
Speaker 8: stretched up and back, it came out Louli light.
7:27
Speaker 2: So eventually, long story short, they end up putting these
7:30
Speaker 2: microphones on the ceiling and it's like fifteen feet high.
7:33
Speaker 7: I don't quite understand the function of that. I read
7:36
Speaker 7: somewhere saying so it would sound like a live concert,
7:40
Speaker 7: but it was like, is it literally a one mic setup?
7:44
Speaker 7: That's because it's so funny when you hear the recording. Yeah,
7:47
Speaker 7: it's it sounds, you know, kind of raunchy and lo fi,
7:49
Speaker 7: but there's pretty good separation. But that vocal is what
7:54
Speaker 7: really stands out, because it does sound very low in
7:56
Speaker 7: the mix. So I imagine had to have been a
7:58
Speaker 7: very minimally mic such situation where this mike was a
8:02
Speaker 7: high and apparently he had to crane his neck at
8:04
Speaker 7: like a forty five degree angle yeah, and kind of
8:07
Speaker 7: shout saying up and up into the air to get
8:10
Speaker 7: over the din of the of the band, and the
8:13
Speaker 7: drummer is just pound in a way, it's like, well.
8:16
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, he he does mention that it's difficult to
8:21
Speaker 2: enunciate in a normal way when you have your neck
8:23
Speaker 2: physically positioned to aim in a shout at the ceiling
8:27
Speaker 2: because he's also shouting to be heard over the music.
8:30
Speaker 7: And he had braces that had just been tightened. That's
8:34
Speaker 7: such a such a funny detail, such a strange aspect
8:37
Speaker 7: to the story. For anyone interested. You can also go
8:40
Speaker 7: on YouTube and see some early live appearances. There are
8:45
Speaker 7: the Kingsmen run a show called Shindig, and it's much
8:48
Speaker 7: easier to hear what Jack is saying, or we should say,
8:52
Speaker 7: rather to discern what Jack is saying. But most people,
9:22
Speaker 7: let's be honest, they're not going to be watching that
9:25
Speaker 7: live version.
9:25
Speaker 2: They're going to listen to the iconic.
9:29
Speaker 4: That's right.
9:29
Speaker 7: And I'll tell you man, Shindig was a pretty risque
9:32
Speaker 7: show at the time, because I swear some of these
9:34
Speaker 7: gals are showing shin it's happening, you know, when they're
9:38
Speaker 7: cutting their rugs, you know.
9:40
Speaker 2: And so this this song, it hits the charts, but
9:44
Speaker 2: it doesn't quite get to number one. And I think
9:47
Speaker 2: there's a story that that you found particularly fascinating about
9:51
Speaker 2: the song that beat it.
9:53
Speaker 7: Yeah, it's a little weird, kind of melancholy aside, but
9:56
Speaker 7: why not, We're all.
9:57
Speaker 4: About little asides.
9:58
Speaker 7: It's a song called Dominique and it is a French
10:02
Speaker 7: language song, which is so interesting to me that that
10:05
Speaker 7: topped the charts. And you may have heard this song
10:08
Speaker 7: if you watched the show American Horror Story, specifically the
10:13
Speaker 7: Asylum season.
10:31
Speaker 4: A Domini.
10:40
Speaker 7: You might remember this is the one that Sister Jude
10:43
Speaker 7: was the only song that she approved of, and there's
10:45
Speaker 7: an interesting reason behind it. There's a great article on
10:47
Speaker 7: Noisy called what you Didn't Know about that song you
10:50
Speaker 7: hear on American Horror Story every week from back when
10:52
Speaker 7: this show was current. So the woman credited with this
10:55
Speaker 7: hit was a Belgian singer by the name of Janine
10:59
Speaker 7: Decker's and she went by the name the singing None
11:02
Speaker 7: or it need you to help me out with this Casey.
11:05
Speaker 2: On the case.
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Speaker 5: Yeah, that would be pronounced sir sir Year, which is
11:10
Speaker 5: sister Smile in French.
11:11
Speaker 2: Sister smile ladies and gentlemen, Casey on the case. So
11:16
Speaker 2: she's Sister Smile.
11:19
Speaker 7: Or aka the singing Nun aka Jannine Deckers.
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Speaker 2: And the Singing None in English speaking countries.
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Speaker 4: That's right, that's right. And this song was a huge hit.
11:27
Speaker 5: It was number one.
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Speaker 7: It totally bumped the It didn't give the Kingsmen a
11:31
Speaker 7: chance for It's just crazy to me that this song
11:33
Speaker 7: was such a massive hit and it's so kind of
11:36
Speaker 7: more or less forgotten now, you know, compared to Louis Louis,
11:39
Speaker 7: which is iconic in many ways.
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Speaker 2: It was an interesting it was an interesting year for music.
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Speaker 2: This is specifically nineteen sixty three, right, right, Yeah, it
11:50
Speaker 2: is interesting because we've got one song that's entirely in
11:53
Speaker 2: French and then one song that is considered more or
11:57
Speaker 2: less largely unintelligible. But there's a little more to the
12:00
Speaker 2: story of the Singing Nun.
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Speaker 5: There is.
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Speaker 7: One of the interesting things that this Noisy article points
12:05
Speaker 7: out is that Dominique, the saint in question, was the
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Speaker 7: founder of the particular religious order that brought about the
12:15
Speaker 7: Spanish Inquisition. So that goes hand in hand with some
12:19
Speaker 7: of the grizzliness on American horror story. And this is
12:22
Speaker 7: interesting this Genine Decker ended up having a female partner
12:30
Speaker 7: back during a time where open, you know, homosexuality was
12:33
Speaker 7: just very very taboo, and she ended up signing or
12:37
Speaker 7: agreeing to a suicide pact with her. And in nineteen
12:42
Speaker 7: eighty five, when they're still together, they overdosed on barbituates
12:46
Speaker 7: together and left a note that said, we have reached
12:48
Speaker 7: the end spiritually and financially, and now we go to God.
12:52
Speaker 2: And that was her partner was Annie Petcher, that's right,
12:56
Speaker 2: who was I think a little bit younger, but they
12:59
Speaker 2: had a very deep in life relationship.
13:00
Speaker 7: And now it's such a sad story, but I think
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Speaker 7: so interesting, absolutely worth Mentioning.
13:09
Speaker 2: Back to the Kingsman, it's a fantastic article in The
13:12
Speaker 2: New Yorker by Unwin Crawford called is this the dirtiest
13:16
Speaker 2: song of the sixties? And again, for at least two years,
13:22
Speaker 2: the FBI certainly thought so. So Robert Kennedy. It gets
13:28
Speaker 2: involved in this because.
13:30
Speaker 4: He Robert Kennedy.
13:31
Speaker 2: He Robert Kennedy because he receives letters personally complaining about
13:36
Speaker 2: the songs possible or perceived obscenity. Once it blows up
13:40
Speaker 2: and it's number two on the Billboard single chart, and
13:44
Speaker 2: a father of a teenage girl in particular, writing to Kennedy, said,
13:48
Speaker 2: this land of ours is headed for an extreme state
13:50
Speaker 2: of moral degradation, and people started sending in various versions
13:56
Speaker 2: of what they perceived the lyrics to be. And they're
14:01
Speaker 2: pretty they're pretty filthy. Have you read some of the oh?
14:03
Speaker 4: I have?
14:04
Speaker 7: And it just goes to show that like the most
14:06
Speaker 7: puritanical seeming mind can still be in the gutter when
14:11
Speaker 7: you think you're trying to find filth everywhere.
14:14
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's the thing.
14:15
Speaker 7: This is such a warshack test kind of thing for me,
14:18
Speaker 7: because the lyrics really are utter gobbledegook, right, you could
14:24
Speaker 7: you could read the real lyrics here and there.
14:27
Speaker 2: If you haven't seen the real lyrics yet, then do
14:31
Speaker 2: check them out. But wait till the end of this podcast.
14:34
Speaker 2: Just keep go with us a little bit further. We
14:36
Speaker 2: promise it's worth it. Some of the perceived lyrics, where
14:40
Speaker 2: the lyrics that people thought they were hearing are things
14:44
Speaker 2: like we'll have to do an edited version of this.
14:47
Speaker 2: But every night and day I play with my thing,
14:50
Speaker 2: bleep your girl, all kinds of ways.
14:53
Speaker 7: All the ways, multitudes six ways to Sunday as they say, Yeah,
14:58
Speaker 7: and it's it's interesting to be because when this really
15:02
Speaker 7: starts to heat up and this investigation is going on
15:05
Speaker 7: apparently what they call him g men. Right, Sure, they'd
15:08
Speaker 7: go to the clubs and can see the band and
15:12
Speaker 7: try to like read their lips or whatever to try
15:15
Speaker 7: to like see what the secret lyrics.
15:17
Speaker 5: Right.
15:17
Speaker 7: I just think this is such a funny witch hunt
15:20
Speaker 7: kind of situation.
15:21
Speaker 4: Yeah, because jay Ed Groover was involved. Man, he was
15:24
Speaker 4: on the case.
15:25
Speaker 2: They have other stuff to do in nineteen sixty three,
15:29
Speaker 2: So this intense concern on the part of the FBI
15:33
Speaker 2: even went to the levels of laboratory investigations. Right. They
15:40
Speaker 2: played the record multiple times, sometimes at different speeds.
15:46
Speaker 4: That's right. Yeah, And it's crazy.
15:49
Speaker 7: You can actually get like there's a collection of memos
15:53
Speaker 7: on the FBI's website Vault dot FBI dot gov Louis Dash,
15:58
Speaker 7: Louis Dash, the Dash song Slash Louis Dash, Louis dah
16:02
Speaker 7: Da song Slash view, and you can see this entire
16:05
Speaker 7: collection of every document associated with it, including the original complaints,
16:09
Speaker 7: including the perceived lyrics and several other things, and including
16:13
Speaker 7: ultimately the fact that yeah, there really wasn't anything there.
16:17
Speaker 7: It was a whole lot of inks built for nothing.
16:20
Speaker 4: And I'll tell you why.
16:21
Speaker 7: The original version of this song was written by a
16:25
Speaker 7: guy named Richard Barry, and he was trying to capitalize
16:31
Speaker 7: on this like Calypso craze, you know, like Harry Belafonte
16:35
Speaker 7: and you know, come Miss Missed, tally Man, Tally Me
16:38
Speaker 7: Banana and all that stuff.
16:40
Speaker 5: Deo.
16:41
Speaker 7: So he sang this song in that style with kind
16:45
Speaker 7: of a fake Jamaican patois right?
16:48
Speaker 4: Can we hear a little clip of that true.
17:00
Speaker 1: Waiting for me?
17:01
Speaker 2: We kids the scene, cross the scene, I see the
17:06
Speaker 2: scene alone, a never thing.
17:12
Speaker 9: You know.
17:16
Speaker 2: And something happened to Barry that was unfortunately common for
17:19
Speaker 2: a lot of musicians at this time. He signed away
17:23
Speaker 2: his rights to the song in nineteen fifty nine, so
17:25
Speaker 2: he was not widely associated with it, nor did he
17:28
Speaker 2: reap any profit. But you can agree just with that cursory. Listen,
17:32
Speaker 2: it's a much different version, Isn't that correct?
17:34
Speaker 4: It's a much different version.
17:36
Speaker 7: And it also points out that the lyrics, if sung
17:40
Speaker 7: as written, are pretty benign. There's a little talk of
17:46
Speaker 7: the love of a lady, but it's all very you know, gentlemanly,
17:49
Speaker 7: and it's about missing your gal when you're when you're
17:52
Speaker 7: a sailor and you're you're off to sea and waiting
17:55
Speaker 7: to get back to her, and it's all very romantic
17:57
Speaker 7: and not at all Six Ways to Sunday not.
18:01
Speaker 2: At all untoured. And that goes back to what I
18:04
Speaker 2: was saying earlier about how you can see the Kingsman
18:07
Speaker 2: versions live when they're not shouting at the ceiling. Oh
18:10
Speaker 2: do we also mention that when they were in the studio,
18:13
Speaker 2: the engineer and producer had the entire band surround Jack
18:17
Speaker 2: Eli in a circle while they were awayaleing on that stuff.
18:20
Speaker 4: So yeah, it sounds like this guy was not exactly
18:23
Speaker 4: a pro.
18:24
Speaker 7: But I think in those days there was a lot
18:26
Speaker 7: more like sharing microphones and just kind of like the
18:29
Speaker 7: tiny desk concert treatment, right right, I have that one
18:32
Speaker 7: mic and you arrange everybody so that they get a
18:35
Speaker 7: good spread of sound, but it's all going to this
18:38
Speaker 7: one capturing.
18:40
Speaker 4: Yes.
18:41
Speaker 2: The weird thing about this investigation too, is you heard
18:44
Speaker 2: us mention the laboratory examinations. They did play the record
18:49
Speaker 2: at different speeds, they attempted to discern or divine a
18:53
Speaker 2: meaning that did not necessarily exist, and they found that
18:58
Speaker 2: even in their examine in an FBI lab, they found
19:02
Speaker 2: the lyrics still to be unintelligible, which I think is
19:04
Speaker 2: a bit a bit absurd, but even more absurd, at
19:10
Speaker 2: no time ever did they write to Jack Eli, the
19:15
Speaker 2: guy who sang the song. It was as simple as
19:18
Speaker 2: just asking him.
19:18
Speaker 5: Hey, what is this?
19:20
Speaker 7: Yeah, exactly, And it did come out later from Eli
19:25
Speaker 7: himself when quizzed about this eventually that he that it
19:29
Speaker 7: was a faithful cover of the the original version by
19:33
Speaker 7: Richard Barry and if you didn't catch it, And when
19:35
Speaker 7: we played it back, the lyrics to that are Louis Louis,
19:38
Speaker 7: Oh baby me, me gotta go right and then a
19:42
Speaker 7: fine little girl, she waits for me, catch the ship
19:45
Speaker 7: across the sea. I sailed the ship all alone. I
19:48
Speaker 7: never think I'll make it home, you know. But that
19:51
Speaker 7: little one two three one two one two three is
19:55
Speaker 7: just rife for just put in whatever syllables you want
19:59
Speaker 7: and just just freestyle it, you know.
20:01
Speaker 2: And that riff, that riff actually didn't come from Barry,
20:04
Speaker 2: did it.
20:05
Speaker 4: It didn't. It came from what was it?
20:06
Speaker 7: A Cuban American band leader named Renee Tousey's tune El
20:11
Speaker 7: Loco cha cha.
20:13
Speaker 1: Yeah.
20:13
Speaker 2: His his version had it played on piano with a
20:18
Speaker 2: nice brass song. But even that song reputedly is based
20:23
Speaker 2: on another Cuban tune.
20:25
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's crazy.
20:26
Speaker 7: How you see that happening with things kind of mutating
20:29
Speaker 7: over time or just being wholesale ripped.
20:33
Speaker 4: Off to check out?
20:34
Speaker 2: How still how square the government comes across At this point,
20:40
Speaker 2: Uncle Sam reaches out through multiple institutions, not just the FBI,
20:45
Speaker 2: A guy named Ben F. Wopple, who I will reluctantly say,
20:48
Speaker 2: go Ben's to because he doesn't sound like a bad person,
20:51
Speaker 2: just super confused. He wrote to WAND Records. Who's the
20:54
Speaker 2: secretary of the Federal Communications Commission and or FCC? He
20:59
Speaker 2: wrote in October of nineteen sixty three to the record
21:02
Speaker 2: company and asked whether, even though unobjectionable lyrics were used
21:08
Speaker 2: in recording the song, there was improper motivation on the
21:11
Speaker 2: parts of the singers in making the recorded lyrics so
21:15
Speaker 2: unintelligible as to give rise to reports that they were obscene.
21:19
Speaker 7: Whoa whoa, whoa, whoa whoa America, Get your mind out
21:22
Speaker 7: of the gutter, is what I say to that.
21:24
Speaker 4: That's so ridiculous. That is the dumbest thing I've ever
21:27
Speaker 4: heard in my life.
21:28
Speaker 7: How dare you shroud the content of your lyrics in
21:34
Speaker 7: mumbly faraway recordedness because my mind is obviously going to
21:39
Speaker 7: turn them into smut.
21:40
Speaker 2: Right, and it's phrased in such a circuitous, unnecessarily verbose way.
21:47
Speaker 2: That's that's it's like a conspiracy theory. He's asking them
21:51
Speaker 2: about a conspiracy. We also want to point out the
21:55
Speaker 2: Kingsmen did not directly. They didn't see Barry song and
22:00
Speaker 2: say ah, that's mine now. They took it from another
22:04
Speaker 2: cover version by a group called the Whalers.
22:07
Speaker 4: Like Bob Marley and the Whalers.
22:09
Speaker 2: I don't think so. I don't think so. Their version
22:13
Speaker 2: of the song came out in nineteen sixty one.
22:16
Speaker 7: Noah, it's way earlier for that for them Whalers, different Whalers.
22:20
Speaker 2: And again, you know, the Kingsmen here are not like
22:25
Speaker 2: these sharky people out to rip off and plagiarize. This
22:29
Speaker 2: is a song they heard on jukeboxes around Portland and
22:32
Speaker 2: Jack Eli brought it to rehearsal because he thought it
22:35
Speaker 2: was cool. They were a house band.
22:36
Speaker 7: Oh, not to mention they are just a pack of
22:39
Speaker 7: dapper young lads, fresh faced us. Look like they'd be,
22:43
Speaker 7: you know, playing the Enchantment, under the Sea Dance and
22:46
Speaker 7: back to the Future. I mean, really clean cut. They
22:48
Speaker 7: do not look like some kind of you know, raunchy greasers.
22:52
Speaker 4: But it's cool though.
22:53
Speaker 7: When you hear the recording, it has this fun, live,
22:57
Speaker 7: raw quality to it.
22:58
Speaker 4: Yeah, the way the vocals are.
23:00
Speaker 7: The way the drums are so in your face, the
23:02
Speaker 7: way that keyboard sounds that I understand what an influential
23:07
Speaker 7: recording this was, separated from all the controversy.
23:11
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's catchy.
23:12
Speaker 2: It's catchy enough that you don't have to speak English
23:14
Speaker 2: or know what they're saying to enjoy the actual song itself. Again,
23:20
Speaker 2: if you don't believe us, and do you think there
23:22
Speaker 2: is something a bit sinister and raunchy about this song,
23:27
Speaker 2: please go check out their live performances. They're doing that
23:31
Speaker 2: little jaunty move where they go shoulder to shoulder up
23:35
Speaker 2: and down when they're singing or playing, the way that
23:38
Speaker 2: a lot of fifties and sixties boy bands they're popping. Yeah,
23:41
Speaker 2: they're bopping or poppin', and it looks like the most
23:45
Speaker 2: innocuous thing. It looks.
23:47
Speaker 4: It looks like a guy.
23:48
Speaker 2: Honestly, it looks like a guy who has never been
23:51
Speaker 2: a sailor singing a song he heard about a girl
23:55
Speaker 2: from a sailor.
23:56
Speaker 7: Yeah, well, man, I have a proposition for you.
24:03
Speaker 2: I think I can anticipate this proposition.
24:05
Speaker 7: What do you say we extend this conversation, widen this
24:09
Speaker 7: net with a little extra credit.
24:17
Speaker 2: Sounds great. This is our second time doing our extra
24:22
Speaker 2: credit segment.
24:23
Speaker 4: Which is the second time.
24:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, only second time, which is where we go above
24:27
Speaker 2: and beyond and look to our wonderful friends, colleagues and
24:31
Speaker 2: collaborators for some assistance and friends, neighbors. We mention one
24:37
Speaker 2: guy on our show quite a bit, but you may
24:41
Speaker 2: be wondering if he's a real person or if we
24:43
Speaker 2: just made him up. Well, the rumors are true. He
24:45
Speaker 2: is real. We have him here today, Friends and neighbors.
24:49
Speaker 2: Christopher hasiotis you guys?
24:51
Speaker 5: I am real. I've I've been sitting over there this
24:54
Speaker 5: whole time.
24:54
Speaker 7: In here. He's always He's like Jack Torrance in the Shining.
25:00
Speaker 7: I've always been there.
25:01
Speaker 5: Wherever there's a need for research on a podcast, You're
25:04
Speaker 5: just there.
25:05
Speaker 4: We're lucky to have you as our research caretaker.
25:08
Speaker 5: I'm happy to be here.
25:09
Speaker 2: Thanks for coming on the show. Man Now off air,
25:12
Speaker 2: you reached out to us because this really inspired you
25:15
Speaker 2: to dig into the story. Right, like Louie Louie, I
25:19
Speaker 2: feel like it struck a personal chord with you.
25:21
Speaker 5: Well, I know, in a past life, if I'm honest,
25:24
Speaker 5: I was a music journalist. And that's not just an
25:27
Speaker 5: imaginary past life. That's a real past life, and a
25:29
Speaker 5: lot of my career early on, I was out late
25:32
Speaker 5: at clubs seeing rock bands, just kind of soaking in music.
25:36
Speaker 5: I used to DJ dance parties and what yeah, yeah,
25:40
Speaker 5: like I said, a past life. But yeah, so I
25:44
Speaker 5: spent probably, I don't know, an hour more than I
25:48
Speaker 5: should have, just digging deep into different versions of Louie Louie,
25:52
Speaker 5: because it's one of the most covered, most recorded songs
25:55
Speaker 5: out there, if not the most, And I honestly I
25:59
Speaker 5: could have spent hours more doing it, but I thought
26:02
Speaker 5: I would bring you guys some of those versions.
26:05
Speaker 7: Oh I'm sorry, I had to retroactively make a joke.
26:08
Speaker 7: This song must have actually struck three chords with you,
26:11
Speaker 7: A D and E minor.
26:13
Speaker 5: Is that where you were looking up?
26:14
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's job. Yeah, it was.
26:16
Speaker 2: Worth it, So Christophers, you know, since you were here
26:20
Speaker 2: the whole time. Earlier we talked a little bit about
26:22
Speaker 2: the origins of Louie Louis and I did not know
26:25
Speaker 2: it was so extensively covered until you showed us this
26:31
Speaker 2: astonishing list which has some surprising bands on it. Did
26:35
Speaker 2: you notice that long?
26:36
Speaker 4: I did.
26:36
Speaker 7: I have a theory though, because it's such an open
26:39
Speaker 7: ended song that's three chords and it's just easy to
26:42
Speaker 7: just to kind of go to town on vocally, as
26:44
Speaker 7: evidence by the Kingsman version, and why it was such
26:47
Speaker 7: a headache for the FBI, because this guy's just kind
26:50
Speaker 7: of like mumbling all this crazy stuff.
26:52
Speaker 4: It could be anything.
26:53
Speaker 7: I think that's got like an appeal where it's like
26:55
Speaker 7: I want to do my own crazy rambling version of
26:57
Speaker 7: Louis lou.
26:58
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's it's it's a pretty basic song, and that
27:00
Speaker 5: goes back to actually its origins, which you guys talked
27:03
Speaker 5: about a little bit. But the origins of rock and
27:07
Speaker 5: roll are in rhythm and blues and the African American
27:10
Speaker 5: musical experience. But one of the most ridiculous things about
27:13
Speaker 5: rock history is the under explored influence of Latin music
27:18
Speaker 5: on rock and roll. Usually I would say Cuban American music.
27:23
Speaker 5: So Richard Barry, who wrote Louie Louie back in nineteen
27:27
Speaker 5: fifty five, he was at a club and he heard
27:30
Speaker 5: this band, Ricky Rieira and the Rhythm Rockers say it
27:34
Speaker 5: five times fast. Nope, Ricky Rieira and the Rhythm Rockers,
27:39
Speaker 5: And they were playing a cover version of a song
27:42
Speaker 5: popular at the time in the mid fifties, a song
27:44
Speaker 5: by Renee Tuse. It was called Eloco Chacha. So I
27:48
Speaker 5: look at you, guys. I think you're gentlemen of the world.
27:50
Speaker 5: You're probably skilled a ballroom dance. Oh yeah, so you
27:55
Speaker 5: take your typical cha cha and how does that go?
27:58
Speaker 5: You've got one one to two chat cha three four exactly.
28:03
Speaker 5: Now what's really crazy? What's really loco? What if you
28:08
Speaker 5: flipped it to chat chat chaw one two chat chat
28:12
Speaker 5: cha three four.
28:15
Speaker 4: Genius? So uh, flipping the scrip making a whole new thing, exactly.
28:19
Speaker 5: And and we've actually, we've got Renee Tuesday's version of
28:22
Speaker 5: al loco chat Cha. Maybe Casey can queue it up
28:25
Speaker 5: a bit.
28:25
Speaker 4: I would love to hear it in real time. Let's
28:27
Speaker 4: check it out at that nice Latin cow bell action.
28:33
Speaker 2: I feel good for everybody listening. We all instantly started nodding,
28:38
Speaker 2: Oh hear that horn section.
28:40
Speaker 5: Yeah yeah. And so this is the tune that Richard
28:45
Speaker 5: Barry heard a cover version of and the story goes
28:48
Speaker 5: he he loved it so much that he said, I
28:51
Speaker 5: want to write a song to this tune, which you know,
28:54
Speaker 5: I guess you could do it the day.
28:56
Speaker 7: Yeah, so just a very diplomatic way of saying, I'm
28:59
Speaker 7: a that.
29:00
Speaker 5: I like this. Yeah, I don't want to work too hard, right,
29:02
Speaker 5: so I'm going.
29:03
Speaker 4: To take this well he wrote his own lyrics, he.
29:05
Speaker 5: Did, and reportedly he wrote them that night at the
29:08
Speaker 5: club on either depending on who you hear from, a
29:13
Speaker 5: napkin or a piece.
29:14
Speaker 4: Of toilet paper, perhaps a matchbook. Yeah, I don't know,
29:17
Speaker 4: that's my version.
29:17
Speaker 7: We talked a little bit earlier in the show about
29:19
Speaker 7: the fact that there was this kind of Calypso craze
29:22
Speaker 7: at the time that was hot business, and Barry, in
29:27
Speaker 7: addition to being having a very perceptive ear picking up
29:32
Speaker 7: on something that he thought might hit, he also wanted
29:35
Speaker 7: to capitalize on this Calypso craze. And it totally works
29:39
Speaker 7: in that genre, especially the fact that he's sang it
29:41
Speaker 7: with kind of a fake Jamaican petois, right.
29:44
Speaker 2: Exactly, and that what we've confirmed, right that is absolutely affectation.
29:48
Speaker 4: Correct.
29:49
Speaker 2: Yes, So in this strange agglomeration of what could be
29:52
Speaker 2: called aggressive covering or plagiarization, we see a pattern that
29:59
Speaker 2: continue even to the modern day. What are some of
30:02
Speaker 2: the strangest covers you found?
30:04
Speaker 5: So there's a wide variety of covers of this song,
30:07
Speaker 5: from the traditional to the really kind of off the wall.
30:10
Speaker 5: I wanted to start out with one that is from
30:13
Speaker 5: nineteen sixty five. We're here in Georgia recording, so I
30:17
Speaker 5: thought i'd go with a Georgia recording artist, mister Otis Redding.
30:21
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, all right, so you've got it kind of
30:23
Speaker 5: a really soulful R and B version of Louis Louis.
30:27
Speaker 4: Oh I love me some Otis. Let's hear it. Oh buddy,
30:35
Speaker 4: I like it. Interesting change up there.
30:45
Speaker 2: He's making it his own, he doesn't have to go.
30:48
Speaker 7: And he's doing a bit of a Louis Lua yeah,
30:50
Speaker 7: which I like.
30:51
Speaker 4: Yeah, we see what I'm saying.
30:53
Speaker 7: Though.
30:54
Speaker 4: It's just rife for ad libbing, right.
30:57
Speaker 2: It's almost like a modern folk bay where it seems
31:01
Speaker 2: no one really owns it and everyone makes it their
31:03
Speaker 2: own when they record it. Well.
31:05
Speaker 5: And one of the things I like about Louie Louie,
31:06
Speaker 5: and especially its tradition of having unintelligible lyrics to a
31:10
Speaker 5: certain degree, is it. I think it really shines when
31:13
Speaker 5: the singer's voice itself just has a feeling, and I
31:17
Speaker 5: think that is I mean, otis reading his voice. He
31:19
Speaker 5: could sing whatever, and clearly he is, and you just
31:22
Speaker 5: feel it, you know, I mean, sing the phone Book.
31:25
Speaker 5: Absolutely So. In the sixties, there are a lot of
31:27
Speaker 5: other covers of Louie Louie that kind of go along
31:30
Speaker 5: the same lines as the Kingsman version. You know, You've
31:32
Speaker 5: got the Trogs. The Sonics do a much kind of
31:35
Speaker 5: dirtier garage rock version. Those are all great, but let's
31:38
Speaker 5: dive into one that's a little weirder. This is still
31:41
Speaker 5: sort of in the rock genre. But got a guy
31:44
Speaker 5: named Mike Dezy, now Mike Dezy. He's a studio pro,
31:48
Speaker 5: He's a guitar guy. So this guy has appeared on
31:51
Speaker 5: recordings by the Everly Brothers by Richie Vallens. He toured
31:54
Speaker 5: with the Coasters. He was in the Wrecking Crew, which
31:57
Speaker 5: was the famous recording band who recordings like pet Sounds.
32:01
Speaker 5: He played on albums by The Monkeys by Michael Jackson,
32:05
Speaker 5: Frank Zappa, Sinatra, streisand this guy Mike Deasy was one
32:10
Speaker 5: of the guitarists on the stage for Elvis Presley's nineteen
32:13
Speaker 5: sixty eight comeback special, That TV special where Yeah the
32:16
Speaker 5: Black Leather Yeah Yeah, and Mike Deasy was one of
32:20
Speaker 5: the guitarists. So this guy Mike has a long career
32:23
Speaker 5: of backing up other folks, but in nineteen sixty seven
32:27
Speaker 5: he put out his own solo album to show off
32:30
Speaker 5: his guitar virtuosity under the name Friar Tuck and his
32:35
Speaker 5: Psychedelic Guitar.
32:36
Speaker 2: I've got a screwed to the edge of my seat
32:38
Speaker 2: for guess what. Yeah, Casey, can you hit it for us?
32:50
Speaker 4: Oh? I love this all right so much? Oh, there
32:54
Speaker 4: we go.
33:00
Speaker 5: So it's it's it's mellow.
33:04
Speaker 4: You can see me right now. I'm swaying back and
33:06
Speaker 4: forth with a goofy grin of.
33:07
Speaker 5: My no looks dreamy.
33:12
Speaker 4: There we go.
33:17
Speaker 5: So it's got that sort of dawzy psychedelic this.
33:23
Speaker 4: Yeah, right up my house.
33:24
Speaker 1: I'm gonna play this.
33:25
Speaker 2: Yeah.
33:26
Speaker 5: He is my favorite so far, big time.
33:31
Speaker 7: I always want to hear up to the verse because
33:34
Speaker 7: everyone does their own thing. They change the lyrics, they
33:38
Speaker 7: do their own different Cadence. I want to hear what
33:40
Speaker 7: this does with it.
33:42
Speaker 4: No, I think that maybe maybe they're not even gonna
33:44
Speaker 4: do a verse.
33:45
Speaker 2: I love the finger People too.
33:47
Speaker 5: I mean, this is it's Friar talk and his psychedelic guitar.
33:50
Speaker 5: And I would totally recommend looking up this record online
33:53
Speaker 5: because the cover of the album is pretty stellar. Looks
33:58
Speaker 5: like a total weirdo.
33:59
Speaker 4: I love the fact if there are no verses, it's
34:02
Speaker 4: all just vamps. It's about the experience. Yeah, now this
34:05
Speaker 4: is dope.
34:05
Speaker 5: I love it. I mean again, the verses, if you
34:08
Speaker 5: can't understand them, do you need them?
34:09
Speaker 2: No nights.
34:10
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's about the feeling about.
34:12
Speaker 5: The feeling, And it looks like you guys, to those
34:15
Speaker 5: of you listening who can't see Nolan Benner feeling this,
34:18
Speaker 5: Oh I'm feeling it hard.
34:20
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think that's going.
34:21
Speaker 2: To stay with men. I'm kind of sad that we
34:23
Speaker 2: am kind of sad that we can't just play that
34:25
Speaker 2: entire song right now. But what's the next cover?
34:29
Speaker 5: So here we're going to go forward a couple of years.
34:31
Speaker 5: We're still sticking in the sixties. So nineteen sixty nine.
34:34
Speaker 5: The singer Julie London, she is famously known for having
34:38
Speaker 5: this really kind of mellow affect, really nice, kind of soft, hazy,
34:43
Speaker 5: smoky vocals. And she put out a record called Yummy, Yummy,
34:47
Speaker 5: Yummy in nineteen sixty nine, and her version of Louis
34:50
Speaker 5: Louis closes out that album, and it's just got sort
34:53
Speaker 5: of a really quiet, almost narcotic vibe going on. It's
34:58
Speaker 5: unlike most of the other versions you hear, which are
35:01
Speaker 5: a little more upbeat.
35:02
Speaker 2: Can I say, just before we roll this, you were
35:05
Speaker 2: doing a fantastic job curating this music for us. Do
35:09
Speaker 2: you make mixtapes?
35:11
Speaker 5: I do make mixtapes, mix CITs, all that liner notes,
35:14
Speaker 5: whatever you need. Were you a younger person and I
35:19
Speaker 5: a younger person, I might, you know, put together a
35:21
Speaker 5: mixtape to try to woo you. And these are the
35:23
Speaker 5: things a younger man does.
35:24
Speaker 7: Oh yeah, it's the lost art the mixtape. Now it's
35:27
Speaker 7: just the Spotify playlist, which isn't nearly as sexy.
35:30
Speaker 4: What's the works you know?
35:31
Speaker 7: Oh yeah, it's it's woo worthy. I used to get
35:34
Speaker 7: Smashing Pumpkins bootlegs in the mail. I would trade with
35:37
Speaker 7: people on message boards and they would always take the
35:40
Speaker 7: rest of the tape that wasn't full of the bootleg
35:43
Speaker 7: and put Filler songs on it, And that's how I
35:45
Speaker 7: learned about a lot of new music back in the day.
35:47
Speaker 7: It was from Filler on Smashing Pumpkins bootleg. Yes, all right,
35:51
Speaker 7: but yeah, Casey, can we can we hear the Julie
35:53
Speaker 7: London version from sixty nine?
35:57
Speaker 2: Oh?
35:59
Speaker 5: Already dramatic.
36:10
Speaker 4: I was not expecting that because super.
36:13
Speaker 5: Ben's eyebrows just arch stuff.
36:19
Speaker 4: Hmm, I really go, I gotta go.
36:26
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's a little bit of a Dusty Springfield vibe. Dude.
36:29
Speaker 7: I was just about to say, I've been listening to
36:30
Speaker 7: nothing but Dusty and Memphis for the past couple of weeks.
36:35
Speaker 4: So good, very much so.
36:37
Speaker 7: Yeah, it's almost got that kind of Nico narcotic, kind
36:40
Speaker 7: of like hazy vibe.
36:43
Speaker 5: Well, here we go.
36:44
Speaker 4: I'll hear this first.
36:46
Speaker 2: I liked how they're putting in almost any instrument that
36:49
Speaker 2: what gets It's amazing.
36:53
Speaker 5: Yeah, and I always really enjoy when a song will
36:55
Speaker 5: flip the gender. You know, she's singing about a boy
36:57
Speaker 5: across the sea as I was to a girl.
37:00
Speaker 4: Yeah, and this feels very intimate.
37:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, her voice feels very close but also.
37:07
Speaker 7: Very cinematic because it's like that schmaltzy Burt backer Aki
37:10
Speaker 7: kind of arrangement, and then her vocal is very front
37:14
Speaker 7: and center. Such a departure from the Kingsman where the
37:17
Speaker 7: vocals a mile away and completely unintelligible.
37:20
Speaker 4: I love this's let's go on.
37:23
Speaker 5: Yeah cool.
37:23
Speaker 4: Yeah.
37:24
Speaker 5: So this next version, we're going back to the islands
37:26
Speaker 5: where the song kind of has its origins in that
37:29
Speaker 5: crossing the Sea Calypso Vibe. Toots in the May Towels
37:33
Speaker 5: are an acclaimed iconic band from Jamaica from the sixties
37:37
Speaker 5: and the seventies, and this version from the early seventies,
37:40
Speaker 5: Toots Hibbert's just kind of he just sings his heart
37:43
Speaker 5: out on this reggae, ska and rock setti inspired version.
37:48
Speaker 4: Let's hear it, there we go.
38:01
Speaker 2: Yeah.
38:08
Speaker 5: It just makes you want to kind of sit on
38:09
Speaker 5: a beach.
38:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, I want to leave the studio hop on a plane.
38:14
Speaker 5: You know again, you can kind of just do whatever
38:17
Speaker 5: you want with the song, yeah, and make it your own.
38:19
Speaker 5: It's very true. It's very true. It's great vamps. Yeah,
38:23
Speaker 5: we could stay here all day listening to all these two.
38:25
Speaker 5: But let's I'm gonna I'm gonna bring the next one
38:29
Speaker 5: is a lot harsher, a lot louder. But the reason
38:33
Speaker 5: I wanted to play this song for you it's by
38:36
Speaker 5: Iggy and the Stooges, so famously Iggy Pop and his
38:39
Speaker 5: and his band Punk Pioneer. The reason I wanted to
38:42
Speaker 5: play this song. The version I'm Gonna play for You
38:45
Speaker 5: is off of the nineteen seventy four record Metallic Ko,
38:48
Speaker 5: which is a live album, and it's a live recording
38:51
Speaker 5: of the Stooge's last two shows ever in Detroit. They
38:56
Speaker 5: wouldn't play again together until they reunited. I don't know
38:58
Speaker 5: ten years ago or since I'm on that tour at
39:00
Speaker 5: the forty what in a Georgia, But the very last
39:05
Speaker 5: song they played at their very last show in the
39:07
Speaker 5: seventies was Louie Louie. And one thing that's particularly resonant
39:11
Speaker 5: about this song the Stooges have a personal connection to
39:14
Speaker 5: Louie Louis. It's not just that they love the song,
39:16
Speaker 5: although they love all that classic rock and roll. Dan Galucci,
39:20
Speaker 5: who played keyboards on the Kingsman version of Louie Louie,
39:24
Speaker 5: he was kicked out of the band he was too
39:27
Speaker 5: young to go on tour.
39:28
Speaker 4: That's what I heard that.
39:29
Speaker 5: Yeah, his parents would not let him go out on
39:32
Speaker 5: tour from whatever. Yeah, so Dan, but he played keys
39:36
Speaker 5: on the recording. What he ended up doing with his
39:39
Speaker 5: life though, he was a record producer, Yeah, and Elektra
39:43
Speaker 5: for Electra and Electra put out a lot of the
39:45
Speaker 5: Stages records. Dan Galucci produced The Stooge's Fun House, which
39:50
Speaker 5: is an iconic, iconic album.
39:52
Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly.
39:53
Speaker 5: So they've got the Stuges have this personal connection to
39:55
Speaker 5: Louie Louis. The live version, they get wild, they get aucus,
40:00
Speaker 5: they get pretty vulgar. You can find some some B
40:03
Speaker 5: sides and some studio outtakes of a cleaner version. But
40:06
Speaker 5: I wanted to play this live version just because it
40:08
Speaker 5: was the very last song they played at their very
40:10
Speaker 5: last show.
40:11
Speaker 2: I'm gonna stand up for this week, Yes.
40:21
Speaker 5: You see.
40:30
Speaker 7: To me, this is like full circle back to the
40:32
Speaker 7: uh the original version with the Kingsman. It's got that thrashy,
40:37
Speaker 7: bashy drum sound, that irreverent snotty kind of vocal.
40:42
Speaker 5: It is really dirty garage.
40:44
Speaker 2: And didn't they purposely change the lyrics to be offensive or.
40:49
Speaker 5: Yeah, we're gonna have to fade this out pretty soon,
40:51
Speaker 5: because I do get pretty old.
40:53
Speaker 4: Let it right, we'll give it a bleed we get
40:55
Speaker 4: we'll give it the bleep.
40:55
Speaker 5: Treatment I want to hear.
41:02
Speaker 4: So that's a taste of it. That's a taste.
41:05
Speaker 7: Well, what's funny is he's doing kind of the lyrics
41:09
Speaker 7: that the FBI said were the lyrics to the song
41:13
Speaker 7: that they.
41:13
Speaker 2: Weren't exactly definitely doing something similar.
41:16
Speaker 5: Yeah, you think this is vulgar, Let's make it vulgar.
41:18
Speaker 2: Right, which is smart. I think that's tremendously clever. So
41:24
Speaker 2: it sounds like we have time for just one more
41:27
Speaker 2: cover that might surprise some people.
41:29
Speaker 5: Yeah, we're gonna go to nineteen eighty three Brooklyn for
41:31
Speaker 5: this one. We're going away from rock and roll and
41:34
Speaker 5: we're going to early rap. The Fat Boys The Year
41:37
Speaker 5: of my birth Oh at fat Boy, Happy birthday, Thanks Budding. Yeah,
41:41
Speaker 5: I'm glad you're here. Me too, Glad you're here. Oh guys, Well,
41:45
Speaker 5: I'm glad we're gonna listen to this song. The Fat
41:47
Speaker 5: Boys they are Brooklyn Trio, iconic rap group, kind of
41:51
Speaker 5: a jokey rap group, but they took a really meta
41:54
Speaker 5: approach to their version of Louie Louis, and they talked
41:58
Speaker 5: about what we've been talking about for a while.
42:01
Speaker 4: Full circle, my friend, it's a party jam. Yeah, yeah,
42:23
Speaker 4: this is a banger.
42:28
Speaker 9: About music. What day she told me about this song
42:36
Speaker 9: cock a big frumble, big thought it was hilpy coock
42:40
Speaker 9: the word what the lyrics.
42:48
Speaker 5: Won.
42:50
Speaker 2: So this is fantastic because this song is about the
42:53
Speaker 2: history of the song they are covering exactly.
42:56
Speaker 4: Yeah.
42:56
Speaker 5: Yeah, So you get into the sort of meta commentary
42:59
Speaker 5: where the the singer is talking about a song that
43:02
Speaker 5: his mom heard and his mom is telling him about it,
43:04
Speaker 5: and then they're singing it and there's all these layers.
43:06
Speaker 5: So you tie in this idea of profanity, of violating
43:10
Speaker 5: social norms, of words causing outrage but also words causing
43:16
Speaker 5: tons of joy.
43:17
Speaker 2: So break it down for us, Christopher, if you could.
43:22
Speaker 2: Was there any actual validity to the rumors of obscenity
43:28
Speaker 2: and the Kingsman's Louis Louis? Was there any reason for
43:31
Speaker 2: the beef?
43:31
Speaker 5: Absolutely not and totally here kay, here's the last bit
43:37
Speaker 5: of extra credit that I'm gonna give you, guys. The
43:40
Speaker 5: lyrics of Louie Louis contained no obscenities, but the recording.
43:45
Speaker 5: Did the drummer drops one of his drumsticks and he
43:50
Speaker 5: shouts out an obscenity in the background, and it made
43:53
Speaker 5: it on the record. Nobody noticed, The FBI didn't notice,
43:57
Speaker 5: and this is confirmed later in interviews with the drummer.
44:00
Speaker 5: In interviews with the band, they said, Yeah, there's a
44:03
Speaker 5: bad word in there, and if you turn up the song,
44:06
Speaker 5: you know, you wouldn't know it at first, but if
44:08
Speaker 5: you know what you're looking for, you're gonna hear a
44:11
Speaker 5: knotty word.
44:11
Speaker 4: Oh wow.
44:12
Speaker 7: Man, just goes to show like misdirection is a hell
44:15
Speaker 7: of a thing, right, Not not that either they were
44:18
Speaker 7: trying to misdirect anybody, but people were so caught up
44:21
Speaker 7: on the unintelligibility of the lyrics that their minds created
44:25
Speaker 7: this problem that just wasn't there. All from a couple
44:28
Speaker 7: of angry letters from irate moms and I think a
44:32
Speaker 7: dad as well.
44:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then went on to make a conspiracy.
44:35
Speaker 4: Yeah.
44:35
Speaker 5: It goes to show you can you can affect change
44:38
Speaker 5: by writing a letter.
44:39
Speaker 4: M h and uh, but maybe maybe you should, maybe
44:42
Speaker 4: you just don't. Yeah, I just want to go Christopher, though.
44:46
Speaker 2: We don't want to let this segment go. Thank you
44:50
Speaker 2: so much for coming on to extra credit. Thank you
44:53
Speaker 2: for appearing on our show.
44:54
Speaker 5: So great to be here, you guys. And and you know,
44:56
Speaker 5: if listeners dig this, there are tons of other cover
45:00
Speaker 5: songs for Louis Louis they can dive into. There's Joan Jet.
45:03
Speaker 5: There is a Barry White cover that I really really
45:06
Speaker 5: wanted to play for you guys, but maybe we'll do
45:07
Speaker 5: that in private.
45:08
Speaker 7: Ye yeah, whoa, you know it's Barry White, that's true.
45:11
Speaker 7: I remember hearing it was actually on the Wayne's World soundtrack.
45:15
Speaker 7: I believe a Robert Plant version of it where he's,
45:19
Speaker 7: you know, singing in his classic Zep voice and you know,
45:22
Speaker 7: just really wailing and I couldn't understand the lyrics then either.
45:25
Speaker 5: Yeah, there's there's a lot of live versions of Zeppelin.
45:28
Speaker 5: There's a great live Bruce Springsteen version from a couple
45:31
Speaker 5: of years ago. There's a Smashing Pumpkins version. Noel, Yeah,
45:34
Speaker 5: I gotta say it's not that great.
45:35
Speaker 4: Well, I can't imagine it would be. And I'm also
45:37
Speaker 4: there dead to me.
45:38
Speaker 2: So at this at this point, to me, this is
45:42
Speaker 2: this is an historic moment for our show, because folks
45:46
Speaker 2: ridiculous his stories. You're finally able to meet the guy
45:50
Speaker 2: that we talk about so much, and I think he
45:52
Speaker 2: measures up to the height.
45:54
Speaker 4: Hi, everybody, I agree, this is a lot of fun.
45:57
Speaker 4: So thank you Christopher for joining us.
45:59
Speaker 7: Thanks to our super producer Casey Pegram and Alex Williams,
46:02
Speaker 7: who composed our theme.
46:04
Speaker 2: Most importantly, thanks to you for tuning in if you
46:09
Speaker 2: had twenty percent as much fun listening to this as
46:13
Speaker 2: we did recording it. That our work here is done,
46:18
Speaker 2: stay tuned and check us out our next episode, we
46:22
Speaker 2: explore the Albasas War, a forty year conflict sparked by
46:28
Speaker 2: and you guys know this is big for me because
46:29
Speaker 2: iways talking about feathers on camel's backs sparked by feathers
46:33
Speaker 2: a camel. Oh So in the meantime, let us know
46:39
Speaker 2: what your favorite cover of Louie Louis is. You can
46:42
Speaker 2: find us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, where we are
46:45
Speaker 2: Ridiculous History or some variation thereof. You can also check
46:50
Speaker 2: out our community page Ridiculous Historians.
46:53
Speaker 5: And Ben maybe we can post some of these versions
46:55
Speaker 5: in that community group.
46:56
Speaker 4: Oh, I think that's a great idea perfect. See you
46:59
Speaker 4: next time, everybody.
47:05
Speaker 7: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts,
47:09
Speaker 7: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.