| The Kingsmen 
Don Galluci, Jack Ily, Lynn Easton, Mike Mitchell and Bob Nordby Check out: The Louie Report Find everything about Louie Louie! Richard Berry 
| The Meaning Of Louie The lyrics to "Louie Louie" have been the object of considerable discussion for 33 years. Here's a loose interpretation of the chronology: - Some DJ on the East Coast did what DJ's had always done in the fifties and early sixties... violated their Music Directors rotation plan by playing a record that had not been "picked" by the MD.
- Some kids in a college frat house heard the song and loved it. They not only went out and bought it, they flooded the radio station with requests.
- The MD finally added the record, and more people thought it was cool.
- The frat brats were partying to the record, and because of the Rene Touzet / Richard Berry riff, wanted to sing along.
- Those same frat brats realized they couldn't quite get the words right. The harder they tried, the more it sounded like the words were dirty... "I felt I rose in her hair..." and "she had a rag on...", etc.
- To remeber what they thought they heard, they wrote the "lyrics" down. The frat brats sang those lyrics aloing with the radio.
- Lyric sheets were passed around, and soon every kid in Indiana was sure it was a dirty song, though the 50 sets of lyrics were all different.
- Some conservative parent got one from some poor adolescent, and raised holy Hell with the authorities.
- The Governor of Indiana banned the song. He was followed by local authorities across the East and South East.
- Sales soared as the reputation grew. It was at the top of the charts.
- The Governor of Indiana got the FBI going on an obscenity investigation.
- The Portland office of the FBI dragged the Kingsmen into their lair and threatened them with federal obscenity charges. They denied that the song was dirty, but Jack Ely, who'd sung the thing was no where to be found, and they didn't have the original record. They were scared.
- The Los Angeles office of the FBI rounded up Richard, dragged him into their interrogation room, and began to ask about the song. "What were the words to "Louie Louie?"
- Richard produced the published lyrics, and the FBI responded with "we want the REAL lyrics!" They were getting ready to charge Richard Berry with federal obscenity charges, threatening with prison time, and generally scaring Richard to death.
- The FBI crime lab in Washington DC analyzed a copy of the Wand single, not the original Jerden issue. After many hours of listening, filtering, playing at different speeds, dubbing and anaylizing on oscilloscopes, they were unable to definitively deliver the lyrics to J. Edgar Hoover, who'd been signing off most of the pages in the bulging FBI file. The lab's final conclusion was that "...even if it was obscene, the lyrics are unintelligible at any speed." Case closed.
- The more the stories of the dirty lyrics and the FBI probe circulated in the media and by word of mouth, the more copies of the Kingsmen's record sold... what else is new...
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