The mid-1950s saw rock ‘n roll music being widely condemned and viewed as a threat to public safety. Junk science at the time claimed that teenagers were addicted to it. Police officials across the country—in Connecticut, New Jersey, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and other states—blamed juvenile delinquency and general unrest on rock ‘n’ roll. Minneapolis’ 1959 ban on Dick Clark hosting a concert was “for the safety and peace of the community” as the chief police officer believed it could spark violence. This was not an overreaction. Others cities which banned rock’n’roll shows due to safety concerns were Boston, Massachusetts, Bridgeport and New Haven in Connecticut; Asbury Park (New Jersey); Santa Cruz, California; Birmingham, Alabama.
The 1955 Los Angeles Times article described rock ‘n’ roll as “a violent, harsh type of music that, parents feel, incites teenagers to do all sorts of crazy things,” and it quoted a psychiatrist who opined that rock ‘n’ roll was a “contagious disease.” Other psychiatrists agreed. Internationally renowned psychiatrist Dr. Francis J. Braceland testified in the Nuremberg Trials and was to serve as the president of the American Psychiatric Association (WPA). Braceland called rock ‘n roll “cannibalistic” and “tribalistic” and compared it with a “communicable illness.” The Washington Post in 1956 quoted Dr. Jules Masserman, another former president of the American Psychiatric Association, as saying that rock ‘n’ roll was “primitive quasi-music that can be traced back to prehistoric cultures.” It was common to believe that rock ‘n’ roll could have some strange power on young minds and was therefore dangerous.
This may be why authorities overreacted to an obscure 1963 song by the Kingsmen, a Portland-based garage band. The 1956 song, Louie, Louie, was composed by Richard Berry, a rhythm and blues musician. It rose to fame in the 1960s when it was recorded by many bands, including Paul Revere, the Raiders, and, most importantly, the Kingsmen. This song is nothing but a lament of a loversick sailor to a bartender over wanting to go home to his girlfriend. It became a Rorschach test because Jack Ely the Kingsmen’s singer, couldn’t pronounce the words. Parental fears were stoked by rumors from the schoolyard about “Louie, Louie”, which led to fevered complaints and prompted a long-running national investigation. According to rock critic Dave Marsh, “Louie, Louie” is the most well-known rock ‘n roll song in the world.
A letter from one panicked mom to then–Attorney General Robert Kennedy captured the general tone:
My daughter brought home a record of ‘LOUIE LOUIE’ and I…proceeded to try and decipher the jumble of words. The lyrics are so filthy that I can-not enclose them in this letter….I would like to see these people, The ‘artists,’ the Record company and the promoters prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
We all know there is obscene materials available for those who seek it, but when they start sneaking in this material in the guise of the latest teen rock & roll hit record these morons have gone too far.
With this record and these biggest hits movies, and the violence and sex exploited on T.V., our country is heading for an extreme moral degrading state. This is a serious threat. How do we stop it? ? ? ?
This was not the only one. Matthew E. Welsh from Indiana, a Democratic governor, said that the recording was so inappropriate it had made his “ears tingle” and announced a ban on all radio plays and live performances. The ban was not “official”. He simply reached out his contacts at Indiana Broadcasters Association in order to ensure the recording was not played within his state.
Official or not, this controversy led to a two-and a-half year investigation by the FBI, six FBI field offices, several U.S. lawyers, and the Federal Communications Commission. The FCC investigated the lyrics of Louie, Louie’s allegedly corrupted lyrics. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover had a conversation with an antipornography activist over the lyrics. He was also kept informed about the inquiry. Records label staff were interviewed and the song’s author was also interrogated (although Jack Ely, the supposed obscene performer, wasn’t). The FBI added notes to each file to inform those who were interview to that they were entitled to read their rights. FBI labs received recordings. The records were played at different speeds and FBI agents tried hard to catch a bad word.
United Press International (UPI), reported that in February 1964, FBI, Post Office and FCC dropped investigations “because they couldn’t determine the lyrics of this song, even though listening to records at speeds from 16 to 78 rpm.” That report was wrong in a couple of important respects: The investigation was far from over—it was just getting underway, really—and it was never clear that the Post Office was involved (although this may have been a subconscious nod to Anthony Comstock, the Victorian-era anti-vice crusader and “special agent” for the Post Office who famously used his power over the mails to oppose obscene literature, among other vices).
UPI reported that FBI agents could not comprehend the words. However, this was confirmed in correspondence sent by the FBI laboratory return materials to Tampa for review: “The Department stated that they could not interpret the records and could therefore not make any decisions regarding the matter.” The investigation continued for nearly two years.
An FCC memorandum from June 1965 summarizing the Detroit Office inquiry that included inputs from the National Association of Broadcasters (each of whom found the complaints baseless), and the Justice Department may be the closest thing to truth. After two years of hearing “unfounded complaints” about Louie Louie recording, the FCC official determined that “the trouble was initiated by an unidentified college graduate who created a string of obscene verses to Louie Louie and then sold them off to her fellow students.” The truth is, no one really knows how this all began.
Rumours of “dirty words” persist, spread by word-of-mouth, fuelled by Gov.’s inarticulate vocals, and Ely. Welsh has tingling ears. The rumormongers might be forgiven for their error. FBI agents stated that “with this style of rock and roller music, one might imagine he heard anything being mentioned.”
Before anyone thought of checking the U.S. lyrics file, the FBI had been a year into their investigation. Copyright Office. These are the results:
Louie, Louie, me gotta go.
Louie, Louie, me gotta go.
She is a beautiful little girl and she will wait for me.
I can catch a boat across the ocean.
All by myself, I set sail on the ship.
It’s hard to believe I will make it back home.
Louie, Louie, me gotta go.
Louie, Louie, me gotta go.It took us three days and nights to sail the sea.
It makes me feel good to think about girl all the time.
It was a dream that I had of her on the ship.
She has a rose scent in her hair.
Louie, Louie, me gotta go.
Louie, Louie, me gotta go.I see the Jamaican moon high above me;
You will see my love soon.
Let me take her into mine and then
She tells me that I will never go back.
One source who was interviewed by the FBI for their file said that “it’s obvious.” [that]The lyrics of this album are neither pornographic nor objectionable.
Yet, FBI records contained reports that included different versions of the schoolyard version of Louie, Louie.
Oh, Louie, Louie, Oh, No,
Make sure she is at the bottom of things.Oh, Louie, Louie, Oh, Baby,
Make sure she is at the bottom of things.Beautiful little girl with a lot of potential waiting for me
She’s just another girl on the other side of the river
Okay, I’ll just take her.
It’s not a girl that I would lay down at my home with.(Chorus repeat)
She was again laid on my chest at 10 in the evening.
Feisty girl, All the way
O, my bed!
Her hair is like a rose to me.(Chorus repeat)
Okay, let’s do it now!
You’re dragging her along and you’re moving above.
Soon, she will slip it off.
You’ll find me again to hold her.
“I’m going to tell her that I will never leave.”(Chorus repeat)
You can get that Broad from here!
It was obvious that the words “Louie, Louie”, as imagined, bore very little relationship to the lyrics. FBI investigators listened to the song over and over again and came up with the same conclusion: they couldn’t understand the lyrics.
All of these issues were ignored by those calling for FBI action. In June 1965, an anti-porn activist in Flint, Michigan wrote Hoover to express concern about “the alarming increase in venereal disease and perversion in teen groups” as well as promiscuity, illegitimate births, and other issues. Her organization was aware of “Louie Louie”‘s “dual setof lyrics. She claimed the Kingsmen orchestrated an “auditory trick.” It didn’t matter if you were able to prove the lyrics used in the performance of the song. “They were capitalizing upon its obscenity,” she said. “Every teenager in the County ‘heard the obscene.”[,]The lyric is not copyrighted. The song had to be considered obscene if sufficient people believed they heard something “bad,” regardless of the lyrics. Hoover wrote back to assure the correspondent that the FBI was actively investigating the matter and kindly enclosed copies of two Bureau publications—Poisoning Our Youth and Combatting Merchants of Filth: The Role of the FBI.
The activist responded the following month to say that her group had conducted its own investigation of “Louie, Louie”And had played back the original recording at various speeds. She reported that when the record was played “somewhere between 45 and 33-1/2 RPM…the obscene articulation is clearer.” The group she was with said that the recording could be compared to a copywritten song by Kingsmen. They also reported that the “obscene lyrics” were audible when the “intelligible” lyric is performed. It is difficult to determine what the overzealous informant wanted to convey. Is it possible that Kingsmen sang a “clean” version “Louie, Louie” on television, while the subliminal version was “dirty”. This “field report” is not known what Hoover thinks. Hoover sent a cordial note back, containing more FBI antismut pamphlets. He also requested that the Detroit office conduct an investigation into the women and her group. The Bureau was “not derogatory regarding” the agents’ report. [the] correspondent.”
On October 10, 1966 the FBI closed their investigation with a short, unscripted memo sent by the FBI labs from New York to return the recording and lyrics sheet. The most surprising part is this: All the focus on this song, its lyrics and all of the hours spent by FBI agents and laboratory technicians listening to it at various speeds and many critics and fans obsessively looking for dirt, nobody seemed to notice Lynn Easton’s drumming, just under one minute into the song. After fumbling with his drumsticks, he spontaneously voiced his dismay at his mistake. The song was only recorded one time so the accidental improvised exclamation remained in the background, undetectable and unmistakeable. There is a lesson about human nature in this: People rarely find what they do not seek, but, quite often, they can clearly see what they are looking for—even when it isn’t there.
The whole “Louie, Louie” episode bore the hallmarks of a classic Comstockian debacle—it originated in a moral panic about nothing and was driven by apocalyptic rhetoric about the mortal dangers threatening youth; the would-be censors ultimately were embarrassed by their actions; and, in the end, the controversy only magnified public attention and interest in the work. FBI records documented the following: A September 1965 memo stated that record sales had been poor when they were first issued on the West Coast. However, after Indiana’s governor issued the “ban” and obscenity rumors spread, sales skyrocketed and reached the 2,000,000 mark. The record label offered $1,000 to any person who could verify the obscenity, whether they were trying to quash the rumors or capitalize on them. It was never done.
Welsh realized that Louie, Louie was the last thing for which he would ever be remembered. The incident was described as “a tempest inside a teapot” in his 1991 interview. He attempted to minimize it and claimed that it was “a tempest in the teapot.” However, he strongly denied ever being a censor. He did not know how to do it. Prohibited the record, Welsh told Marsh for his definitive book on the subject. Reid Chapman (president of the Indiana Broadcasters Association), had only suggested that “it might be simpler all around” if it weren’t being played. Marsh stated that “it doesn’t take a First Amendment scholar” to spot the contradiction. “If a state’s chief executive does not suggest it, the record will be banned.”
All this aside, Anthony Comstock’s ghost lingers, but Welsh will not be the last official to have his head blown by the “Louie, Louie” scandal. Paula Dawning, Benton Harbor, Michigan, was the school superintendent. She decided in May 2005 that the middle school’s marching band would not be allowed to perform “Louie, Louie” at the Grand Floral Parade. She said that the song was “degrading” in lyrics and was “vulgar”, even though she wanted the band to play an instrumental. Her decision was reported nationwide—and roundly mocked—and Dawning ultimately relented. Although she stood behind her decision (both), Dawning told reporters her main concern was her “parental influence.” After “listening” to the majority of McCord Renaissance Middle School parents, Dawning explained that she initially banned the song “because one parent doubted its appropriateness.” However, after listening to the rest, she rescinded her decision. Dawning explained that Dawning was simply protecting the right of parents “to set standards for their kids.” It was not clear if she considered the coast-tocoast ridicule or the obligation that a public official has to not be subject to hecklers’ vetos to be factors.
The defenders for “Louie Louie” won the final laugh. According to the National Special Events Registry, April 11th is designated International Louie, Louie Day. Washington, Oregon, and other states have also declared their own celebrations of Louie, Louie Day. Seattle and Tacoma have sponsored annual LouieFests from 2003 to 2012. Peoria, Illinois, holds an annual Louie, Louie festival and parade.In addition, Philadelphia held “Louie, Louie”, annual parades, from 1985 to 1989, until the event was cancelled because of rowdiness. Washington tried to make “Louie, Louie”, the state song, in 1985, but it failed. The song still plays during every seventh-inning stretch of all Seattle Mariners home games. Washington Gov. and most politicians now love the song that was once considered taboo. Christine Gregoire danced the song at her 2005 inaugural ball. However, she did not mention if it made her ears tingle.