In 1957, Richard Berry released a song he had written two years earlier with his band, the Pharaohs. “Louie Louie” was a song about a sailor pining for his girlfriend in Jamaica. After its release, some garage bands picked up on the infectious riff and the easy-to-play song they could interpret as their own, including the Portland-Oregon-bred Kingsmen, who ended up having a hit with “Louie Louie” in 1963.
Shortly after its release by The Kingsmen, the song went to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 before facing controversy over misinterpreted lyrics.
Even though the song was about the sailor and his Jamaican love, when the Kingsmen’s Jack Ely sang “Louie Louie,” it was nearly unintelligible. His mumbled words on the track were partly due to his wearing braces while the band was recording the song. Ely also said that he was singing a distance from the microphone, which may have caused the blurred sound.
Whatever the miscommunication, the lyrics were as clear as Berry wrote them six years earlier when the Kingemns covered it.
A fine little girl, she waits for me
Me catch a ship across the sea
Me sailed that ship all alone
Me never think I’ll make it home
Louie Louie, oh no no no, take me to where ya gotta go, oh no
Louie Louie, oh baby, take me to where ya gotta go
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A “Pornographic” Song?
Already a hit among teens, the song was so misunderstood that it was subjected to an FBI investigation behind the lyrics after Indiana governor Matthew Welsh called the song “pornographic” and asked broadcasters to ban it.
Some believed the song had a hidden obscene message about an explicit sexual encounter and within the FBI report were letters of complaints about the presumed meaning in the lyrics, including one letter of complaint which read: “We all know there is obscene material available for those who seek it, but when they start sneaking in this material in the guise of the latest ‘teenage rock and roll hit record,’ these morons have gone too far. This land of ours is headed for an extreme state of moral degradation, what with this record.”
In their report, the FBI even listed assumed lyrics to the song:
Three nights and days, I sail the sea. Every night and day, I play with my thing
Think of girl, constantly. I f–k you girl, oh, all the way
Oh, that ship, I dream she’s there. On my bed, I’ll lay her there
I smell the rose in her hair. I feel my bone, ah, in her hair
See Jamaica, the moon above. Hey, lovemaker, now hold my thing
It won’t be long, me see my love. It won’t take long, so leave it alone
Take her in my arms again. Hey, senorita, I’m hot as hell
Tell her I’ll never leave again. I told her I’d never lay her again
The Hidden ‘F–k’
After running a 119-page report, the FBI findings were inconclusive, and there was no real proof that the more vulgar “Louie Louie” lyrics were performed.
“The FBI was asked to investigate whether or not those involved with the song violated laws against the interstate transportation of obscene material,” read a statement by the FBI on the investigation, which ran from February through May 1964. The limited investigation lasted from February to May 1964 and discovered no evidence of obscenity.”
Ely left the Kingsmen in ’63 shortly after the release of “Louie Louie,” but there was one obscenity that was never picked up in the FBU investigation. Since the song was recorded in one live take, 56 seconds in, when drummer Lynn Easton dropped his drumstick, he can vaguely be heard saying “F–k.”
Louie Louie, oh no no no, take me to where ya gotta go, oh no
Louie Louie, oh baby, take me to where ya gotta go
F–k
Three nights and days I sailed the sea
Me think of girl constantly
On that ship, I dream she there
I smell the rose in her hair
Photo: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
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