Review:

on 2011-07-23 CharlesMartel Said:

By the time the Portland based Kingsmen wrapped their vocal chords around this track, it was already popular and had been recorded a dozen or so times by many different artists. Subsequently covered by virtually every rhythm and blues outfit which has ever picked up a guitar, "Louie Louie" is one of the most famous of all rock and roll songs, and deservedly so. Yet it is a simple song in a Jamaican style about a sailor returning home to his lover.

The Kingsmen's version was recorded in one take, and a close listen to it will reveal several mistakes made by the band during that recording, but that just adds to its charm. The Kingsmen turned the laid-back original by Richard Berry from 1955 into a foot-stomping romp with a deliberately slurred vocal delivery, and that style has become the definitive version in covers by bands like the Flamin Groovies and even Motorhead. However, owing to claims of obscenity in the lyrics, based on a totally unfounded claim that the slurred lyrics masked this, the song was banned in many places and was actually investigated by the FBI. The whole investigation ended, after some months, without a prosecution. Seriously, have people nothing better to do.
Rating: 9/10