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Rock 'n Roll music is known for its vague and even "trick" lyrics... a version
of "poetic license" where words may mean something entirely different
from what the words say in their own simplicity. Often there are rumors that
the lyrics to a song are ACTUALLY something other than what
they sound like... words that sound nearly the same... but are said to be different...
and thus... the meaning of the song is different... something hidden.
Before the days of the internet, the only way to know what the lyrics to a song
really were... was to look them up in a music lyrics book at a music store...
or buy a monthly subscription to a lyrics magazine... or... to buy the record and
listen to a song over and over until you got the lyrics fairly close to something that
made sense. Often you could not hear the words clearly... due to slurring by
the singer... bad recording... or very loud instruments. There is a huge
difference between "can" and "can't"
when deciphering words to a song.
And then, sometimes published lyrics did not really fit what you heard on the record.
Modern music is "entertainment"... but is also a culture influence, story telling,
and philosophy. One can pass off vague lyrics casually... unless there is a suspicion
that the lyrics impart some important truth... that the rest of us need to know...
but that the singer cannot outright say.
All in all... it's good sales technique... to make vague lyrics... so that the listeners
who are looking for their own direction... hoping for some group experience...
will buy the records...
in order to try to understand what a song and even an album...
REALLY MEANS... if anything at all.
The Beatles played on this really well. Decades later... does anyone REALLY know
what the heck they are talking about... from Sgt. Pepper's and everything thereafter...?
Does listening to it... help...? Do any members of the group give us clues to the meaning...?
If so... are they telling us the truth... or just adding another layer of vagueness for the
rest of us to decipher as best as we can...?
Does anyone else... feel abandoned by all this...? butts of a bad joke, perhaps...?
How do those people in developing countries... who don't speak English... make
sense of their world... and merge into the modern world... when some of the most
influential and activist "entertainers" are hiding words and meanings...? How
abandoned do THEY feel...?
The tragedy of all this is... all we are left with... is rumors.
This can only add to the insanity of the world... not the evolution or advancement.
Who really wants to base their beliefs and philosophies... on rumors...?
Do we have to belong to some CLUB before we are allowed the truth...?
if there really IS any true meaning...
if the lyrics aren't just gobbledy-gook...?
Quite some years ago, I set out to find the REAL lyrics to Louie Louie... for no
other reason than to know... once and for all... what the big deal was about it.
Did it really say... "I got my....(bone caught) ... in her hair"...?
I was curious to know just how pornographic the song really was... if at all.
I kept striking a dead end. The alternate
lyrics are STILL UNPRINTABLE. And besides all this... rumor had it... that...
the singer was actually "doing" what he sang about...
(screwing a girl?) while the record was being
recorded. Pretty jazzy stuff, all in all.
And so... rather than base life on assumptions and rumor... on advertising tricks...
and on publicists' alibis and explanations... here is what is known about
Louie Louie. It may not really have been pornographic at all... but... boy howdy...
did people have a ball thinking that it was...!
Wikipedia: Louie Louie
History.com report on the FBI investigation
"Unintelligible at any speed"
was the conclusion the FBI Laboratory relayed to the investigators."
Those who grew up in the 1950's and 1960's know the impact of this song on the
group psyche of our generation. This was "the forbidden song." This was the song
that adolescent hipsters sang with such joy and abandon as they cruised the "main
drag" in their souped up sports cars... and family station wagons.
If you sang this song... you made it all the way to being "cool" and beyond.
The lyrics to Louie Louie are a matter of discussion... because...
as rumors say... the lyrics had to be changed whenever this was performed
on television. Nevertheless... the lyrics sung by teenagers were fairly
similar in translation.
In parts of the midwest USA... the lyrics went something like this:
(listen along with the music video, if you have the desire)
Video of TV appearance: Louie Louie by the Kingsmen
(opens in new window... for your convenience)
Louie Lou-eye, oh no, baby, we gotta go
ya ya ya ya, I said
Louie Lou-eye, oh baby, we gotta go
A fine little girl is waiting for me
Stretch your girl across the bed
(not sure)... all alone
(not sure) remember the gal waiting at home
Louie Lou-eye, na na na now, I said we gotta go
Oh no, I said, Louie Lou-eye, oh baby, we gotta go
Every night at ten I lay her again
Fuck your girl all kinds of ways
Her arms and tits are leading me there
I felt my bone caught in her hair
Louie Lou-eye, oh no, I'm saying - we gotta go
ya ya ya ya I said, Louie Lou-eye, oh baby, and we gotta go
OK, let's give it to 'em, right now !
Stick, stick my finger up the hole of love
It won't be long (not sure... but much too raunchy for me)
Take her in my arms and then
I'll tell her I'll never leave again
Louie Lou-eye, oh no, we gotta go
ya ya ya ya, I said Louie Lou-eye oh baby
I said we gotta go
I said we gotta go now
We're going on out of here
Let's go !
Perhaps some of the reason for the confusion about the lyrics is that when The
Kingsmen recorded their version of the song they had gotten the lyrics from
listening to Richard Berry's version on the juke box. And then... when the song
was recorded... the singer was placed at a distance from the mic.
Later, one of the members of The Kingsmen said:
""At one time we saw 35 different copies of the lyrics and they were all completely different, depending on what part of the country you were from."
And so... although rock 'n roll has a lot to offer in some ways...
what do we REALLY know about any of it...?
Assume at your own risk.
Louie Louie is a song written by Richard Berry about a Jamaican sailor who is talking
to his bartender "Louie" about missing his girlfriend and wanting to return to her.
These are those original lyrics: from
Demented Music DataBase where it describes the lyrics as
"a song with the foulest lyrics never written."
Louie Louie
Oh no, me gotta go.
Louie Louie
Oh baby, me gotta go.
A fine little girl, she wait for me,
Me catch the ship across the sea.
I sailed the ship all alone,
I never think how I'll make it home.
Louie Louie
Oh no, no, no, me gotta go, oh no
Louie Louie
Oh baby, me gotta go.
Three nights and days I sailed the sea.
Me think of girl constantly.
On the ship I dream she there.
I smell the rose in her hair.
Louie Louie
Oh no, me gotta go, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Louie Louie
Oh baby me gotta go.
(Okay, let's give it to 'em right now!)
Me see Jamaica moon above.
It won't be long me see me love
Me take her in my arms and then
I tell her I'll never leave again.
Louie Louie
Oh no, me gotta go
Louie Louie
Oh baby, me gotta go.
I said we gotta go,
Let's get on outta here.
Let's go.
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