Louie Louie is a song written in 1955 by Richard Berry. Versions have been recorded by great numbers of artists and it has been covered live by vast numbers. Perhaps the version with the greatest impact was the 1963 version by The Kingsmen. It was a big hit to which veritable hordes of young people could be seen dancing and enjoying themselves, something highly suspicious to their elders in and of itself. Beyond that, while there were a lot of unintelligible lyrics, at least twice a male voice clearly said the word "girl". This led every narrow-minded blue nosed puritan to be certain that it was somehow "dirty". Given that since its founding such people have been the clear majority of the USA's adult population, many calls to action were issued. Stations refused to play it, some dimwitted mid-western governor declared it to be pornographic because it made his ears tingle and banned it and folks contacted the US attorney general and more.
Insofar as it would be about 20 years before Tipper Gore launched her campaign to eliminate dirty words, possible sexual innuendo and other wrong-think from rock music the nation's morals were almost certainly doomed. (Luckily, Tipper's daughter didn't listen to the blues and the vast treasure trove of blues material was spared from these attacks.) In the end, it fell to those earnest defenders of decency, morality, uniformity, conformity, propriety and narrow-minded group think, the feebs, to take on this outrageous tune. This fit right in with their ongoing war on any and all non-conformity, improper dress and haircuts and wrong-think of every kind which, at the time, was formally named Cointelpro. Jedgar's finest did their utmost, but after almost 3 years of "investigating" were forced to concede defeat. They hadn't the technology, equipment or inventiveness required to plant evidence of pornographic content in a song that had been recorded and widely distributed with both an unadulterated master and a few boatloads of unadulterated copies loose in the world. Accordingly, they declared that they were unable to find it to be porn ("innocence" isn't a big part of their lingo, just "unproven"). For those willing to endanger their soul, I have below provided the official lyrics to the version recorded by The Kingsmen in 1963:
For those willing to endanger their soul, I have below provided the official lyrics to the version recorded by The Kingsmen in 1963:
Louie Louie, oh no, you take me where ya gotta go, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, baby Louie Louie, oh baby, take me where ya gotta go A fine little girl, she waits for me Me catch the ship across the sea Me sailed the ship all alone Me never think 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, yeah, baby Louie Louie, oh baby, me gotta go Okay, let's give it to 'em right now Me see Me see Jamaica, the 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, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, baby Louie Louie, oh baby, me gotta go I said me gotta go now Let's hustle on out of here Let's go
Perhaps next week we will explore the rumor that playing the Star Spangled Banner backwards at 78 rpm reveals a Satanic message from the Salem Witches. That reminds me: It's Anton LaVey's birthday.
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On this day in history:
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1241 – Batu Khan defeated Béla IV of Hungary at the Battle of Mohi.
1713 – The Treaty of Utrecht. ended the War of the Spanish Succession
1727 – Premiere of Johann Sebastian Bach's St Matthew Passion
1814 – The Treaty of Fontainebleau ended the War of the Sixth Coalition, forcing Napoleon Bonaparte to abdicate unconditionally
1856 – Juan Santamaría burned down the hostel where William Walker's filibusters were holed up
1868 – Tokugawa Yoshinobu surrendered Edo Castle to Imperial forces, marking the end of the Tokugawa shogunate.
1881 – The Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary, an institute of higher education for African-American women, was founded
1921 – Emir Abdullah established the first centralised government in the newly created British protectorate of Transjordan.
1945 – American forces liberated the Buchenwald concentration camp
1951 – President Truman relieved Douglas MacArthur of the command of American forces in Korea and Japan.
1951 – The Stone of Scone was found on the site of the altar of Arbroath Abbey.
1955 – The Air India Kashmir Princess was bombed and crashed in a failed assassination attempt on Zhou Enlai by the Kuomintang.
1957 – United Kingdom agreed to Singaporean self-rule.
1964 – Brazilian Marshal Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco was elected president of the Brazilian dictatorship by the National Congress.
1965 – The Palm Sunday tornado outbreak of 1965: Fifty-one tornadoes hit in six Midwestern states, killing 256 people.
1968 – President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968, prohibiting discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing.
1970 – Apollo Program: Apollo 13 was launched.
1976 – The Apple I was created
1979 – Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, an early favorite of Israel and the UK, was deposed.
1993 – Four hundred fifty prisoners rioted at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, Ohio, and continued to do so for ten days,
2006 – Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced Iran's claim to have successfully enriched uranium
2021 – Daunte Wright was shot and killed by officer Kimberly Potter, who then used the infamous "I thought it was a taser" defense used by officer Mehserle when he killed Oscar Grant
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Some people who were born on this day:
Labor is the source of all wealth and all culture.
~~ Ferdinand Lassalle
1591 – Bartholomeus Strobel, painter
1592 – John Eliot, lawyer and politician
1683 – Jean-Joseph Mouret, composer and conductor
1749 – Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, miniaturist and portrait painter
1755 – James Parkinson, surgeon, geologist, and paleontologist
1798 – Macedonio Melloni, physicist and academic
1825 – Ferdinand Lassalle, philosopher and jurist
1827 – Jyotirao Phule, scholar, philosopher, and activist (
1862 – William Wallace Campbell, astronomer and academic
1864 – Johanna Elberskirchen, author and activist
1869 – Gustav Vigeland, sculptor, designed the Nobel Peace Prize medal
1879 – Bernhard Schmidt, astronomer and optician
1887 – Jamini Roy, painter
1899 – Percy Lavon Julian, chemist and academic
1906 – Dale Messick, author and illustrator
1908 – Leo Rosten, author and academic
1912 – John Levy, bassist and businessman
1914 – Dorothy Lewis Bernstein, mathematician
1916 – Alberto Ginastera, pianist and composer
1925 – Viola Liuzzo, civil rights activist
1925 – Viktor Masing, botanist and ecologist
1926 – Victor Bouchard, pianist and composer
1926 – Karl Rebane, physicist and academic
1928 – Tommy Tycho, pianist, composer, and conductor
1930 - Anton LaVey, Redacted by the decency patrols
1935 – Richard Berry, singer and songwriter
1938 – Reatha King, chemist and businesswoman
1939 – Luther Johnson, singer and guitarist
1941 – Ellen Goodman, journalist and author
1942 – Hattie Gossett, writer
1942 – James Underwood, pathologist and academic
1945 – John Krebs, Baron Krebs, zoologist and academic
1946 – Chris Burden, sculptor, illustrator, and academic
1947 – Frank Mantooth, pianist and composer
1951 – Paul Fox, singer and guitarist
1953 – Andrew Wiles, mathematician and academic
1954 – Francis Lickerish, guitarist and composer
1954 – Ian Redmond, biologist and conservationist
1955 – Michael Callen, singer-songwriter and AIDS activist
1958 – Stuart Adamson, singer-songwriter and guitarist
1964 – Johann Sebastian Paetsch, cellist
1987 – Joss Stone, singer, songwriter ,and actress
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Some people who died on this day:
Nothing is impossible. Some things are just less likely than others.
~~ Johnathan Winters
1554 – Thomas Wyatt the Younger, English rebel leader
1626 – Marino Ghetaldi, Ragusan mathematician and physicist
1856 – Juan Santamaría, Costa Rican soldier
1861 – Francisco González Bocanegra, Mexican poet and composer
1894 – Constantin Lipsius, German architect and theorist
1895 – Julius Lothar Meyer, German chemist
1926 – Luther Burbank, botanist and academic
1954 – Paul Specht, violinist and bandleader
1962 – Ukichiro Nakaya, physicist and academic
1970 – John O'Hara, novelist and short story writer
1977 – Jacques Prévert, poet and screenwriter
1977 – Phanishwar Nath 'Renu', author and activist
1987 – Erskine Caldwell, novelist and short story writer
1987 – Primo Levi, chemist and author
1997 – Wang Xiaobo, novelist and essayist
2003 – Cecil Howard Green, geophysicist, electrical engineer who founded Texas Instruments
2006 – June Pointer, singer
2007 – Kurt Vonnegut, novelist, short story writer, and playwright
2010 – Julia Tsenova, pianist and composer
2012 – Hal McKusick, saxophonist, clarinet player, and flute player
2013 – Don Blackman, singer, songwriter, pianist, and producer
2013 – Sue Draheim, fiddler
2013 – Maria Tallchief, ballerina
2013 – Jonathan Winters, comedian, actor and screenwriter
2014 – Jesse Winchester, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and producer
2017 – J. Geils, singer and guitarist
2017 – Mark Wainberg, researcher and HIV/AIDS activist
2020 – John Horton Conway, mathematician
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Some Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such:
National Cheese Fondue Day
National Pet Day
Juan Santamaría Day, anniversary of his death in the Second Battle of Rivas. (Costa Rica)
International Louie Louie Day
World Parkinson's Day
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MUSIC goes here; With apologies ;-)
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Toots
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Otis
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Julie
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Mongo
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Pete
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Iggy
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The Clash
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Joan
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Blondie
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Barry
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Berry
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-Ok, it's an open thread, so it's up to you folks now. So what's on your mind?
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Cross posted from http://caucus99percent.com