September
2000(#9.5)
by Eric
Predoehl
first posted September 1, 2000
(all rights reserved)
(happy birthday Frank Bella
& Edgar Rice Burroughs!)
(spot the typos, win a prize!!)
Greetings, and welcome to another edition
of the LOUIE REPORT online, the newsletter that tracks
information about the song "LOUIE LOUIE" and the upcoming documentary about
the song, THE MEANING OF LOUIE.
My name is Eric Predoehl, and I am the producer/
director of this project, as well as the writer/webmaster
for this report.
THE MEANING OF
LOUIE, the epic documentary, continues to
be produced, and is about 80% completed. Together, with
my creative partner, Mr. Jesse Block, we have
shot a lot of incredible footage that will hopefully
amaze, entertain, and enlighten all that see the completed
piece.
There's some timely news to report, so
let's give it to 'em right now, shall we?
"I think
'Louie' is the only word in the English language
with four consecutive vowels that are all different."
- Phil Milstein, American
Song-Poem Music Archives
CUB KODA
I was deeply saddened by the recent death
of Cub Koda on July 1st. I had never met Cub,
and I think I exchanged maybe one e-mail with him, but
his work was a major inspiration to me. Cub's biggest
claim to fame was being the writer and singer of "Smoking
In the Boys Room," a major hit for his old
band, Brownsville Station, later covered by Motley
Crue, but he was much more than that. Cub was a
man who loved music, played music, and wrote about music,
all with intense passion.
Cub wrote a monthly column for GOLDMINE,
then DISCOVERIES, magazine, that he titled "Vinyl
Junkie," which was a great roadmap to music
you might have otherwise missed. Two books that he either
co-wrote, or edited, "The All Music Guide to
the Blues," and "Blues For Dummies,"
are some of the best reference books available for blues
music novices . Cub wrote liner notes for over 60 albums,
including the semi-recent "The Very Best of
the Kingsmen" on the Varese Sarabande
label. This was the first Kingsmen compilation licensed
by the Kingsmen themselves, using the original
Wand/Sceptor masters.
A friend of the Kingsmen, Cub was
one of the few musicians to tour with Jack Ely,
original Kingsmen vocalist, during the 1990s
as part of an oldies package circuit that also included
Alex Chilton of the Box Tops and Big
Star.
I was never a big fan of his big hit,
"Smoking In the Boys Room," as I always
thought tobacco was one of the lamest habits around
(being somewhat biased by my own father's emphysema),
and it took a while for me to embrace Cub's music, even
though I loved his writing. When I finally picked up
his 1995 release, "Abba Dabba Dabba"
album, it was love at first listen. Listening to this
record, it sounded to me like a mutant mix of the Beach
Boys getting in a cab with Howlin' Wolf and
Dr. Demento. My favorite song on this album was
"Random Drug Testing," which sounded
like an old slave song from the 1930s. He also did the
finest interpretation of the Flintstones theme
I've ever heard, combining great humor, harmony, and
a "wall-of-sound" that would probably make
Phil Spector very proud.
When I heard that Cub died, I sought out
more of his recordings, and I was not disappointed.
His last album, "Noise Monkeys," is
a great music adventure that should appeal to anyone
who appreciates garage-roots rock 'n' roll. As a special
unexpected treat, this album features a fine rendition
of "Next Time," a great Richard
Berry song later covered by Louis Prima and
Sam Butera. "Box Lunch" is another
great album by Cub, featuring all original songs in
a stripped-down acoustic setting. It's very different
from his other albums, but equally cool.
If you hurry down to your local newsstand
right now, you might be able to grab the latest DISCOVERIES
magazine with a great cover story on Cub Koda, featuring
some great memories by some people that knew him well.
I highly recommend this issue, which is loaded with
really funny stories. If you'd like to
learn more about Cub, I'd also recommend these weblinks:
http://allmusic.com/cub.html
http://www.trod-nossel.com/tna/cub-koda/cubkoda.html
http://www.detnews.com/2000/obituaries/0007/04/d02-85415.htm
EXPERIENCE MUSIC
PROJECT GRAND OPENING
In June, the doors were opened for one
of the most ambitious musical museums ever created.
After years of research and development, Paul Allen
and company unveiled the Experience
Music Project in Seattle, Washington.
With an odd-shaped building designed by Frank Gehry,
this new institution situated near the base of the Space
Needle has been the subject of controversy for music
lovers and architecture critics alike.
I had the privilege of being invited to
a pre-opening party at the museum, and had an opportunity
to see this new facility firsthand before the masses
of the general public. With some fine musical entertainment
provided by the Viceroys and Strychnine
(a Sonics tribute band featuring members of MudHoney),
guests had the opportunity to see these bands onstage
in a section of the museum known as the "Sky
Church," which also features what I'm told
is the world's largest video screen. The sound system
was fab, the hors d'oeuvres delicious, and the complimentary
liquids quite refreshing. It was great to see some old
friends there, including Barry Curtis of the
Kingsmen, The Wailers, Mary Willix,
Bob Summerrise, Roger Hart, Pete Blecha,
and members of Girl Trouble. There was also the
chance to finally meet some people like Pat O'Day,
Gino Rossi, Ellen Ogilvy, Freddie Dennis,
Jerry Miller, and Merille Rush.
At an area titled "Northwest Passage,"
there's a wonderful tribute to the song to which these
web pages are dedicated. Truth be told, I provided the
Richard Berry photograph that is displayed prominently,
and it's wonderful to see my old friend recognized in
this museum.
The bottom line: the Experience Music
Project is a superb addition to the Seattle community,
providing a tasty sampling of the great Northwest Music
legacy. If the type of music discussed on LOUIELOUIE.NET
excites you, you should visit this museum if you're
ever in Seattle.
THE EVERGREEN BALLROOM
BURNS
The Northwest lost a great institution
with the recent destruction of the Evergreen Ballroom
near Olympia, Washington. The Evergreen was one of the
great places for rhythm and blues during the 1950s,
including Richard Berry. He played there in 1957
as part of a musical revue that included Bobby Bland,
Junior Parker, and Etta James. Some of
the other great performers who played there included
Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Benny
Goodman, Lionel Hampton, Fred Astaire,
Ginger Rogers, Bill Haley & The Comets,
Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, and Jimi
Hendrix, to name but a few. With an unwatched spark,
this 68-year-old institution accidentally caught fire,
and burned to the ground within an hour. With a 1,670-square-foot
maple dance floor and a vast collection of archival
posters destroyed by this freak accident, all that remains
are memories.
If you'd like to read more about this
legendary venue, you can check the archives of the local
newspaper at: http://news.theolympian.com/.
If anyone has any posters, or reproductions
of posters from this Northwest nightclub,
I'd love to see them.
Some great reproductions of posters from the Evergreen
Ballroom can be seen in the book "The Art
of Rock," written by Paul Grushkin.
PHARAOH PHARAOH-
THE RELIGIOUS CONNECTION
Ron Sinco wrote to tell me of a
Baptist Bible camp in Canton, Michigan that has
taken certain rock songs, and given them a facelift
in an effort to reach out to the youth of America. One
song that received such a treatment was, of course,
America's most misunderstood rock song, "Louie
Louie." Telling the tale of Moses, the lyrics became:
"Pharaoh
Pharaoh!
Whoa-Baby!
Let my people
go! (Ohh, Ahh!)
Yeah! Yeah!
Yeah!"
This wasn't the first time I've heard
about these particular lyrics, and some folks thought
that these words actually pre-dated "Louie Louie."
My big thanks to Ron for sending me the copy of the
Detroit Free Press article. If anyone has any
additional information on this particular variation,
or could provide a recording of this song, I'd love
to hear it.
As a side note, after Richard Berry
died in 1997, his back-up band, the Pharaohs
performed a tribute performance for him at a Long Beach
show produced by the Doo-Wop
Society of Southern California. At this show,
the Pharaohs mentioned that they might create a new
musical group that would call "The Christians,"
but this idea was eventually sidelined.
LOUIE LOUIE 2000
The quest for 2000 versions of "Louie
Louie" continues, thanks to the persistence of
Jeff "Stretch"
Riedle, Clay
Stabler, Theo
deGrood, Alan
Parowski, and many other dedicated individuals
who have provided me with some great material. Clay
Stabler has actually picked up on some of my LOUIE
discography leads, and created his
own database of "Louie Louie" recordings,
emphasizing recordings originally released as 45-rpm
singles. It's an encyclopedic project, and you can view
the results of his work as an Acrobat
file. I applaud Clay's
efforts, and encourage you to send him updates, corrections,
and other bits of LOUIE LOUIE trivia. It's a challenging
task to maintain such a database.
LOUIE LOUIE QUICK
MENTIONS
"Little Bill" Engelhart
recently released his autobiography, "Next Stop
Bakersfield," which collected some of his columns
from the Blues-To-Do's newspaper put out by Blues
Media Northwest in the Seattle area. This is a charming
book that presents a very entertaining view of a very
challenging lifestyle. Bill is a survivor of the crazy
world of rockin' blues, and this book provides some
great stories from the man who lived to tell them. Even
though Bill recorded one of the very first recordings
of "Louie Louie" years before The Kingsmen,
Paul Revere, the Sonics, or Iggy Pop
ever even thought about this song, I could not find
any mention of the song anywhere in the book. No matter;
this is a great book. Go to Bill's website, buy his
book, and tell him LOUIE sent cha. I look forward to
his sequel, as I know there are more stories we haven't
heard. His website is at: http://www.havemusic.com/littlebill/.
When I was in the Seattle area to attend
the party at Experience Music Project, I shot
another interview with members of The Wailers,
this time concentrating on the great partnership of
Kent Morrill and Buck Ormsby. With my
co-producer/co-director Jesse Block joining me
for this expedition, we had Kent and Buck walk around
the streets of Tacoma, reminiscing about the early days
of the band. It was great to see these guys laugh about
the good times, as there was a great synergy with the
two of them in one place. The Wailers recently
cut a great live CD, showcasing what the band sounds
like nowadays. Within a year, we should see another
live CD released, this time with a new rendition of
that catchy melody they originally recorded with Rockin'
Robin in 1961. Find out more about the fabulous
Wailers at their authorized website: http://www.thefabulouswailers.com.
LOUIE LOUIE.NET received the
Legacy Choice Award for Excellence. Legacy Links
claims to be the largest collection of sixties rock
and roll sites on the web. Their goal is to create a
"Rock & Roll Intranet by linking sites to a
central index." Read more about it at: http://www.legacylinks.com/rindex.html
Lance Monthly, an internet music
magazine, did a nice mention of this site. Take a look
at the article at: http://www.lancerecords.com.
Mike Kolesar of the Psychotic
Petunias wrote to tell me of his other bands that
performed "Louie Louie," including Eddie
& the Otters and Mon Gumbo. His website
is: http://members.aol.com/mkolesar/petunias.htm.
Robbie "Fischer" Eatwell
of the UK, wrote to tell me of his amazing fascination
with Richard Berry, The Kingsmen, Jack
Ely, and The Courtmen. Robbie mailed a ton
of wonderful goodies, including a book on The Coasters
by Bill Millar, some old Kingsmen advertising
from the U.K., and some very cool handbills from his
own band, once known as "Robbie Fischer and
the Courtmen." Robbie wrote "Medicine
Man," a song recorded by Johnny Winter.
Gary Behymer told me of an advertisement
for 150 guitar players to create some kind of world
record of LOUIE LOUIE performers at the Riverfront
Park Music Festival in Spokane, Washington on July
4th.
Gaston Biesen of the Netherlands
wanted to tell me that he thought LOUIE LOUIE was the
ultimate "punkrock&rollbeat" song.
Kazimierz Wlekly of Poland, wrote
me with nice words about LOUIE, asking me for details
where he could purchase more LOUIE LOUIE.
LOUIE LOUIE has been used to sell
all sorts of products, and it was recently used for
a TV commercial by Louis Rich, a meat company,
joining Snap.com, Dorritos, Rainer
Ale, California Cooler, and other products
in the LOUIE LOUIE hall of fame. If you have a videotape
of any LOUIE LOUIE commercials, email
me, because I'm still missing a few....
Craig Kelly is doing a documentary
on the history of Northwest Music, and is looking for
old archival footage. If you have any rare films from
the "old days of Northwest Music," email me
with details, and I'll pass the info on to Craig, as I'm also looking for similar
footage for my LOUIE LOUIE documentary.
Norton
Records continues to blow my mind with more
great releases: Long John Hunter, Rudy Ray
Moore, Hasil Adkins, and so much more. Their
photo book highlighting the work of Eddie Rocco
is also pretty darned amazing. My congratulations go
out to Jeff Miller of Tacoma, who joins Miriam
& Billy's company as their semi-official
west coast A&R dude.
Cookie Holley of bump N grind
records tracked me down to let me know of her friendship
with Richard Berry during the 1970s, and some
real cool info about blues music that's out there on
the web. Her website is: http://got.to/bumpNgrind.
Andy Martello wanted me to know
about his LOUIE LOUIE pages, which you can find at:
http://andymartello.com/andyland/louie.htm.
Lynnsey Guerrero sent me a tape
of cool radio show that highlighted the music of Richard
Berry.
Marc Coulavin told me about The
Guess Who performing LOUIE LOUIE, and now, of course,
I've got to find this recording! He also mentioned a
novel by Mikal Gilmore entitled, "Shot
in the Heart," which acknowledges the song
and the Northwest music scene on page 273.
In Kentucky, there was a radio
station playing nothing but LOUIE LOUIE 24 hours a day.
They called it "Louie 96.1, all Louie, all
the time". My thanks to Rob Rennard, Christo
Cambetes, and Roger Samples for the regional
updates.
VH-1 did a show titled "100
Greatest Songs of Rock & Roll." LOUIE LOUIE
came in at #11, which is a fine number if you're a fan
of Nigel Tufnel and those classic English rockers,
Spinal Tap. For that particular segment, a special
interview was conducted with Lynn Easton, Mike
Mitchell, and Dick Peterson of The Kingsmen.
Robert Cameron alerted me to the
book "Hearts in Atlantis" by Stephen
King. Here's a snippet of what he wrote:
"In it,
King declares something in the plot as impossible
to figure out as the lyrics to 'Louie Louie.' My father
and I were taking a drive and were listening to an
oldies station. We were discussing music of that era
such as 'Wooly Bully,' that song that goes, 'have
you heard about the bird?' ("Surfin'
Bird" by The Trashmen, 1963; based on "The
Bird's the Word," by The Rivingtons - ed.),
and similar songs. 'Louie Louie' came up, and I mentioned
what King said about the song. My dad, who was a teenager
in that era, mentioned the controversy the song (The
Kingsmen version) caused because of the indecipherable
lyrics. He even went on to talk about the FBI investigation
and the song's ban from certain radio stations. He
felt, however, the song did not contain questionable
lyrics and the controversy stemmed from the over-sensitivity
of the cultural climate of the time. No more than
five minutes after we were done talking about the
song, we heard the unmistakable intro to The Kinsmen
version. We turned it up with the intent of attempting
to decipher the "controversial" lyrics.
Upon hearing the first couple of bars of the songs,
we both started to laugh immediately and decided the
task was futile. We decided that we wanted to know
the lyrics and felt that we could find them on the
web, which led us to your site. "
Many folks wrote to me about LOUIE, with
many people asking for the real lyrics! If
only I had a dollar for every request . . .
(see LOUIE FAQ)
I leave you with
a little note for my late friend....
RICHARD BERRY LIVES
ON AT JEFFERSON HIGH!
One of my friends is a teacher at Jefferson
High in South-Central Los Angeles, the school where
Richard Berry went to school in the 1950s. Jefferson
was known as one of the greatest schools in the area
for music, and had such alumni as Dexter Gordon,
Big Jay McNeely, Jessie Belvin, and Cornell
Gunter, to name but a few. It was at Jefferson High
that Richard Berry met Dorothy Adams,
the young girl who would become his wife. Anyway, Paul
Oliverio is a current teacher at Jefferson who keeps
the fire alive at this high school, ensuring that students
know of the great musicians who have attended this once-mighty
institution.
As the California Education Code
requires all social studies teachers to include lessons
on civil rights in their curriculum, Paul
Oliverio satisfied this requirement by having
his students write research papers on their favorite
civil rights leaders. Paul sent me one of those essays,
and thought that would be a worthy contribution for
the LOUIE REPORT. I agreed with Paul, and decided to
showcase this essay at this website. I've decided to
present this essay with all the intentional grammatical
mistakes intact.
Two Berries
and a King
by Nicole
Hill (all rights
reserved)
"My persinal
civil rights heroes are two Berrys and a King but
the King is not Marti Luther King who was a beloved
hero of undarpriviledge peoples evrywhere, like me.
There are enough students smarter than me in Mr. Maddox's
class who will rite about Dr. King and Myhatman Gandhi
from India. But the King who is my civil rights hero
is The King of Rock&Roll, Elvis Presley, and the
first Berry is Chuck.
Elvis did not
invent Rock&Roll. He just splashed it in the face
of America, thanx to the Eddie Sullivan Show and a
crazy hound dog with a pair of blue suede shoes.
Before there
was Elvis there was a lot of great Rock&Roll but
it was called "race music," said my Uncle
Leon and it had nothing to do with the 100-yard dash.
It was funky music by black singing groups like the
Moonglows and the Clovers but it was considerd devilish
for white kids because it would make them shake and
shimmy and get their parents really pissed off. Leon
Holmes, my uncle, was a founding member of the Coasters
who sang a song called Along Came Jones.
Then along
came Chuck Berry who is black because Elvis is white
and Chuck rote songs about school days and sweet little
sixteen parties. Chuck Berry did not sound crazy black
and Elvis did not sound lazy white but they both sound
pretty cool and were great to dance to. Uncle Leon
used to be on the same shows with Elvis and Chuck
Berry singing Yakkety-Yak Don't Talk Back! and Charlie
Brown He's a Clown.
There was a
lot of hostilaty and hatred from older white people
because they could not undarstand the fun of jumping
around to a jukebox and doing demon dances. But then
it happened that Mr. Money-bags from Madison Avenue
saw that Chuck Berry could help sell Maybelline perfume.
It became okey-dokey for white teenage girls to go
reelin and rockin as long as they spent their allowance
from Daddy on Maybelline stuff. Then Chuck Berry tells
Johnny to be good on the Dick Clerk Show and you have
white kids and black kids dancing to the same music
on the same dance floor and having the same kind of
fun. Elvis got very philasophikal and sang "Wombapashobop
a womp-bam boom." But he was really a very polite
person and made white mommies and daddies stop being
afraid. But Elvis was black on the inside and white
people began thinking maybe it's all right to be black
on the outside.
I am a student
at Jefferson High School and almost all students here
are brown or Latino like my boyfriend Luis and he
is not black or white but a really fun guy. But I
am not riting to talk about Luis or Carlos who can
steal my heart any time he wants it. I am talking
about bringing the races of the world together which
is what Civil Rights is all about and Rock&Roll
was a big helper to heal the rachial dividers.
Rock&Roll
can take fear and throw it out the window and where
fear used to be we now see musickal talent and dance
the boogie-woogie. This has worked for white and black
but almost all of the students like I said at Jefferson
High School in South-Central Los Angeles are brown.
And they got Rock&Roll in their blood whether
they know it or not. Latinos answered the question
Why Do Fools Fall In Love? because Frankie Lymon and
the Teenagers includid two boys named Herman Santiago
and Joe Negroni. Mr. Lymon asked the question and
the Teenagers answered.
Fools fall
in love because "de doom-wop a doom-wop a doom-wop
a doedoe" which is a good a reason as any, I
guess.
Also, brown
people inspird the most recordid song in the history
of Rock&Roll and that is why Richard Berry is
my third persinal civil rights hero and the second
Berry. And also, Richard Berry was a student here
at Tommy Jefferson High School just like me but only
much older like his class-mate my Uncle Leon.
In 1955, Richard
Berry became a singer and songriter who was performing
with a Mexican band in Anaheim, which is where Disneyland
is. The band was playing a song called "El Loco
Cha-Cha" and it inspird him to rite Louie, Louie
on a roll of toilet paper in the bathroom. This is
what Richard Berry told students at Jefferson in 1989
and he also said the same thing on television to Larry
King who is no relation to Marti Luther King or Elvis
the King.
But Louie,
Louie did not become famis until some white boys called
the Kingsmen sang it Rock&Roll style in a really
cheap studio. The lyrics sounded fuzzy and twisted
and they bent the ears of millions and millions of
teenagers who swore they heard dirty words in the
song.
Lou...Lou was
recordid over four hundred times. Plus all the times
bands played the song during their garage Rock&Roll
days. I think that means that just about everybody
in music did Louie, Louie except Beethoven, who had
rolled over, according to the other Berry (Chuck Berry,
no relation). Richard rote the song when he was a
black kid and it was white boys who made it famis
but it was brown musishuns who inspird the second
Berry to rite it. That's multikulshurism!
It was Mr.
Browne, the first black teacher in Los Angeles, who
brought famis music to Jefferson High School where
I go and made famis musishuns out of students like
Dexter Gordon and Charlie Mingus, who played hookie
to come to our school. Plus the Coasters and the Platters
and the Penguins who sang Earth Angel which was ritten
by Jessie Belvin, a student Mr. Oliverio showed us
in a 1950 Jefferson yearbook.
When we hear
Earth Angel, Luis and I want to kiss. Or maybe I will
kiss Carlos. I would tell you more about Mr. Browne
but someone who thinks he is smarter than me has already
told you.
That someone
is, of course, Mr. Oliverio, my Social Studies teacher
and I hope I get a big fat A for writing about Elvis
Presley, and Chuck Berry and Richard Berry.
Rock On."
My hat is off to Lew VanDeMark
for his help in proof-reading this issue! Also, my ongoing
thanks to Doug Rice for his help in transcribing
the interviews for the documentary I hope to present
to the world in the near future.
A big thank-you
to everyone that's ever written to me with LOUIE LOUIE
information. I wish I could acknowledge everyone
that's ever provided me with some wonderful tidbits,
but unfortunately, if I were to do so, this webpage
would be a full-time job. I do appreciate all sincere
comments, and words of support.
Incidentally, the term "LOUIE
LOUIE" is a registered trademark of RMB,
Inc, a company owned by The Kingsmen, the band recognized
for turning the song into the monster icon heard all
over the world.
Keep those emails coming!
me gotta go now.....
ERIC PREDOEHL
All images & words
copyright 1999-2001 Eric Predoehl / OCTALOUIE, LLC,
except as noted. All rights reserved. The term "LOUIE
LOUIE" is a registered trademark of RMB, Inc, a
company owned by The Kingsmen, the band recognized for turning
the song into the monster icon heard all over the world.
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