I’ve written about this year’s reunion of Jack Ely & the Courtmen at the The Sand Dollar Blues Room in Las Vegas back in October. The Courtmen was the band that Jack assembled after a court order prohibited him from using the Kingsmen name. As you may or may not know, Jack was the original vocalist for the Kingsmen when they created that iconic recording back in 1963, but he never had a chance to tour with the original band after the big hit record.
It’s time to share some footage from that event, courtesy of Andy Martello. Here’s the 2008 version of LOUIE, which I’ve declared LOUIE of the Month.
Because my friend Andy has shared more great video from this show at the Sand Dollar Blues Club, I decided I’d post these clips as well. The second view shows the band performing “David’s Mood,” which was the B-side of Jack’s “Louie, Louie ’66” 45 rpm single. This particular song was written by Dave Lewis, a highly influential Northwest musician that passed away ten years ago.
If you don’t know who Dave Lewis was, click here, here, or here. Or just purchase the The Godfather of Northwest Rock CD. There are some people that believe Dave Lewis was one of the FIRST musicians to ever perform Richard Berry‘s LOUIE LOUIE back in the late 1950s, even if he never recorded it, but that’s another story in itself….
For the third clip provided by Andy, the band performs the Paul Revere & the Raiders sequel, “Louie, Go Home.” Musicologists* often note that both The Kingsmen and Paul Revere & the Raiders were from Portland, Oregon, recording LOUIE LOUIE in the same studio, less than a week apart in April 1963.
Here’s yet another clip from that same show, which provides a nice overview of this event, despite some of the misinformation embedded in the graphics and YouTube description.
* UPDATE: Jack provides a correction:
“Musicologists” are wrong. Paul Revere and the Raiders were from Caldwell Idaho at the time.
“Musicologists” are wrong. Paul Revere and the Raiders were from Caldwell Idaho at the time.