Nuggets: Louie Louie by The Kingsmen

32 Comments

1. Wow. All this time in the blogosphere and you are the first one I know of to tackle this gem. What’s next? ‘Wild Thing?’ I do recall seeing an FBI affidavit (or something) on this. Who can blame them with filthy, filthy lyrics like:

   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

   Heh! And then today it’s nothing to have a song like WAP.

   • Is this the first 10/10 you gave to something from Nuggets? You really can’t argue with it. I think you’re right about it being a ground zero for a certain type of garage rock. And you know what’s unique about it? Unlike just about all other rock and roll of that time, it doesn’t have any 1950s hangover influences from rockabilly or Chuck Berry or Doo Wop or blues or country or anything else really. A lot of other garage rock does, but this doesn’t. It’s like a whole different idea. You wonder how intentional it was though. It could have been a total accident.

     • Second 10/10 – first was for Paul Revere and the Raiders’ Just Like Me. This one’s even stronger though.

   • Next is The Strangeloves’ I Want Candy.

     Can you understand the verse lyrics – I can hear something about Jamaica and that’s about it.

2. You know what else was different about it? It was that herky-jerky beat that was kind of slow but kind of walloping too. Nothing else before it was like that. You could even see where a lot of 60s dancing came from it. I mean like early 60s. It wasn’t like any other kind of Rock beat.

   • It’s not miles a way from La Bamba in some ways – apparently it was a Latin chord progression back then.

     • True but instrumentally it’s nothing like la Bamba. However it’s a bit like Let’s Dance by Chris Montez, the Mexican American rock and roller, because of that organ thing. I’m not sure what keyboard it is in Louie Louie, but the one in Let’s Dance sounds like a Farfisa but it’s really not. Somebody once told me what kind of organ it is but I forget. And there was that style of Tex-Mex garage rock where the organ was the most prominent instrument instead of guitars. A bunch of them are on Nuggets. Like Woolly Bully and She’s About a Mover. The Chris Montez song is from 1962, so it preceded both garage rock and Louie Louie. The most famous organ one of course is 96 Tears, which should be on Nuggets but it’s not. A lot of people think it’s the ultimate garage rock song. I know it’s my favorite.

       • Wikipedia says a Hohner Pianet electric piano – sounds like an electric piano to me.

         • I just figured it was an electric piano but the more I listened to it the more it started to sound like something else to me.

         • There’s quite a lot of sustain on it for an electric piano, but I still think an electric piano.

         • One time I watched a couple videos of Louie Louie thinking that maybe I could tell what kind of instrument it was, but I really don’t know what any of those instruments looked like anyway, so that wasn’t really any help. Lol. I think electric piano is the greatest thing. I love the way it sounds. They kind of stopped using it after the 70s and started using all those synths that don’t sound half as nice as electric piano.

       • The ‘b’ side to Let’s Dance is similarly organ and drum-powered. It’s called Some Kinda Fun.

         • Yes indeed!! I love Some Kinda Fun. Here’s the cover version by Teenage Head with Marky Ramone. I miss the organ though.

           https://youtu.be/us0fsvq4Nxg

3. Finally a tune off that collection of mostly more obscure songs I know. 🙂

   And it’s a true classic – love it!

   • Yup, the most famous song in the whole box set I think. I think most people love it – has enough rawness to make it work.

   • I also like the Rhodes a lot. I wonder if the Hohner Pianet is something like that. There was probably millions of different electric pianos.

4. The One…The Ultimate…The Classic…This one started more garage bands than any song. In the early eighties it started the one I was in. First song we ever tried.
   The rumor about the dirty lyrics made it more appealing and we would be sure to add some.

   • Makes sense as a first song right? I don’t know why the FBI didn’t go back and listen to an earlier version of the song?

     • Yes that would have been the thing to do. The FBI were out of their league. They only succeeded with making the song more popular.

       This song showed me that you can hear what you want in a song. We tried to hear something dirty and we thought we heard something around the Rose line…of course it was nothing.

5. This song sounds like clinking glass. That worried even the FBI.

   • I thought it was the lyrics that they were concerned about, but the music is concerningly raw for the era too.

     • Well, there was this neanderthal riff, the charm of the amateurish accompaniment and the mystery of what the singer actually talks about, which got the teenage fantasies excited.

6. On the organ front, how about Runaway?

   • I looked it up and it was something called a Clavioline on Runaway and not an organ. Except the guy did something to it to make it sound weirder or something. I’ve heard of a Clavinet before but not a Clavioline. I guess they’re similar though. They’re like early electronic keyboards.

7. Thanks for that great clip. I like its breakneck Ramones-y punkiness (and Marky’s drumming) but I will go for the original’s organ and sixties joie de vivre.

   • Listen to the whole album. It’s great.

8. Our concert band in grade school played this on the Parliament steps in Ottawa during our class trip. I got the solo bit on trumpet. I can only imagine how painful it was to hear us lol. Fun times.

   • That sounds awesome!

     • It was fun, and terribly important, when we were 13 or 14 or however old we were. But I’m sure it sounded pretty bad lol.

9. Could have picked this for the Hans thing. Stone cold essential.

   • Yup, there are just so many songs out there. I probably could have justified fitting it into my “not in English” theme, since it’s not really coherent.

     • You got that right.