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I wouldn’t describe it as sophisticated

But it’s certainly anthemic.

Jack Ely:

His tortured, incoherent slurring of the lyrics — almost drowned out by the over-loud backing — made Louie, Louie virtually impossible to understand. It certainly baffled the FBI, which conducted an investigation into whether the song contained secret obscene messages. Their 455-page report concluded that it would be “unintelligible at any speed”.

Ely blamed his indistinct vocals on the microphone suspended from the ceiling, forcing him to crane on tiptoe, tilt his head back and shout up at it. Matters were not helped by the fact that he had just been fitted with dental braces.

Even if there’s just that one moment of such glory in a life, well, that’ll do, eh?

11 thoughts on “I wouldn’t describe it as sophisticated”

  1. No one could accuse the FBI of suffering writer’s block: a 455-page report into suspected profanity?

  2. Many of the most memorable songs have lyrics that are highly open to interpretation. Your mind thinks about the possible interpretations and you discuss them with your friends, thus reinforcing the memory.

  3. I have tried that in the past, but it always ends up back at the the Kingsmen version after a couple of loops of the earworm.

  4. Many of the most memorable songs have lyrics that are highly open to interpretation.

    Such as Melanie’s I’ve got a brand new key. Heh!

    I read somewhere that Woolly Bully got banned by some radio stations because although they had no idea what was actually being sung, they thought it might be obscene. Fuckwits.

  5. The basic story goes that the band were ushered into a studio and told they were recording that way to get a spontaneous feel to it. Having run through the song once as what they thought was a rehearsal (including a notable mistake where the singer comes in early and is put back on track by a drum fill), they were told that that was the recording and ushered back out of the studio.

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