ENOUGH "Louie Louie" for ya?

(Scott): Something like the "Gloria" comp I put together a few years back,  Brian and I tag-teamed this one, at least hunting down the material, the writing and composistion are all his.......his description is right on, there is amazing variety and diversity here, and I think it's great, one of those exercises in "bulk music" that is just cool to have around.....THREE hours of "Louie Louie", as Iggy said "I never thought it would come to this!" (Brian offers the same quote later in the post, but I found it appropriate in this context as well.....

(*Did you know:
Right before the second verse, drummer Lynn Easton
audibly curses as he accidentally misses a cue)

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Oh, the madness! A month or so ago, I had the idea to put together a bunch of versions of "Louie Louie". I won't pretend I'm the only one that's thought of it (more on that shortly), but Scott really liked the idea! So, now we had some work cut out for us! He grabbed some, I grabbed some, and I commenced to editing and sequencing...

The story of the song is fascinating, but I don't wanna write it here. I suggest you read the Wiki page. According to that, there have been somewhere around 1400 versions of the song! Well, I wasn't going that high, but I wanted a good cross section. A lot of people don't even know that the "classic" take by The Kingsmen wasn't the original. As you'll see here, it wasn't the first cover of the song, either.

These 3 hours of music (heh heh heh) spans from the first version of the song by Richard Berry in 1957 up to about 10 years ago. It's laid down as chronological as I could get it. Plenty of the "The" titled bands of the 60's are here: The Standells, The Kinks, The Beach Boys, The Ventures, The Beau Brummels, The Wailers, etc. It's interesting to hear who takes inspiration from Berry's version, or from The Kingsmen's, or even from the deadly version that's on The Stooges' Metallic K.O.

I ain't gonna walk you through the whole monster, but I'll talk about some of my highlights. Plenty of people have improvised lyrics over the tune, but my favorite is still Black Flag's version from '81, with the Stooges' onstage meltdown running a close second....

"Who needs love when you've got a gun?                                                                                     Who needs love to have any fun?"
-Dez Cadena

"I never thought it would come to this, baby!!!!" - Iggy Pop

Some of the best versions also have an awesome crunchy guitar sound: The Sonics, The Swamp Rats, Motörhead, Flag, The Flamin' Groovies, and The Troggs, whose take on the song is almost Sabbath-like in it's ugliness. One of my fave 60's versions is Jackey Yoshikawa's, with its misemphasis of words on the chorus, which somehow makes the hook even more insidious and catchy!

Interesting things are done with the song: Mongo Santamaria uses it as the basis for a great Afro-Cuban version. Barry White makes an extended 7 minute Love Orchestra groove out of it. The Sandpipers do a bucolic, Spanish language take that's very pretty. And of course, the punkers do great versions - Eddie & the Subtitles, Patti Smith, The Clash, The Boys Next Door, the aforementioned Black Flag, and a demonic live version from The Gun Club! There's a goth take, a funk take, some soul, a zydeco tune, there's even a few marching band versions in here! Even The Fat Boys make an appearance, actually telling you the history of the song. And Iggy shows up 3 times, too. Can you spot the first appearance?

I was almost discouraged from doing this by a similar project I found out awhile ago. The great Garage Tapes blog (garagetapes.blogspot.com) has made a 7 or 8 part post of garage rock "Louie Louie" versions! I found out about it because some of the mp3s I was finding had cover art from that blog's series. So, I deliberately tried not to oversample tracks he had used, or else this would've stayed in the 60's forever! There is some overlap between this compilation and those, but not too much. As a separate comment below, I've included links for all the posts of the Garage Tapes comps. If you've got a hankering for even more versions (you're nuts, BTW), definitely go check them out. HINT - you gotta click where it says the Kb rate or it says "free text". And there's always a password too. And lastly, on my comp here I've labeled the songs with just the artist's name, since you all know what song it is. Hell, you may never get it out of your head....

Disc 1

1.Richard Berry & The Pharoahs |2.Rockin' Robin Roberts |3.The Kingsmen |4.Paul Revere & The Raiders |5.Otis Redding |6.The Beach Boys |7.The Iguanas |8.The Standells |9.The Wailers |10.The Ventures |11.The Sonics |12.The Roosters |13.The Kinks |14.The Beau Brummels |15.The Sandpipers |16.The Troggs |17.The Swamp Rats |18.Friar Tuck |19.Jackey Yoshikawa & His Blue Comets |20.Mongo Santamarìa |21.Zappa & M.O.I. |22.Grateful Dead |23.Joske Harry |24.The Flamin' Groovies |25.Richard Berry (70's) |26.Toots & The Maytals |27.The Stooges |28.Michael Sweeny |29.Too Loose Ta Truck

Disc 2

30.Patti Smith |31.The Clash |32.Eddie & The Subtitles |33.Motorhead |34.John Belushi |35.The Boys Next Door (early Nick Cave) |36. 39 Clocks |37.Barry White |38.Stanley Clarke |39.Black Flag ('81) |40.Joan Jett |41.Maureen Tucker |42.Tom Petty & Heartbreakers |43.Matthew Fedak |44.The Gun Club |45.Black Flag ('85) |46.Gidget & Ghandhi |47.The Fat Boys |48.Steve Plunkett |49.Robert Plant |50.Iggy Pop |51.Thee Headcoats |52.Arnie Fruit Quartet |53.VVM |54.Ophir Prison Marching Band |55.Rick Barr

ALL IN ONE GO. I dare ya....

I forgot to put a pass on the bonus link for this post. It's one of the best funny albums of the 70's. Definitely check it out.