January 2001 (#9.6)
by Eric Predoehl
first posted 01/01/01
(all rights reserved)
(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. Serious parties interested
in helping us take this project to the next step should
send email to louie@louielouie.net.
There's much to report in the world of LOUIE LOUIE,
so let's get to the tip of the iceberg...
ACE PURCHASES FLIP RECORDS,
THEN EXPLORES NORTHWEST
The biggest and the best news in the LOUIE universe,
circa 2000, has been the recent acquisition of the FLIP
Records catalog by Ace Records of England.
FLIP Records was the original record label for
Richard Berry & the Pharaohs when this song
was first released in 1957. Richard Berry wrote
the song in 1955 when he was working with the Rillera
Brothers at the Harmony Park Ballroom in
Anaheim, California, but chose not to release it until
he was free of his Modern/RPM/Flair recording
commitments. Signing with FLIP Records, a label
owned by Max and Lillian Feirtag, Richard
Berry used this new affiliation to try out a different
sound that incorporated elements of Latin and Calypso
music. While Richard didn't really get the chance to
record his songs exactly the way he wanted to, his output
on the FLIP record label was certainly one of the most
creative periods in his career.
From 1955 until 1962, FLIP Records was the home
for some of the greatest vocal groups of Los Angeles,
putting out singles by such as artists as: The Sixteeens,
Donald Wood & the Velaires, Arthur Lee
Maye & the Crowns, the Elgins, and the
Dreamers, to name but a few. Then, FLIP decided
to stop releasing singles, and merely repackaged some
of the more popular songs onto a few LP compilations.
Some of these songs might have appeared on an occasional
non-FLIP record compilation here and there, but for
the most part, the FLIP record catalog was a forgotten
company, thrown into the dustbbins of obscurity. When
Rhino Records decided to release a BEST
OF LOUIE LOUIE collection in 1983, they tracked
down Max and Lillian Feirtag of FLIP Records
to see if they might be interested in licensing the
original recording of LOUIE LOUIE for this collection.
Exhibiting the type of eccentric behavior that seemed
to characterize their approach to business for the past
decade or two, the Feirtags chose not to license
this song to Rhino, or any other company, for
that matter. Despite many efforts by other record companies
to purchase or license recordings from the FLIP
label, Max and Lillian refused to reissue
this material, and there have been no authorized releases
of these songs on CD. In 1986, the Earth Angel label
in Sweden put out a Richard Berry LP collection
on vinyl, mastered from clean copies of the singles,
and released in Europe in accordance with copyright
laws more liberal than American laws.
I am proud to have helped Ace Records obtain
the FLIP Records catalog. While both Max
and Lillian Feirtag refused to grant me interviews
for my documentary, I did my best to maintain professional
contact with them, as I wanted to license the FLIP
recording for my documentary. When Max and Lillian
died, I could not find any mentions of their deaths
in any entertainment trade publications, and even business
associates who had been working with them did not know
of their demise. With my investigative abilities, I
was able to track down representatives of the estate,
and find out whom to talk to. It was a very challenging
situation, to say the least.
Ace Records has a good reputation for putting
out quality products with decent packaging, and paying
proper compensation to the musical artists. When Richard
Berry was alive, he told me that he made more money
in a short time from Ace Records when they reissued
his recordings from the Modern label, than he
ever made when he was originally on the Modern label.
When Richard visited England in 1993 it was Ace
Records that sponsored his trip, providing chauffeur
services around London. Alec Palao, who represents
Ace Records in the San Francisco region, was
an old friend I've known for years. It seemed like a
natural fit to point Ace in the direction of the FLIP
Records estate.
Sometime in the year 2001, we should see the first
legitimate CD releases of Richard's FLIP recordings
on the Ace label. I'll try to make sure that
anyone on the LOUIE e-mail list will receive information
on the actual release dates as I get the official word.
If that weren't enough to make the LOUIE-lovers salivate
over such matters, Ace has also signed a contract
with Jerry Dennon to re-issue some of the great
recordings from the Jerden-Piccadilly-Panorama
archives. Jerden Records was the first record
label to release the 1963 recording of "Louie Louie"
by the Kingsmen, which was later sold to the
Wand-Scepter organization. With an influx of
cash and chart hits to his credit, Jerry Dennon
established Jerden Records as one of the biggest
record labels in the Pacific Northwest region, which
was expanded to include the Piccadilly and Panorama
affiliate labels.
Signing such artists as Dave Lewis, Ian Whitcomb,
Don & the Goodtimes, and the Sonics
to his record labels, Jerry Dennon had secured
deals with some of the finest talent in the Pacific
Northwest in the 1960s. Drawing from a wealth of material
, much of which has never been released on CD, Ace
Records will embark on a very ambitious overview
of these Northwest recordings, utilizing state-of-the-art
audio transfers, extensive liner notes, and package
designs that should spare no expense in providing the
best showcase for this material.
The first release from this collection will be titled
"NORTHWEST BATTLE OF THE BANDS VOLUME ONE." Featured
bands on this collection will be The Sonics,
Sir Raleigh & The Cupons, Don & The
Goodtimes, The Express, The Raymarks,
The Trolley, The Juveniles, The Dimensions,
The Bandits, Little John & Monks,
The Counts, The Heirs, The Mercy Boys,
Mr. Lucky & The Gamblers, The Brave New
World, The Scotsmen, Tom Thumb & The
Casuals, The City Limits, The Liberty
Party, The Bards, The Live Five, The
Rock-N-Souls, The New Yorkers, The Dynamics,
George Washington & The Cherry Bombs, The
Emergency Exit, and The Magic Fern.
Over the next 12 months, there will be five volumes
in this series, spanning a period from 1964 to 1967.
In an Ace Records/Big Beat press release, it
stated:
"Based upon the original
Battle Of The Bands LPs on Panorama, each 30-track
volume will be loaded both with acknowledged NW garage
classics, and with copious rare singles, ear-boggling
alternate versions and a glut of previously un-issued
tracks. Ace was granted exclusive and unprecedented
access to the Jerden-Piccadilly-Panorama tape archive,
where we uncovered a treasure trove of stunning material,
music that has lain dormant for thirty-five years
but sounds as fresh and compelling as the day it was
minted."
For more information on the activities at Ace Records,
please check their website at: http://www.acerecords.co.uk.
JULIE LONDON
One of the sultriest singers of LOUIE LOUIE died a
few months ago. Julie London, left the land of
the living on October 17, 2000 at the age of 74. While
the Sonics, Iggy & the Stooges, Motorhead,
and Black Flag represented the chaotic punk-rock
element of LOUIE, Julie London provided an approach
that was the complete opposite. Julie London
sang LOUIE LOUIE as a sexy lounge love ballad, oozing
with seductive overtones. With a voice as smooth as
silk lingerie, Julie London sang her music the way the
way she appeared on her album covers - a classic feminine
beauty from an era bypassed long ago.
If you'd like to hear Julie London's version of LOUIE
LOUIE, I would recommend picking up the Rhino
Records compilation "SPY
MAGAZINE PRESENTS, VOLUME 3- SOFT, SAFE, AND SANITIZED."
On this particular collection, you can also hear Mitch
Miller sing John Lennon's "Give Peace
a Chance," and "Touch Me" by The Letterman,
providing an angle that I'm sure Jim Morrison
and the Doors never imagined.
MARK LINDSAY STEPPIN' OUT!
Not content to sit still and merely collect royalties
from his days with Paul Revere & the Raiders,
Mark Lindsay has continued to push forward with
many new projects. Here's a small sampling of what's
going on his world:
- Mark has revised his website- MARKLINDSAY.COM,
and created his own e-mail newsletter to provide constant
updates on all of his different projects.
- An all-new Paul Revere & the Raiders compilation
entitled "MOJO WORKOUT"
has been released, providing re-mastered hit singles,
and alternative recordings from the very raw, formative
years between 1963 and 1965. Sure enough, LOUIE LOUIE
is well represented on this 44 track, 2- CD collection.
I haven't picked up my copy of this collection yet,
but I've been told it's an amazing package.
- The Chesterfield Kings worked with Mark to
record an all-new rendition of "LOUIE GO HOME,"
which was released as a limited- edition 7" single.
- There was a special collectors convention that recently
took place, highlighting nobody but Mark Lindsay!
If you'd like to find out more about what's happening
in Mark's world, and maybe even sign up for his e-mail
newsletter, you can log in at his website at:
http://www.marklindsay.com,
where you can order merchandise from the man himself.
CAB CITY COMBO - THE BAND!
A few months ago, I received another inspired version
of LOUIE LOUIE that takes the song to new levels of
absurdity. Cab City Combo is a clever little
band that is not afraid to mock musical icons. With
an album title that spoofs Pink Floyd's mega-popular
platinum record, "PORK
SIDE OF THE MOON" is an entertaining
attack on popular music. Besides LOUIE LOUIE (renamed
"Louis Louis" for this release), there's also
a tacky lounge parody of Jethro Tull's big hit
titled quite simply "Aqualounge."
To find out more about this release, jump over to the
official CAB CITY COMBO website at http://www.std.org/strubin/ccc.
If you'd like to order the CD for the extremely low
price of $10, send an e-mail to Paul
Rubin and tell him that LOUIE sent cha!
RICE UNIVERSITY REFUSES TO BE
IGNORED!!!
It's quite a challenge to publish a comprehensive website
on one of the great musical icons without receiving
a certain degree of criticism. Take this e-mail I got
from David Wray Price
of the Rice University MOB:
"Dear Mr. Predoehl,
I've perused your louielouie.net
page and I was surprised at the utter lack of mention
of the Rice University MOB (Marching Owl Band), broken
only by an entry in your comprehensive performance
database.
The MOB, despite the expansion
of its acronym, isn't a marching band (quoting the
band's webpage: "The MOB scatters, runs, prances,
moseys, strolls, and moves itself about in any of
a dozen other ways, but it never marches.") Our
halftime shows are comedy writ 100-yards large, blending
script, music, and gigantic cardboard-and-duct-tape
props (a 20-yard long Titanic, a 20-foot-tall monstrosity
known only as MegaProp, the space station Mir, the
Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria, and a model
of the Hindenburg, which crashed dramatically via
rope flydown from the upper deck of Rice Stadium,
are among the more memorable in recent years.)
Every halftime show, since
at least the mid-eighties, has ended with the playing
of our own arrangement of "Louie Louie."
There's an entire choreography built up around this,
performed by the MOB's Show Assistants (the band's
largest section, a non-musical group of MOBsters who
create the aforementioned props and act out the show's
action on the field.)
A recording of Louie from
our 1997 album "MOB Reborn" can be found
at http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~themob/music/Louie.mp3 . (Yes, that is a cowbell leading off the song. Yes, we always
do it that way, including the shouts of "5! 6!
7! 8!" at the beginning.) Our 2000 album, tentatively
titled "109,778", will be out soon, and
should include a better-quality recording."
I applaud the efforts of the Rice University MOB,
and wish them all the best with their musical excursions.
I loved their version of the song that was included
on the first Rhino Records BEST
OF LOUIE LOUIE compilation. In the first
NAKED GUN movie, the very same recording was
recycled as part of musical gag when Ricardo Montalban
met his fateful demise. Certainly, when their new album
comes out, I'll be looking forward to receiving a copy!
LOUIE LOUIE FUSCO BROTHERS
On the day before Christmas, I saw a nice cartoon in
the Sunday papers that made a very small reference to
"LOUIE LOUIE." THE FUSCO BROTHERS,
by J.C. Duffy is a strip I've always enjoyed,
and it was nice to see yet another comical reference
to THAT SONG. As I thought it would be a good thing
to share this comic strip with readers of LOUIELOUIE.NET,
I did some websurfing to see what was placed at the
authorized website for THE
FUSCO BROTHERS. Sure enough, I found the cartoon,
dated December 24, 2000, but the little reference to
LOUIE LOUIE was removed!! Could this be some type of
censorship by an internet news editor that didn't appreciate
the implicit significance of LOUIE LOUIE, or was it
merely a lazy person who didn't feel like adding the
missing 2 panels? I have no idea, but you can look at
the authorized web posting of the cartoon at.. .http://www.ucomics.com/thefuscobrothers/viewfu.cfm?uc_full_date=20001224&uc_comic=fu&uc_daction=X
and compare it with the scan
of the cartoon, as I found it in the San Jose
Mercury.
LEARNING TO PLAY LOUIE LOUIE-
THE TRANSCRIPTIONS
If I had the enthusiasm to turn LOUIELOUIE.NET
into a commercial site, I'd probably turn this thing
into a pay-per-view internet music site where folks
could punch in their credit card number, and get the
lyrics, sheet music, or song samples on demand. Who
knows... maybe I'll still do it!
I certainly get my share of requests from people asking
for the lyrics of LOUIE LOUIE, in spite of my
FAQ page informing folks that I am not in the
business of providing the "actual lyrics."
My primary focus is producing the LOUIE documentary,
and I have no interest in encouraging unauthorized use
of the song. For those who are interested in tracking
down the lyrics and sheet music, there are two products
out there that could provide some relief.
1) A few months ago, a British guitar magazine called
GUITAR TECHNIQUES published an article that broke
down the guitar parts of the song, which included a
short history of the song, and an accompanying instructional
CD. I don't know what the prices are for back issues,
but if you want to track down the September 2000 issue
(Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin on the cover),
it had a retail price of £4.50 in the UK, or $10.95
in the USA. The website for this magazine is http://www.guitartechniques.com, or you
could send a direct e-mail to backissues@futurenet.co.uk
for more information.
2) There is also an instructional videotape put out
by Warner Publications titled "PARTY
TUNES FOR GUITAR" under the Song
Xpress imprint. Tommy Anthony is the instructor
for this 1999 tape, where he demonstrates how to perform
4 different classic rock and roll standards, including
LOUIE LOUIE. I don't know if there's any website for
this particular product, but you should be able to find
this videotape at most of the popular guitar stores.
NEW LOUIE LOUIE E-MAIL SERVICE
For those who just can't get enough news about LOUIE
LOUIE, and would like to receive more than my occasional
on-line LOUIE REPORTS, I've launched a special LOUIE
LOUIE E-Mail discussion group. This will be a new experiment
in expanding the LOUIE LOUIE community, allowing the
ability to share instantaneous LOUIE information as
it happens.
This is not meant to replace my irregular LOUIE REPORTs,
which I personally send out a few times each year. This
new discussion group will provide folks a chance to
discuss specific LOUIE recordings in greater detail,
yack about great performances of LOUIE LOUIE, amazing
garage bands, or get more detailed answers to questions
that I don't feel like answering.
As this particular service is powered by a subsidiary
of the Yahoo.com company, there may be a token advertising
plug at the end of every e-mail, but hopefully, it won't
be too obnoxious. I do not support spam, and if this
discussion group becomes bogged down by unsolicited
advertising for completely unrelated products, I will
not hesitate to remove offending members from this discussion
group. I will use my powers to ensure that this list
of subscribers will be confidential, and not sold to
any company that engages in such activities.
That being said, I'd like to encourage anyone who has
an interest in LOUIE LOUIE details to subscribe to this
free service. While the focus of this discussion group
will be on the song LOUIE LOUIE, I don't mind if things
move slightly off-topic, assuming it's entertaining,
enlightening, or otherwise appealing to intelligent
connoisseurs of great pop culture. It's a forum for
my LOUIE friends to speak, and if you're interested
in joining this group, you can sign up at:
http://www.egroups.com/group/louie-louie.
Once you go to this website, the instructions should
be self-explanatory. Again, rest assured I will make
sure that the identities of the people signed on to
this discussion group will be confidential.
GUI GUI LOUIE LOUIE
In closing this little report, I'd like to leave you
with an wonderful bit of humor written by Ed Burkle,
an analyst/programmer for a software company in Greensboro,
North Carolina. Inspired by his interactions with the
GRAPHIC USER INTERFACE, aka "GUI," on his
computer terminal, Ed decided to try his hand at song
writing, and took at a shot at re-writing LOUIE LOUIE.
Here's what he came up with:
GUI GUI (sung to the melody
of Louie, Louie)
GUI GUI Oh, goody, me got
it now.
GUI GUI Oh, goody, me got
it now.
Fine little GUI, it displays
a screen.
Blue and gray. Not black
and green.
Me move the mouse, and click
it then.
Me think me not touch keys
again.
GUI GUI Oh, baby. Look at
me go.
GUI GUI Oh, baby. Look at
me go.
Three days and nights I
use the mouse.
Me think me never see my
house.
I eat and sleep and dream
right there.
I don't shave or wash my
hair.
OK, NOW. LET'S REALLY GIVE
IT TO 'EM !
(dead silence)
Me see the screen. It now
all black.
It don't look good. Me want
it back.
I call support. They tell
me 'Hold.'
Me wait on phone. This "getting
old!".
GUI GUI Oh, come on. Me
gotta go.
GUI GUI Oh, come on. Me
GOTTA GO!
Ed was previously published in Windows Magazine
with his parody "Screen Saver O' the Month"
, which can be seen at: http://www.winmag.com/library/1996/0296/0210bi01.htm#a1
I think Ed did a great job with this, and I'm rewarding
him with a CD-R of rare recordings for his efforts.
If anybody reading this is inspired to record a version
of the song with Ed's new lyrics, I will also reward
them with a CD-R of rare recordings. Please contact
me for more information.
COMING SOON... MORE LOUIE LOUIE....
In the next issue, I look forward to writing about....:
- The Bluescasters, the best British blues band
I've ever seen that performed LOUIE LOUIE;
- The Pink Finks, one of the coolest 60's garage
bands to ever emerge from Australia;
- Robbin Roberts, a person who shares the name
with one of the true LOUIE LOUIE legends;
- Tommy's Magic Arse, the band from Glasgow
with a rude name;
- Spectrum, another band from Australia not
afraid to tackle 3 chords;
- The ongoing LOUIE LOUIE database of all known
recordings; and...
- Lots of great comments from the readers of LOUIELOUIE.NET.
A big thank-you to everyone
that's ever written to me with LOUIE LOUIE information.
My thanks to all who have supported my efforts to document
the great stories and tidbits behind this amazing song!
I do appreciate all sincere comments, and words of support.
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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