What I am about to write here is in no way meant to be ironic or kitschy–it is not born out of a desire to come across as someone who lends a winking nod to a bygone era like too many misguided hipster types of today are so prone to do. No, the following sentence is very much a genuine opinion and one that I think I can honestly back up. Here it is:
“Louie Louie” is one of the ten most important songs in rock history.
Recorded and released in 1963, this cover of Richard Berry’s song by The Kingsmen is one of the most timeless songs in American rock. The indelible guitar intro alone is enough to include it in the rock Pantheon, but the real keys to this song is its imperfections and its inherent singability. “Louie Louie” was recorded in one take and all of its flaws–both the subtle ones and the unmistakable ones–add up to a song that sounds as if it could be performed by an Everyband anywhere in the U.S. “Louie Louie” may very well be the first garage rock song to reach top-5 status on the charts.
From the way that the drums kick into the song and don’t quite match up with the overall melody in spots to Jack Ely’s unpolished vocals that make it hard to decipher what exactly it is that he is singing, this song laid the foundation for an army of kids to form their own bands on a whim and go to the nearest recording studio and try to rock out as best they could. I also firmly believe that “Louie Louie” laid the groundwork for the late ’60′s California music scene. Almost by osmosis, The Kingsmen’s classic probably enabled in many nascent bands a sense of “Who the hell cares what anyone else thinks, we’re just gonna make music.” It probably also did not hurt that The Kingsmen received some cool street cred by way of the FBI opening up a short-lived investigation on “Louie Louie” under the pretense that the vocals were intentionally slurred to hide sexually explicit lyrics.
Above all, though, the defining reason for the indelibility of “Louie Louie” is its singability. The Beatles and The Rolling Stones have made some truly classic songs that are singable through and through. But there is something about “Louie Louie”–a song in which not all of the lyrics are readily known by most people and yet it is still one of the best party songs of all time. I think we can all picture the kids of a few decades ago with their college sweaters and seemingly unmovable haircuts angularly dancing to this song, but I also think it could still resonate with people in their 20′s at a party today. This song is like a white tee shirt and jeans: it never truly loses any of its popularity, even if most people don’t actually wear just a white tee shirt anymore. The fashion world tries and tries to deconstruct and create styles anew and the music world tries to do the same. And a lot times they succeed brilliantly, but you will never be able to kill the white tee & jeans–likewise with this song.
And even if the day comes wherein this song’s time has truly passed, one cannot argue the ubiquity and the influence that it has had on rock music. The Beatles, The Stones, Chuck Berry, Led Zeppelin, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Elvis: all of them undisputed giants in the landscape of rock music. And yet, none of them ever came up with something so simple and raw as “Louie Louie.”
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