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KF5JRV > TODAY 17.05.19 13:42l 45 Lines 2455 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 36512_KF5JRV
Read: GUEST
Subj: Today in History - May 17
Path: IW8PGT<CX2SA<N3HYM<KF5JRV
Sent: 190517/1135Z 36512@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA BPQ6.0.18
Based on outcry from parents who bought into what may have started as an
idle rumor, the FBI launched a formal investigation in 1964 into the
supposedly pornographic lyrics of the song “Louie, Louie.ö That
investigation finally neared its conclusion on this day in 1965, when
the FBI Laboratory declared the lyrics of “Louie Louieö to be officially
unintelligible.
No one will ever know who started the rumor that “Louie Louieö was
dirty. As written by Richard Berry in 1955, the lyrics revolve around a
sailor from the Caribbean lamenting to a bartender named Louie about
missing his far-away love. As recorded in crummy conditions and in a
single take by the Kingsmen in 1963, lyrics like “A fine little girl,
she wait for me…ö came out sounding like “A phlg mlmrl hlurl, duh vvvr
meö Perhaps it was some clever middle-schooler who started the rumor by
trying to convince a classmate that those lyrics contained some words
that are as unprintable today as they were back in 1963. Whatever the
case, the story spread like wildfire, until the United States Department
of Justice began receiving letters like the one addressed to Attorney
General Robert F. Kennedy and dated January 30, 1964. “Who do you turn
to when your teen age daughter buys and brings home pornographic or
obscene materials being sold…in every City, Village and Record shop in
this Nation?ö that letter began, before going on to make the specific
assertion that the lyrics of “Louie Louieö were “so filthy that I
can-not enclose them in this letter.ö
Over the course of the next two years, the FBI gathered many versions of
the putative lyrics to Louie Louie. They interviewed the man who wrote
the song and officials of the record label that released the Kingsmen’s
smash-hit single. They turned the record over to the audio experts in
the FBI laboratory, who played and re-played “Louie Louieö at 78 rpm, 45
rpm, 33 1/3 rpm and even slower speeds in an effort to determine whether
it was pornographic and, therefore, whether its sale was a violation of
the federal Interstate Transportation of Obscene Material law.
“Unintelligible at any speedö was the conclusion the FBI Laboratory
relayed to the investigators in charge on this day in 1965, not quite
exonerating “Louie Louie,ö but also not damning the tune that would go
on to become one of the most-covered songs in rock-and-roll history.
73 de Scott KF5JRV
Pmail: KF5JRV@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA
email: KF5JRV@GMAIL.COM
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