Page 4 May 2020
Lynn Easton of The Kingsmen dies April 25
(Submitted by Music Milleniums Terry Currier) By Michael P. Jones
Series explores history of Louie Louie song - Part 3
Love That Louie: The Louie Louie Files is an amazing col- lection of songs. Released by Ace Records, it features 24 tracks of different versions of this incredible tune. Some are rare, some are hard-to-find, so this recording project is a music lovers archival dream.
The song Louie Louie was embraced by rock n roll bands and their audiences after Rich- ard Berry wrote it and then later recorded it as Richard Berry and The Pharaohs in 1957. It became especially popular in the Pacific Northwest, where the majority of garage bands added the tune to their set lists and were ready to perform it numerous times at dances, due to its popularity.
Love That Louie: The Louie Louie Files feature some very unique versions of Louie Louie . Some of these followed the original rough-styled version and even amped it up a bit, while others soothed the tune by refin- ing its rough edges and guttered sound with the feathers and lace of easy listening music. In 1966, The Sandpipers ver- sion of Louie Louie was amazing- ly beautiful. This vocal groups two-minutes and 45 seconds long rendition is easily one of the favorite versions ever created. The Spanish guitar and its lead work is so amazing you dont want it to ever end.
The Swamp Rats version of Louie Louie was an impres- sive addition to this collection. Recorded in 1967, this garage band from Pittsburgh, Penn., re- ally defined their sound in this song, which was loud and even louder. They added the constant thrashing of the fuzzy-sounding guitar and gutter-like but clearly understandable lyrics. This three minutes and 21 seconds tune was on their debut 45 rpm that was released on the St. Clair label, backed with Hey Joe . It later ap- peared on the Red Devil label.
The year 1966 seemed to be a good year for bringing out contrast- ing versions of Louie Louie . Travis Wammack came out with one with- out any lyrics - just instruments. This was a two minutes and six seconds long 45 rpm recording.
Far across the Atlantic Ocean, The Kinks from Muswell Hill, Eng- land, dove in with their English rock n roll and steered Louie Louie into perfection. Their great two minutes and 54 seconds of the guitar-driven version sounded like they were from the Pacific Northwest with their amazing performance on this now classic tune. It is on this bands Kinksize Session from 1964. In 1970, the Sounds Orchestra from England released a beauti- ful, piano-laced instrumental that was an extended version of Louie Louie. A tremendously breath-taking four minutes long thats easy-listening, this stylistic masterpiece can be found on their One More Time album.
Who would ever think about rewriting Louie Louie ? Well, it did happen, probably more times than anyone could ever count. Love That Louie: The Louie Louie Files in- cludes four of these and it was from those bands who were riding high in the Northwest Rock n Roll scene. No doubt about it, these songs were definitely highly influenced by the original tunes lyrics and music. Jack E. Lee & The Squires, in 1964, took Louie Louie . and re- vised it musically into Love That Louie . Their entire two minutes and 25 seconds of this song, com- plete with the vocal style and mu- sic, is definitely that popular song of rock n roll history. Their 45 rpm, backed with Octavepuss, was released by RCA Records. That same year, H.B. & The Checkmates changed Louie Louie into Louise Louise . This thorough- ly garage band from Springfield, Ore., rewrote Louie Louie . Yes, all two minutes and 51 seconds of this song features a rewrite of Berrys original tune just perfectly, but is loudly more refined in the out-of-control wild sense of the word. This writer loves this version that was released as a 45 rpm in 1966 on Lavender Records with Summertim e on the back side.
The Kingsmen wanted to ex- tend the popularity of their Louie Louie , so that very same year they released Long Green . This was two minutes and 37 seconds of the original song, primarily in the instrumentation. Lively and fun, this song appears on their 45 rpm that is backed with The Jolly Green Giant .
Then in 1966, along came Jack Ely & The Courtmen. Yes, the leader of this band was the same lead singer (with the too-tight- braces on his teeth) of The Kings- men when they recorded their original Louie Louie that exploded on the rock music scene and into controversy. This was not a re- write, but was smugly titled Louie Louie 66. With new lyrics that are easy to understand, great instrumentation, that is a song that deserves high recognition.
Louie Louie was clearly a dy- namic rock n roll song that meant so many things to different people. So eventually, this three-chord song escaped its confinement of being just one single tune and blossomed into other songs. Love That Louie: The Louie Louie Files features just a sampling of two of these. They were simply great and were definite- ly influenced by the original tune. In 1959, two years after record- ing the first Louie Louie , Richard Berry and The Pharaohs released Have Love Will Travel . Written by Berry (like the original), this is a nicely but-not-completely-veiled version of Louie Louie . A great ad- dition to this recording project that also became a must on the set list of Northwest rock n roll bands. In 1964, Paul Revere & The Raid- ers released Louie Go Home . Written by Paul Revere and Mark Lindsay, there actually were two versions of this song released - one with an opening saxophone on the bands 45 rpm in 1964, and then it was completely re-recorded in every way shape and form with a guitar opening for their 1966 Midnight Ride album. In 1972, Toots & The Maytals took Louie Louie in a completely different musical direction. This Jamaica band added a local Kings- ton-style beat and sound to this track that reportedly helped to lead to the creation of Reggae music. It is a track on their Funky Kingston album put out by Dynamic Sounds Studios & Island Studios. Love That Louie: The Louie Louie Files is a piece of music history that features a song which took on a life of its own. From generation to generation and span- ning the decades, The Kingsmens vocally-garbled gem may very well live on forever, thanks to recording projects like this one.
Not only that, Love That Louie: The Louie Louie Files provides an opportunity for people to listen to some rare and hard to find ver- sions of this song. Not only that, it also provides a special musical bridge of being able to reach back into time and reflect on where you were and what you were doing when you first or last heard a cer- tain version of Louie Louie . Many people have their own
opinion of who did the best perfor- mance of this three-chord wonder of not only Northwest rock n roll history, but also the entirety of rock itself. Was it Richard Berry and The Pharaohs? The Kinks? Paul Revere & The Raiders? The Wailers? The Sonics? The Sandpipers? Don and the Good- times? The Kinks? Or any one of the thousands of other bands and performers. This song, ironically, has become part of the Pacific Northwest and Americas heart, soul and spirit, at least in its rock n roll. Believe it or not, this three-chord, garbled song has had that great of an impact.
Just in from Dave Record Stone of stumptownblogger.com..rip In 1959 Lynn Easton and Jack Ely started a band that wound up eventually to be called the Kingmen after another band named the Kingmen broke up. In 1963, with Mike Mitchell on guitar, Bob Norby on bass and Don Galluci on keyboards went into a recording studio and recorded what is known as one of the most revered songs in rock & roll Louie Louie) . After the hit, Lynn moved to up front to be the vocalist and lasted there till 1967. At that time he went into the advertis- ing business and also hosted a TV show in Portland, much like American Bandstand, on KGW TV.. Lynn was a sailor and loved his sail boats, even living on them several times in his life. He also had the knack for building things and working with wood. In recent years, he would make clocks out of drums. I went over to his house a few times and commis- sioned him to make me a couple of clocks, one that hangs in Music Millennium and one that I gave to my wife as a gift. When I went to his Facebook page today to confirm the rumor that he had passed, I noticed the past 2 posts he put up was a fun little Monty Python like commercial some kids made for Music Millen- nium and then the photo of me with the two clocks. A major tip of the hat to a great person and one of members of Kingsmen, who gave us one of the great singles of all-time in rock & roll.LOUIE LOUIE!
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