Dear Otus,
Our 14-year-old recently spent his summer lawn mowing money on a used electric guitar, which is a good thing because it keeps him away from the Internet, the devil's playground.
He has learned only one song so far and he screams it over and over out in the garage. I can't understand the words, but they sound something like, "Uhfinelilgul, sheetwaferme; me ketchduhsheep fuh crustuhsee; I saidduhsheep awluhlone; Uhnevdinkme makeithoe."
Is this a dirty song? What are the lyrics and should we be worried?
LaDonna Gaines,
Siloam Springs
Dear LaDonna,
It was wholly a pleasure to hear from you and a further pleasure to ease your worried mind.
As with countless others since the 1960s, your boy has begun his repertoire with "Louie, Louie," the same three-chord progression (A-D-Em) from which has sprung thousands of musical careers.
"Louie, Louie" is the quintessential guitar novice song because it's easily mastered and mercifully forgiving to the inchoate singer (provided the amplifier is cranked up).
It may be of some comfort to learn that mothers have been concerned about the lyrics since 1963, when the song hit the charts in a remake by The Kingsmen, the most influential American band of a generation.
As sung, the lyrics are indecipherable, and therein lies their appeal to each succeeding generation of rebellious high-spirited youth.
Dirty lyrics? "Louie, Louie" was once the subject of obscenity investigations by the FBI and the FCC and was briefly banned from the radio in Indiana. In reality, the tune is an innocuous ode to separated sweethearts written by doo-wop artist Richard Berry in 1955.
Berry released it as a sort of laid-back calypso ditty in 1957. It was not all that well received.
So Berry sold the publishing rights and a number of other bands tweaked it and recorded the song. It wasn't until 1963 that the words were deliberately slurred by Kingsmen frontman Jack Ely and it became a smash.
For your peace of mind, here is the background of Berry's song.
The "Louie" of the song was one Louisa Maria Weatherby (1936-2012), a second runner-up in the 1954 Miss Jamaica beauty pageant and the true love of one itinerant merchant seaman by the name of Dwight Pinkston.
Pinkston, who had worked banana boats in the Caribbean, met the singer when Berry and his band were playing the Patois Club in Kingston, Jamaica, in the mid-1950s and told him the sad tale of the girl he left behind. Inspired, Berry penned the immortal lyrics that follow.
Louie, Louie, oh, no, me gotta go. Louie, Louie, oh baby, me gotta go.
In the song, Pinkston, distraught and longing for his beloved Louisa (Louie), laments the passage of time since he has seen his "little girl" and pronounces that it is time he began his journey back to her arms.
A fine little girl, she waits for me,
me catch the ship for cross the sea.
I sail the ship all alone,
I never think me make it home.
Pinkston, driven by his longing for his sweetheart, steals a small schooner from the Cayman Islands port of Bodden Town for the long and dangerous journey home to Jamaica, where the faithful Louie patiently awaits his return.
The chorus is repeated with elan and the narration continues.
Three nights and days me sail the sea.
Me think of girl constantly.
On the ship I dream she there.
I smell the rose in her hair.
After 72 sleepless hours of sailing, Pinkston begins to hallucinate that his beloved is actually beside him on the slippery deck. This dementia goes beyond optical apparitions into the realm of olfactory delusions.
The chorus is then repeated with the discretionary line, "OK, let's give it to 'em right now!" The implied antecedent refers to a vivacious guitar solo if the performer has that capability. If not, the line is omitted and the lyrics continue.
Me see Jamaica moon above.
It won't be long, me see me love.
Me take her in my arms and then,
I tell her I'll never leave again.
Navigating by lunar reckoning and nearing his destination on the final night, Pinkston vows that once he and Louie are reunited, he will embrace her tenderly and promise to give up his seafaring days to remain forever by her side.
Fear not, LaDonna, "Louie, Louie" is a lovely and appropriate song for beginning teenage guitar players to learn.
Until next time, Kalaka reminds you that you needn't worry until your son starts singing Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs' "Wooly Bully." With lyrics such as "Matty told Hatty about a thing she saw; Had two big horns and a wooly jaw," it's the most filthy, disgusting and obscene song ever recorded.
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HomeStyle on 08/30/2014