June 4, 2025
The Origin of Weird: Louie Louie and the FBI Investigation
A simple rock recording session in 1963 snowballed into one of the FBI's most bizarre investigations when The Kingsmen recorded "Louie Louie" in a single take with just $50 and one hour of studio time. The perfect storm of factors – a single ceiling microphone forcing singer Jack Ely to shout upward, his newly-installed braces slurring his pronunciation, and the chaotic one-take recording – made the lyrics virtually indecipherable.
When teenagers across America began filling in these unintelligible gaps with their imaginations, passing around handwritten sheets of supposed "dirty lyrics," moral panic ensued. Outraged parents wrote to Attorney General Robert Kennedy, Indiana's governor publicly denounced the song, and J. Edgar Hoover himself authorized a full-scale FBI investigation into whether the band had violated federal obscenity laws.
What followed was a staggering 31-month government investigation involving six FBI field offices across the country. Agents played the record at every conceivable speed, scrutinized the production process, and interviewed everyone from the original songwriter to band members – though bizarrely, they never questioned the actual vocalist. After exhausting all leads, the FBI quietly closed the case in October 1966, concluding the lyrics remained "unintelligible at any speed."
The greatest irony? While investigators found no evidence of the imagined obscenities, they completely missed an actual expletive around the 54-second mark when the drummer dropped his stick. The controversy only fueled the song's popularity, as teenagers were drawn to what they believed was forbidden material.
This episode of History Buffoons reveals how moral panics can trigger absurd governmental overreactions, how innocuous cultural artifacts become lightning rods for societal anxieties, and how easily resources can be wasted chasing imaginary threats. Have you experienced similar moral panics in your lifetime? Share your thoughts with us on social media @HistoryBuffoonsPodcast or email us at historybuffoonspodcast@gmail.com.
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00:00 - Meet the Hosts and Introducing Louie Louie
03:27 - Origins of the Song and The Kingsmen
06:22 - Chaotic Recording Session and Chart Success
10:44 - Public Outcry and FBI Investigation Begins
16:36 - Investigation Expands and Band Interviews
21:40 - Case Closed and The Hidden F-Bomb
WEBVTT
00:00:16.091 --> 00:00:20.993
oh, hey there oh, hey there I am kate and I am bradley.
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And this is History, buffoons.
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Yeah, the origin of weird History, buffoons.
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Oh, that's right.
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Yes, and I just played Bradley the song Louie Louie by the Kingsmen.
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Yes, great, great song.
00:00:34.746 --> 00:00:35.307
Great song.
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What does it remind you of?
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Oh boy, just for me.
00:00:38.968 --> 00:00:40.537
It just reminds me of classic rock.
00:00:40.537 --> 00:00:43.322
Yeah, I mean it's so, so good and it's iconic.
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I don't know if this song is in this movie, but it always brings me to Mr Holland's opus.
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I've never actually watched that movie.
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That is a brilliant movie Richard Dreyfuss.
00:00:54.853 --> 00:00:56.014
Thank you, I was drawing.
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I'm like the guy from Jaws, yeah, yeah exactly no great movie, is it?
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Yeah, I've heard good things about.
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I just never, for some reason just never watched.
00:01:07.066 --> 00:01:08.388
That came out like what late 90s?
00:01:08.388 --> 00:01:08.969
Pardon me, that was epic.
00:01:08.989 --> 00:01:22.036
Thank you for that one um, I don't know when it came out, probably I want to say, but I could be off again I don't know it that well so whenever we had a band concert the very next class we don't have anything to do, really right.
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So we he would put on mr holland'sus and we would watch that as kind of some downtime.
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There you go, makes sense, yeah, so yeah Nice.
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So this is going to be the untold story of Louie Louie oh and the FBI investigation into it.
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I think I've actually might have, I don't know what it is, you know of it.
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But I think I remember hearing of this yes, yes, yes, okay.
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So Louie Louie actually began as like a rhythm and blues song Right, written by Richard Berry in 1955.
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Yeah, it's old.
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Yeah, he was inspired by Latin and Caribbean influences.
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Okay.
00:02:02.040 --> 00:02:13.207
And he kind of lifted that kind of that beginning riff right from renee tuesday's cha-cha called the el loco cha-cha cha-cha.
00:02:13.207 --> 00:02:26.551
Yeah, I'll have to kind of let you listen to that afterwards that'll be interesting yeah, but barry's original lyrics were about a lovesick jamaican sailor who pours his heart out to a bartender named Louie.
00:02:26.551 --> 00:02:30.587
Oh, and it's about missing his girl from across the sea.
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Right Makes sense.
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So Louie, louie is a bartender.
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Okay.
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So Barry first recorded this song with his group, the Pharaohs, in April 1956.
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And it was released in LA radio was.
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It was kind of a modest didn't do much.
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No, didn't really do much, but it actually kind of turned out to be a hit in southern california okay um, and barry would perform it all up and down the coast right.
00:03:01.668 --> 00:03:07.294
And by the late, by late 1957, louis louis made it into the charts in seattle.
00:03:07.294 --> 00:03:31.354
Oh, wow, yeah, and that that cha-cha rhythm kind of made it kind of a staple at school dances I say it's very catchy dance song exactly, and there was like a bunch of like teenage bands that would that would start playing this song okay, sure so one such band was from the pacific northwest from portland, oregon, um.
00:03:31.394 --> 00:03:32.837
They were the kingsmen right.
00:03:32.837 --> 00:03:51.788
Okay, they were formed by high school friends in the 1960s um singer jack eli, guitarist mike mitchell, drummer lynn easton and a couple others okay and they would play this song at like little sock hops that's funny yeah did you ever have sock hop, sock hops at your high school?
00:03:51.788 --> 00:04:05.469
No, no, no, no, it was all just modern we dances they would throw them from time to time in mind just because um nostalgic, or whatever right, don't let it die down yeah, I'm pretty sure.
00:04:05.810 --> 00:04:08.026
I wonder if they do those to this day and age.
00:04:08.147 --> 00:04:22.185
I guess I'll find out when my kids get a little older there you go, but yeah so in april of 1963 the kingsmen pooled 50 together, all right to book a local studio for an hour oh wow and record the tune as a demo.
00:04:22.185 --> 00:04:27.934
Actually, they kind of wanted to play on a cruise ship, so that was their demo to get on a cruise ship to play.
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Oh, that's funny.
00:04:28.634 --> 00:04:33.812
Yeah, so the recording session was chaotic at best.
00:04:33.812 --> 00:04:42.819
Okay, the production studio actually had pretty limited experience recording louder rock bands.
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Sure, they were probably used to softer jazz or something like that softer or like single soloist, that kind of thing, right, right.
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So the engineer of the studio suspended the only microphone above the um, above the 20 year old singer Jack Eli's head.
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Right.
00:05:03.951 --> 00:05:06.795
So they wanted to capture like a live feeling.
00:05:06.795 --> 00:05:14.927
Sure, but it was so high from the ceiling that Jack literally had to, like, stand on his tiptoes and yell up at the microphone.
00:05:14.927 --> 00:05:16.845
That's wild, to sing it okay.
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That's funny.
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He was.
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He had to shout also because he had to go above all the music.
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Yeah, yeah, I mean being in a band and recording in my life a lot different back then from what you do now.
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Whereas, like the way we always did, it is basically we would all play together but record one thing Like and usually I was the first one to lay down the track, so if I got mine done and then we would take the drums and then they would sit down and layer the guitar and bass and the vocals over me.
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We didn't do it all at once.
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But you see bands like an old movie, like the Doors movie, which is a great movie, but they show them all playing at the same time, even though Jim Morrison is in a booth and stuff.
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But, they always had to play all at once, so they did it literally in usually like a take or so whereas we could just fucking do it over and over and over until we got it right.
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So yeah, quite different yeah, that's crazy.
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Yeah, well, jack eli, I just spit all over my computer.
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Wow, that was pretty epic it was.
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There was some arch with that one some distance distance with that one.
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Um so jack eli also had just gotten dental braces at the time.
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Jesus christ, okay, and his words were so slurred yeah, you, you honestly couldn't even tell what he was saying.
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Yeah, and doesn't that come into play here?
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yeah, and they did it all in one take yeah, um.
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And the lead vocals kind of came out in this like growling howl, yeah um, and one band and to put it or one band member said that wasn't our best but, they released it as a single.
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Well, they only had so much money.
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They only had the one hour yep, they only had one hour options to do it otherwise, so they had to release what they came up with.
00:07:05.202 --> 00:07:14.600
So it makes sense so by december 1963 the kingsman's louis louis rocketed to billboard's top 100.
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Sorry, billboard's hot 100 top 10, wow, eventually peaking at number two on the charts.
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That's impressive.
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And um, drummer dick peterson recalled that the band was as stunned as anyone by success.
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Sure he said quote it's nothing more than a good party song.
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Simple, basic garbage.
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Sorry, not garbage.
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Garage rock and roll that somehow pleased appeals to people, right, but they, everybody loved that.
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Look like three chord simplicity kind of made it irresistible.
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Yeah, very catchy yes, it is so.
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The flaw in all of this is jack eli's um indecipherable vocals yeah, that's where the problem comes in with the whole most listeners couldn't make out the words and rumors began to swirl around what they were saying lyrics were actually dirty right yes, so teenagers around the country started kind of filling in the blanks worth with their imaginations?
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yeah, and.
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And someone once wrote.
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Everybody who knew anything about rock and roll knew that the Kingsman, Louie Louie, concealed dirty words.
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Kids used to pretend they couldn't hear them in order to panic parents, teachers and other authority figures.
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In reality, the actual lyric was the sailor's innocuous love lament.
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Quote a fine little girl.
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She wait for me.
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I'm not going to tell you what the x-rated stuff was, because it's not important, right?
00:08:48.640 --> 00:09:06.668
But um, it didn't exactly stop teens from trading like typed handwritten sheets of bogus x-out lyrics and, you know, across the study halls and everything how many songs have you listened to in your life where you couldn't, you didn't know the exact words, but you, you heard, you heard something.
00:09:06.909 --> 00:09:08.596
Oh for sure, and that's what you put in there.
00:09:08.596 --> 00:09:11.586
Oh, for sure I mean people have been doing that for years and years.
00:09:11.586 --> 00:09:14.177
I don't know, since music, yeah, um.
00:09:14.177 --> 00:09:25.811
So it's like it's kind of funny that it was such an ordeal that there was, I mean, I I know different times 62 years ago, but, um, there's plenty of times where it's like, what do you say?
00:09:25.811 --> 00:09:27.118
Sounds like this, you start singing.
00:09:27.198 --> 00:09:33.445
you finally like you're like, that's not what it was at all like rocket man burning up my fuse.
00:09:33.505 --> 00:09:37.820
Up here alone nobody knows that fucking line, unless you actually know what like elton john is.
00:09:37.820 --> 00:09:41.171
But if you hear it, a lot of people get it wrong.
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Or like hold me closer, tony danza, not tiny dancer.
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A lot of people sing that because it sounds like it do you know the song um?
00:09:49.922 --> 00:10:07.100
how bizarre, how bizarre of course I always thought he said help is on, help is on see exactly how bizarre it's funny, and again, I know different times, but it's funny how many times throughout history people fuck up lyrics to what they think they hear because, yeah, music's funny that way.
00:10:07.100 --> 00:10:08.705
It's different to everybody.
00:10:08.845 --> 00:10:19.076
Yeah, so anyways so um many adults grew alarmed um at the idea that an innocent sounding rock song might actually be corrupting their kids, right.
00:10:19.076 --> 00:10:28.269
So two small town indiana teacher, uh, for example, were so shocked by what they heard that they complained to their school officials.
00:10:28.429 --> 00:10:28.831
That's weird.
00:10:28.831 --> 00:10:31.224
These are teenagers that are complaining so weird.
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Complaints soon made their way to the government officials and in January of 1964, a high school teacher and parent of a teenage girl wrote an outrage letter to the us attorney general, robertf kennedy, demanding action.
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This is wild, she said.
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Quote my daughter brought home a record of louis louis and I proceeded to try and decipher the jumble of words.
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The lyrics are so filthy that I cannot enclose them in this letter.
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I would like to see these people prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
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End quote.
00:11:07.688 --> 00:11:08.529
That's just so dumb.
00:11:08.529 --> 00:11:12.885
Being a musician myself, I find this just ridiculous.
00:11:12.885 --> 00:11:16.544
Yep, and whatever happened to free speech, but whatever.
00:11:17.254 --> 00:11:17.517
Around.
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The same time, Indiana's Governor Matthew Welch made headlines by publicly denouncing Louie Louie oh good Lord.
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Governor Welch claimed the song was soouncing.
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Louie Louie oh good lord.
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Governor Welch claimed the song was so obscene it made his ears tingle and in February 64, he requested radio stations in Indiana to ban the record.
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Good lord, yes, that's so dumb.
00:11:37.562 --> 00:11:42.118
Of course, because of this, the press picked up the story.
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Well, of course they're gonna run with it.
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Mm-hmm.
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One reporter.
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One reporter noted quote.
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Within months of its release, the record was banned in several cities and states, including indiana and michigan.
00:11:54.445 --> 00:12:10.385
So, responding to the public outcry, the us justice department and the fbi launched an investigation into louis louis, isn't it funny that you, like the fbi, had to launch an investigation like don't you have something better to do?
00:12:10.405 --> 00:12:30.168
yep, I mean oh wait, till you figure out how long it was because this is still in 1963, right 64, early 64 early 64 so the question for the investigation is had the song's producers or performers violated laws against interstate transmission of obscene material?
00:12:30.307 --> 00:12:33.051
I didn't know that was a thing Apparently, wow, okay.
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In other words, did the Kingsmen knowingly put?
00:12:35.921 --> 00:12:38.947
Dirty lyrics on the record.
00:12:38.947 --> 00:12:45.587
So I mean a lovesick sailor's lament, I guess maybe could get there.
00:12:46.134 --> 00:12:47.682
I mean, that is pretty dirty.
00:12:48.434 --> 00:12:59.940
Nonetheless, under pressure from furious parents and politicians, j Edgar Hoover opened a file on Louie Louie Jesus, as one FBI memo later put it.
00:12:59.940 --> 00:13:07.364
Quote the popularity and difficult in and difficulty in discerning the lyrics led some people to suspect the song was obscene.
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end quote and can I ask, like why didn't the kingsman just come out and be like this is what we said we'll get to that.
00:13:14.370 --> 00:13:15.715
Okay, absolutely get to that.
00:13:15.715 --> 00:13:16.936
Good, because what the fuck?
00:13:16.936 --> 00:13:22.581
The fbi investigation yeahed nearly two years.
00:13:24.783 --> 00:13:27.224
What a waste of fucking resources.
00:13:27.424 --> 00:13:29.485
Two years I mean Jesus.
00:13:29.505 --> 00:13:36.451
Could you imagine if you bring that FBI and some of those people to today and have them hear what is on radio?
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Oh, they'll be embarrassed, they would be embarrassed they would be just like they'd probably faint from just stupidity.
00:13:43.395 --> 00:13:44.976
They'd probably faint from just stupidity.
00:13:44.976 --> 00:13:48.039
The Bureau threw surprising resources at the time.
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No fewer than six FBI field officers from Tampa to Detroit got involved, jesus.
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Multiple US attorneys took interest and the Federal Communications Commission, the FCC, opened its own inquiry.
00:14:02.772 --> 00:14:14.884
Okay, agents gathered evidence, interviewed witnesses and shipped copies of the record off to the FBI Crime Lab in Washington for analysis.
00:14:14.884 --> 00:14:16.167
So what witnesses Like?
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What did they witness?
00:14:16.948 --> 00:14:19.522
This is when they would bring in the Kingsmen.
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Okay, Because I mean good Lord.
00:14:21.460 --> 00:14:24.482
Yeah, Did you see them go in there and sing dirty words?
00:14:24.482 --> 00:14:25.205
What?
00:14:25.534 --> 00:14:30.134
Okay, so some of the highlights of the investigation in February of 1964.
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Fbi's Seattle Indianapolis office received complaints Robert Kennedy and others yeah, the lyrics are serve so filthy we can't enclose them in this letter kind of thing.
00:14:42.505 --> 00:14:58.488
The Bureau opens up a criminal obscenity case on the on the song and the question was there was there improper motivation in making the lyrics so unintelligible as to give rise to reports that they were obscene?
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Was there any wrongdoing?
00:15:00.820 --> 00:15:01.861
Whatever?
00:15:01.861 --> 00:15:04.347
Right, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, march 1964.
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With the fake lyrics in hand, fbi technicians begin their forensic examination of the record.
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They play the record at 45 RPMs at every conceivable speed 45.
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Slower than 33 and a third faster than 78 rpms, straining to discern any curse words hidden in the slurred singing do?
00:15:31.455 --> 00:15:32.557
they play it backwards too?
00:15:33.500 --> 00:15:36.756
you know, I don't even think I they said something about.
00:15:36.756 --> 00:15:44.912
No matter what speed we listen to it, it's very possible they played it backwards, but I don't know, I don't right because, I don't recall if I wrote that down or if I read that.
00:15:45.052 --> 00:15:47.479
That was always a thing especially back in the record days.
00:15:47.539 --> 00:15:48.261
I think they did?
00:15:48.811 --> 00:15:51.278
They always said that bands would hide.
00:15:51.679 --> 00:15:51.880
Right.
00:15:52.049 --> 00:15:58.498
And it's funny because when you played things backwards, things would come and again it's similar to what you're talking about Like your mindset.
00:15:58.498 --> 00:16:00.745
Well, did you just say that Like worship the devil?
00:16:01.028 --> 00:16:01.129
Right.
00:16:01.149 --> 00:16:06.798
Like if you played a Black Sabbath album backwards or some shit right and it's like, no, it's just your mind is putting it there.
00:16:07.057 --> 00:16:18.273
Yeah, it's kind of like those paranormal shows on tv where they say like, oh, did you just hear that he said hey, hey, jack, and then they play it back and that's all you think of, because that's what they told you exactly.
00:16:18.293 --> 00:16:20.957
Anyways, may 1964.
00:16:21.019 --> 00:16:26.337
Lacking evidence of any crime, the fbi's initial inquiry ground ground to a halt yeah, imagine imagine that.
00:16:26.337 --> 00:16:35.316
By May 15th, the Bureau had shelved the active investigation, noting that no further investigation is to be conducted in this manner.
00:16:35.437 --> 00:16:35.937
Rightly so.
00:16:36.129 --> 00:16:38.934
So the first phase of the saga ends with no charges.
00:16:38.934 --> 00:16:40.292
Okay, okay.
00:16:40.292 --> 00:16:49.799
The FBI's own summary later admitted the limited investigation from February to May of 64 discovered no evidence of obscenity.
00:16:49.799 --> 00:16:50.662
Right Okay.
00:16:50.662 --> 00:16:56.778
More than a year after quote unquote closing the case, j Edgar Hoover was pulled back into it.
00:16:56.778 --> 00:17:01.916
Oh, jesus Christ.
00:17:01.916 --> 00:17:16.771
Identified as a teacher, an anti-pornographic activist from flint wrote directly to hoover demanding to reopen the file I mean, did you not have anything better to do because it wasn't really pornographic?
00:17:16.811 --> 00:17:17.974
why don't you focus on that shit?
00:17:18.876 --> 00:17:33.184
she said, the alarming rise in venereal disease because from that song, what the hell venerealversion, promiscuity and illegitimate bursts in the teen groups can all be pointed at this song.
00:17:33.224 --> 00:17:36.458
It really can't be Way to just use a scapegoat.
00:17:37.211 --> 00:17:44.825
She convinced that Louie Louie was part of this big scheme about all the indiscretions that teenagers are up to.
00:17:45.109 --> 00:17:53.990
Right, because God forbid they don't, they do something on their own it's all from this one song so hoover was like all right, we'll look into it again.
00:17:53.990 --> 00:17:55.453
He get the.
00:17:55.453 --> 00:17:59.202
The activist wrote back with field research.
00:17:59.202 --> 00:18:00.807
Okay, of their own.
00:18:00.807 --> 00:18:09.553
Sure, she and her group had played the record at various speeds and claimed somewhere between 45 and three, 33 and a half rpms.
00:18:09.553 --> 00:18:32.568
The obscene articulation is clearer, wow yes, wow so she had a theory the kingsmen performed a clean version on television, because they did appear briefly on on uh some tv performance and but released a secret obscene version on vinyl?
00:18:32.809 --> 00:18:37.842
sure because they had the funds to do that yep okay yep.
00:18:38.163 --> 00:18:42.653
So summer, summer and fall of 1965, renewed pressure.
00:18:42.653 --> 00:18:45.397
The fbi expanded its investigation further.
00:18:45.397 --> 00:18:59.920
Agents in new york re-examined the actual production yeah in august of 65 they discovered a technical detail louis louis was recorded in mono on a single track, not on a two-track tape.
00:18:59.920 --> 00:19:03.653
Can you briefly explain that, because I don't know what that means?
00:19:03.673 --> 00:19:07.836
well, like you said, they hung the one microphone yeah, so like what the way you and I record.
00:19:07.836 --> 00:19:10.326
We're on two tracks okay, so you have a track.
00:19:10.326 --> 00:19:13.320
I have a track right so with the one microphone hanging above them.
00:19:13.320 --> 00:19:23.953
That's just one track, so that's why they had to play live and everyone had, he had to shout over the band, and so on okay, so so yeah they said that there was no isolated vocal track to scrutinize.
00:19:24.255 --> 00:19:25.517
Correct, okay, yes.
00:19:25.517 --> 00:19:31.285
So in September of 65, the FBI finally went straight to the source About time.
00:19:31.285 --> 00:19:33.979
And interviewed the song's composer, Richard Berry.
00:19:34.509 --> 00:19:35.453
So the original guy.
00:19:35.694 --> 00:19:37.678
The original guy, Not even the Kingsman guy.
00:19:37.698 --> 00:19:41.299
Not the Kingsman yeah which still doesn't make sense, because why wouldn't you go to the band that sang it?
00:19:42.390 --> 00:19:45.336
Berry confirmed the real lyrics.
00:19:45.336 --> 00:19:48.202
Nothing dirty Right, Sorry dudes.
00:19:48.609 --> 00:19:49.795
Yeah, he was just talking about a girl.
00:19:49.795 --> 00:19:50.176
He missed.
00:19:50.851 --> 00:19:56.723
The Bureau then finally summoned members of the Kingsmen for interviews in September of 96.
00:19:56.723 --> 00:20:07.756
One by one band members, who were now in their early 20s at this time, were questioned after advice of their rights, as if under criminal suspicion, so wild they flatly denied everything.
00:20:07.895 --> 00:20:08.357
As they should.
00:20:09.470 --> 00:20:24.618
The Kingsmen told agents that their label had been so frustrating by the false rumors that Wand Records even offered a thousand dollars reward to anyone who could prove the record contained obscenities Like even they're like go ahead, put out a reward.
00:20:24.618 --> 00:20:26.056
There's really nothing there.
00:20:26.230 --> 00:20:27.536
Yeah, it's literally, it's nothing.
00:20:27.615 --> 00:20:27.817
Yes.
00:20:28.250 --> 00:20:29.316
You won't find anything.
00:20:29.316 --> 00:20:31.366
Yes, Wow.
00:20:32.849 --> 00:20:40.977
So, as one band member observed to the FBI, he said quote those who want to hear such things can read it into the vocal.
00:20:40.977 --> 00:20:51.406
The band also debunked a theory that they had re-recorded vocals to include dirty words and they confirmed the release track was a one-take live recording with no overdubs.
00:20:51.426 --> 00:20:51.586
Yeah.
00:20:51.946 --> 00:20:58.261
Yeah, so by late 1965, October-ish, the FBI had effectively exhausted the case.
00:20:58.823 --> 00:20:59.223
Of course.
00:20:59.630 --> 00:21:04.738
On October 29th 1965, they noted that all Kingsmen members interviewed.
00:21:04.738 --> 00:21:08.304
Quote reported it definitely contained no obscenity.
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