THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, September 5, 1995 TAG: 9509050030
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARC DAVIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 100 lines
John Klater knows the secret. Bo Woods knows the secret.
Rich Bachta thinks he knows the secret, but he doesn't really know the secret.
``Oh yeah,'' says Bachta, a 51-year-old Virginia Beach pilot, as the rock band warms up Monday on the 17th Street stage. ``I was in college then. I learned all the obscene words. It wasn't much of a mystery.''
Uh-huh.
So there they are, 39 years after Richard Berry penned the most subversive tune in rock 'n' roll history, 32 years after the Kingsmen made it The Big Thing of 1963, and still the secret persists.
For as the Kingsmen tune their guitars for the last day of the American Music Festival, the crowd of several hundred pungent, coconut-oiled sun worshipers wonders:
Is ``Louie Louie'' really the filthiest rock song ever put to vinyl?
Jamie Killen, 46, admits he does not know, but hopes to learn. ``That's what I'm here for,'' he says with a smile. ``I'm hoping this time I'll hear the words.''
Not a chance.
For 90 minutes, the Kingsmen tease the crowd with raucous renditions of other people's classics, guitar-crunchers that are heard as far away as Baltic Avenue.
They hand jive to Buddy Holly's ``Not Fade Away.'' They scorch Jim Morrison's ``Love You Two Times.'' They mumble the murky lyrics to Mick Jagger's ``Jumping Jack Flash.''
But as the girls at the Miller beer truck sway arm-in-arm, and the keyboard player taps the first tell-tale chords - rock critic Dave Marsh calls it ``the magic and majesty of duh duh duh. duh duh.'' - most in the crowd simply don't know the secret:
``Louie Louie,'' the most infamous rock 'n' roll tune ever recorded, the anthem that spawned thousands of horny teenage fantasies, is NOT dirty.
Bo Woods, an announcer at Oldies 95.7 FM, knows. ``It's a sea chantey,'' he says, matter-of-factly.
John Klater, a 39-year-old industrial designer from Norfolk, knows. He owns ``The Best of Louie Louie'' album, with several alternate takes by alternate bands. ``Some versions,'' Klater says, ``you can actually understand the words.''
But Greg Tenpas, a 47-year-old tourist from Alabama, still doesn't get it. ``I knew a girl in college who claimed she knew the words,'' he says, ``but I've long since forgotten. The girl and the words. Both.''
On Monday, the Kingsmen do their best to give away the secret.
Singer Dick Peterson screams the lyrics, rendering them muddy as the Lafayette River at low tide, but gestures wildly with his hands to make up for it. Wavy sea. Shining moon. Get it?
He invites two little girls onto the stage - Jessica Dunford, 7, and Julie Cullen, 6, both of Virginia Beach - and awards them ``Louie Louie'' T-shirts for helping him sing.
``We were a very controversial band for many years,'' Peterson tells the crowd, ``and I want everyone to notice I put these clothes on that little girl.''
No matter. The secret remains.
``Nobody knows the words,'' declares Ben Tellez, a 50-year-old civilian employee at Oceana Naval Air Station. ``I don't think they know it, either. Anyway, it's not the words,'' he confides. ``It's the rhythm.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
TAMARA VONINSKI
Staff
On Monday, the Kingsmen performed ``Louie Louie'' on the last day of
the American Music Festival at Virginia Beach.
TAMARA VONINSKI
Staff
After Monday's performance, a member of the Kingsmen - which
popularized ``Louie Louie'' in '63 - signs an autograph on a fan's
arm.
The actual, unretouched lyrics to ``Louie Louie,'' as written by
Richard Berry in 1956:
Louie Louie, me gotta go.
Louie Louie, me gotta go.
A fine girl, she wait for me.
Me catch the ship across the sea.
I sailed the ship all alone.
I never think I'll make it home.
(chorus)
Three nights and days we sailed the sea.
Me think of girl constantly.
On the ship I dream she there.
I smell the rose in her hair.
(chorus)
Me see Jamaican moon above.
It won't be long me see me love.
Me take her in my arms and then
I tell her I never leave again.
(chorus)
by CNB