Here's an article that appeared in our local newspaper. It traces the history of my Classic Rock band MACE … still alive and kicking! I'm posting this just to add a human interest angle to the site and give a bit of history on the webmaster:

The newly formed top-40 cover band hired to play its first gig Saturday, Oct. 3, 1981, at the Enderby Drill Hall, had a dilemma. Tickets were being printed and the band that would call itself MACE –– and do so, off and on, for the next 30 years –– didn’t have a name. “We had a rehearsal and we said ‘let’s each bring four or five band names and pick.’ I wanted Four on the Floor but Gary (bass player Moore) said ‘what about MACE?’” recalled Jackson Mace, the band’s co-founder. The top-40 cover band had been hired by the Enderby Merchants hockey club to play a dance to raise funds for the Terry Fox Run. “We had just enough songs to get by,” said Mace, who believes The Doobie Brothers’ Listen To The Music was the first song the band played. “A lot of people came up afterwards and said what a great band we were. We didn’t feel like a great band yet. We were a new band, and I hope a good band, but certainly not a great band.”
     Fast-forward 30 years, and three-quarters of that original MACE lineup –– Jackson Mace, lead vocals/guitar, Jeff Gamble, lead guitar/vocals, and Gary Moore, bass/vocals –– still have people up dancing and “listening to the music.” Joined now on drums by Don Redgwell, MACE is preparing to play their Halloween Howl dance at their new home base, the Elks Hall, Friday night. Sitting in a local pub after nine holes of golf, Mace, a retired elementary school teacher, reflected about the beginnings of the popular dance band. He had moved to Vernon in the summer of 1981 from Fraser Lake, 40 minutes west of Vanderhoof, in B.C.‘s central Interior, where he spent three years in his first job, teaching Grade 5 at Fraser Lake Elementary-Secondary School and coaching Grade 8 boys basketball. He had also played in a four-piece band, Tarkheena, named after the drummer’s Husky dog. The bass player was a high school student and both the drummer and other guitar player worked at the local Shop Easy grocery store. With no job yet with the Vernon school district, Mace rehearsed a solo act with his guitar and small amplifier in his room at the Tel-A-Frend Motel, “for something to fall back on in case I didn’t get a teaching job.” He also put an ad up on the wall of Terry Dyck’s Music Store in downtown Vernon: “Singer/guitar player looking for like-minded guys to form top-40 band.” Moore answered the ad. “He phoned and said it sounds like we could put something together,” said Mace. Moore and drummer Steve Johnstone were coming out of playing with another popular local group, Shakewood Annie, and Moore was certain he could recruit a man in Gamble who he called “the best guitar player in Vernon.”
“Gary called Jeff and he came to our next rehearsal,” said Mace. “I had about a half-dozen songs that I could sing and Gary had a few. It gelled pretty nicely. We realized we had three guys who could sing and Jeff was a terrific guitar player. It just seemed to work.”
     MACE would end up as regulars at The Green pub in the Village Green Hotel, playing six nights a week once a month or so in front of large crowds. They would play what is now Club 29/29, numerous dances for a variety of clubs and organizations, and were the original Funtastic band before the slo-pitch event became a huge tournament and music festival. The crowds were large and they loved dancing. Over the years they have played with or opened for marquis bands Chilliwack, Trooper, Jerry Doucette and Glass Tiger!
     In 1983, Mace left the band. “I had a job, a wife and I wanted to settle down. They wanted to give the road a shot,” said Mace. Life on the road didn’t work out and Moore and Gamble returned to the North Okanagan to form another successful band called OTC. Mace had settled down and, in life’s little twists of irony, moved in beside Redgwell, a drummer and fellow teacher. It was Redgwell who Mace edged out for his first teaching job in Vernon at Coldstream Elementary. “And he never lets me forget that,” laughed Mace. Redgwell and Mace talked music. Redgwell had played in a very popular group called Starship and had a guitar playing friend, Greg Woodbury, from California. So with Mace in tow, they formed a trio called The Labels, and they played parties and venues at Silver Star and Big White. OTC had broken up and, again, Mace received a phone call from Moore and Gamble about reviving MACE. Now involved with the Powerhouse Theatre on a regular basis, Mace would get back together off and on with his original band mates and new drummer Gordie Mitchell to play some gigs.
     In 2007, they reunited once more for a 40th birthday party for Paul Moore (Gary’s son). Paul had grown up with the band and sat in on some gigs playing saxophone. The day after the party, Gary was back on the phone to Mace. “Wanna get back together?” MACE played a reunion show at Sneakers Pub in the Village Green, their former unofficial home, which drew a crowd so large people had to walk sideways to get around. Redgwell joined MACE a couple of years ago and since then the popular North Okanagan foursome has revived the idea of the community dance at their new home, the Elks Hall.
     Besides the Halloween Howl this week, MACE will play several fundraising events and private functions throughout the year, including their new Winter Carnival event “Canucks Rock!” As they celebrate their 30-year anniversary this month, Mace takes a moment to ponder the band’s history and all of the times they stopped and started again. “It’s amazing to me that the three of us, and now Don, have gotten along as well as we have for all these years,” said Mace. “I can’t remember any significant fights or arguments. Bands often deal with egos but that’s never been a problem. It’s also been a blessing that our wives have always been super supporters of our band lives. “When everything’s clicking and the crowd is really into it, there’s no better feeling,” added Mace who with the band will perform an original song entitled Where I Belong, written in praise of living and playing music in the Okanagan. The title rings true whenever MACE plays and rocks the house!

by Roger Knox – Vernon Morning Star

THE BACKGROUND

Strangely enough, even though I've been playing Rock and Classic Rock live for the past 35 years, it's only in the past few months that Smoke on the Water has been added to our set list. The audience response has been amazing! And …. It's been a lot of fun to tell this story with the lead vocals. "Smoke on the Water" was first released on UK band Deep Purple's 1972 album Machine Head. In 2004, the song was ranked number 426 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest songs of all time, and in March 2005, Q magazine placed "Smoke on the Water" at number 12 in its list of the 100 greatest guitar tracks. "Smoke on the Water" is known for and recognizable by its central theme, a four-note "blues scale" melody harmonized in parallel fourths. The riff, played on a Fender Stratocaster electric guitar by Ritchie Blackmore, is later joined by hi-hat and distorted organ, then drums, then electric bass parts before the start of Ian Gillan's vocal.

Jon Lord doubles the guitar part on a Hammond C3 organ played through a distorted Marshall amp, creating a tone very similar to that of the guitar. Blackmore uses two fingers to pluck so the pairs of notes can be played exactly simultaneously, to match the organ's timing closer.

The song order is intro(riff)-verse-chorus-riff-verse-chorus-riff-guitar solo-riff-verse-chorus-riff-organ solo. The first solo is performed on guitar by Ritchie Blackmore, and the second and final solo is performed on an organ by Jon Lord until the song fades out.

THE STORY

The lyrics of the song tell a true story: on 4 December 1971 Deep Purple had set up camp in Montreux, Switzerland to record an album using a mobile recording studio (rented from the Rolling Stones and known as the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio—referred to as the "Rolling truck Stones thing" and "the mobile" in the song lyrics) at the entertainment complex that was part of the Montreux Casino (referred to as "the gambling house" in the song lyric). On the eve of the recording session a Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention concert was held in the casino's theatre. In the middle of Don Preston's synthesizer solo on "King Kong", the place suddenly caught fire when somebody in the audience fired a flare gun into the rattan covered ceiling, as mentioned in the "some stupid with a flare gun" line. The resulting fire destroyed the entire casino complex, along with all the Mothers' equipment. The "smoke on the water" that became the title of the song (credited to bass guitarist Roger Glover, who related how the title occurred to him when he suddenly woke from a dream a few days later) referred to the smoke from the fire spreading over Lake Geneva from the burning casino as the members of Deep Purple watched the fire from their hotel across the lake. The "Funky Claude" running in and out is referring to Claude Nobs, the director of the Montreux Jazz Festival who helped some of the audience escape the fire.

Left with an expensive mobile recording unit and no place to record, the band was forced to scout the town for another place to set up. One promising venue (found by Nobs) was a local theatre called The Pavilion, but soon after the band had loaded in and started working/recording, the nearby neighbours took offence at the noise, and the band was only able to lay down backing tracks for one song (based on Blackmore's riff and temporarily named Title n°1), before the local police shut them down.

Finally, after about a week of searching, the band rented the nearly-empty Montreux Grand Hotel and converted its hallways and stairwells into a makeshift recording studio, where they laid down most of the tracks for what would become their most commercially successful album, Machine Head.

Ironically, the only song from Machine Head not recorded in the Grand Hotel was "Smoke on the Water" itself, which had been recorded during the abortive Pavilion session. The lyrics of "Smoke on the Water" were composed later, and the vocals were recorded in the Grand Hotel.

The song is honoured in Montreux by a sculpture along the lake shore (right next to the statue of Queen frontman Freddie Mercury) with the band's name, the song title, and the riff in musical notes.

THE AFTERMATH

"Smoke on the Water" was included on Machine Head, which was released in early 1972, but was not released as a single until a year later, in May 1973. The band members have said that they did not expect the song to be a hit, but the single reached number 4 on the Billboard pop singles chart in the United States during the summer of 1973, number 2 on the Canadian RPM charts, and it propelled the album to the top 10. Live performance of the tune, featuring extended interplay between Blackmore's guitar and Jon Lord's Hammond organ would become a centerpiece of "Deep Purple's" live shows, and a version of the song from the live album Made in Japan became a minor hit on its own later on in 1973.

The principal song-writers included the song within their subsequent solo ventures after Deep Purple had split up. Ian Gillan in particular performed a jazz-influenced version in early solo concerts. The band Gillan adopted a feedback-soaked approach, courtesy of Gillan guitarist Bernie Torme. This song was also featured live by Ritchie Blackmore's post-"Deep Purple" band Rainbow during their tours 1981–83, and again after the Rainbow was resurrected briefly in the mid-1990s.

During Ian Gillan's stint with Black Sabbath in 1983, they performed "Smoke on the Water" as a regular repertoire number on encores during their only tour together. It remains one of the few cover songs that Black Sabbath has ever played live.

The song is popular among beginner guitarists, but Blackmore himself has demonstrated that most who attempt to play it do so improperly. Actually played using "all fourths" as specified by Blackmore (or double stops), a power chord-driven variation on the main recognizable riff is not difficult, and consequently it is constantly played by learners. If you check out my lesson ….. it will be taught Blackmore -style! So that's it ….. The Background, The Story and The Aftermath of a Rock Anthem! Now here's a nice live version from the year it was released.  ENJOY!

      Well … it's no secret that Layla was my choice for the opening to all my instructional videos. I can remember when I first heard that riff and was absolutely floored! Like nothing before its time, "Layla" is a song written by Eric Clapton and Jim Gordon, originally released by their blues-rock band, Derek and the Dominos, as the thirteenth track from their album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs (December 1970). It is considered one of rock music's definitive love songs, featuring an unmistakable guitar figure played by Eric Clapton and Duane Allman, and a piano coda that comprises the second half of the song. Its famously contrasting movements were composed separately by Clapton and Gordon. Inspired by Clapton's then unrequited love for Pattie Boyd, the wife of his friend and fellow musician George Harrison, "Layla" was unsuccessful on its initial release. The song has since experienced great critical and popular acclaim, and is often hailed as being among the greatest rock songs of all time. Two versions have achieved chart success, the first in 1972 and the second twenty years later as an acoustic "Unplugged" performance. In 2004 it was ranked #27 on Rolling Stone's list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time", and the acoustic version won the 1993 Grammy Award for Best Rock Song.

      In 1966 George Harrison married Pattie Boyd, a model he met during the filming of A Hard Day's Night. During the late 1960s, Clapton and Harrison became close friends. Clapton contributed uncredited guitar work on Harrison's song "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" on The Beatles' White Album, and Harrison co-wrote and played guitar pseudonymously (as L'Angelo Misterioso) on Cream's "Badge" from Goodbye. However, trouble was brewing for Clapton. Between his tenures in Cream and Blind Faith, in his words, "something else quite unexpected was happening: I was falling in love with Pattie." The title, "Layla", was inspired by The Story of Layla / Layla and Majnun (ليلى و مجنون), by the 12th-century Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi of the Ganja (present day Azerbaijan) Seljuq empire. It is based on the true story of a young man called Qays ibn al-Mulawwah (Arabic: قيس بن الملوح‎) from the northern Arabian Peninsula, in the Umayyad Caliphate during the 7th century. When he wrote "Layla", Clapton had been told the story by his friend Ian Dallas,[4] who was in the process of converting to Islam. Nizami's tale, about a moon princess who was married off by her father to someone other than the one who was desperately in love with her, resulting in Majnun's madness (A name, مجنون, which translates to "madman" in Arabic), struck a deep chord with Clapton.
      According to Boyd, Clapton played the song for her at a party, and later that same evening confessed to George that he was in love with his wife. The revelation caused no small upset among the three of them, but Pattie and George remained married for several more years, and Harrison and Clapton retained their close friendship with no apparent signs of damage. Boyd divorced Harrison in 1974 and married Clapton in 1979 during a concert stop in Tucson, Arizona. Harrison was not bitter about the divorce, and attended Clapton's wedding party with Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney. During their relationship, Clapton wrote another love ballad for Pattie called "Wonderful Tonight" (1977). Clapton and Boyd divorced in 1989 after several years of separation.

      After the breakup of Cream, Clapton tried his hand with several groups, including Blind Faith and the husband-and-wife duo Delaney and Bonnie. In the spring of 1970, he was told that Delaney and Bonnie's backup band, consisting of bassist Carl Radle, drummer Jim Gordon, and keyboardist Bobby Whitlock, was leaving the group. Seizing the opportunity, Clapton formed a new group, which became Derek and the Dominos. In mid- to late 1970, Duane Allman joined Clapton's fledgling band as a guest. Clapton and Allman, already mutual fans, were introduced at an Allman Brothers concert by Tom Dowd. The two hit it off well and soon became good friends. Dowd said of their guitar-playing chemistry: "There had to be some sort of telepathy going on because I've never seen spontaneous inspiration happen at that rate and level. One of them would play something, and the other reacted instantaneously. Never once did either of them have to say, 'Could you play that again, please?' It was like two hands in a glove. And they got tremendously off on playing with each other." Dowd was already famous for a variety of work, and had worked with Clapton in his Cream days (Clapton once called him "the ideal recording man"); his work on the album would be another achievement. For the making of his biographical film Tom Dowd and the Language of Music, he remixed the original master tapes of "Layla", saying "There are my principles, in one form or another."

      Clapton originally wrote "Layla" as a ballad, with lyrics describing his unrequited love for Pattie Boyd, but the song became a "rocker" when Allman reportedly helped to compose the song's signature riff.[9] With the band assembled and Dowd producing, "Layla" was recorded in its original form. The recording consisted of six guitar tracks: a rhythm track by Clapton, three tracks of harmonies played by Clapton against the main riff, a track of slide guitar by Allman, and one track with both Allman and Clapton playing duplicate solos. Shortly afterward, Clapton returned to the studio, where he heard Gordon playing a piano piece he had composed separately. Clapton, impressed by the piece, convinced Gordon to allow it to be used as part of the song. "Layla's" second movement was recorded roughly a week after the first, with Gordon playing his piano part, Clapton playing acoustic guitar and slide guitar, and Allman playing electric and bottleneck slide guitar. After Dowd spliced the two movements together, "Layla" was complete and will live on in rock immortality!

     Here are two vids for you …….  a nice live recording, followed by Eric's Grammy award winning unplugged version!

     Having two extraordinary talented songwriters working together, with yet another one following in their footsteps (George Harrison), gave the Beatles three times the musical power that most bands have. Most rock bands are lucky if they have one talented songwriter. Lennon/McCartney partnership stands for more than just a songwriting agreement. It represents a friendship, and a mutual bond that kept these two young artists working together for so many years. John and Paul balanced each other out, and kept each other in touch with reality. They were creative partners that leaned on each other for moral support, almost like marriage partners. When they went their separate ways, they both found new creative partners whom they both married (Yoko Ono and Linda Eastman). Lennon/McCartney became one of the most successful songwriting partnerships in pop music history. Together they wrote 209 official Beatle songs. As songwriters, they have the most number one hits in the history of the pop charts. George Martin commented, "Had John never met Paul, and vice versa, I firmly believe that neither of them would have turned out to be the great songwriters that they were. They would have been good, but not blisteringly great, as millions of us think they are. Each had a tremendous influence on the other, which neither of them consciously realized."

Some of my favorite Beatle songs never made it to a chart of any kind but, amazingly, here are the 27 Beatles songs that reached #1 in either the US or the UK (in many cases both).

01. “Love Me Do” – Mostly McCartney (Lennon wrote the bridge.)
02. “From Me to You” – Co-Written
03. “She Loves You” – Co-Written
04. “I Want to Hold Your Hand” – Co-Written
05. “Can’t Buy Me Love” – McCartney
06. “A Hard Day’s Night” – Lennon
07. “I Feel Fine” – Lennon
08. “Eight Days a Week” – Co-Written
09. “Ticket to Ride” – Mostly Lennon (McCartney claims co-written.)
10. “Help!” – Lennon
11. “Yesterday” – McCartney
12. “Day Tripper” – Co-Written
13. “We Can Work It Out” – Mostly McCartney (Lennon’s bridge.)
14. “Paperback Writer” – McCartney
15. “Yellow Submarine” – McCartney
16. “Eleanor Rigby” – McCartney
17. “Penny Lane” – McCartney
18. “All You Need Is Love” – Lennon
19. “Hello, Goodbye” – McCartney
20. “Lady Madonna” – McCartney
21. “Hey Jude” – McCartney
22. “Get Back” – McCartney
23. “The Ballad of John & Yoko” – Lennon
24. “Something” – Harrison
25. “Come Together” – Lennon
26. “Let It Be” – McCartney
27. “The Long and Winding Road” – McCartney

It may be a simplification, but I've always seen John as the dark, edgy writer and Paul as the "light". Together, they covered our emotional needs in a wonderful and quite complete way! Add an under-appreciated George to the mix and the results were sublime! Thanks guys!

     It has often been claimed that the The Peter, Paul & Mary classic Puff, the Magic Dragon is a loosely-coded song about marijuana. Even Ben Stiller's character Greg Focker helped perpetuate this notion. Well, Paul McCartney is still alive and Puff, the Magic Dragon is not about marijuana, or any other type of drug. It is what its writers have always claimed it to be: a song about the innocence of childhood lost.
      The poem that formed the basis of the song Puff, the Magic Dragon was written in 1959 by Leonard Lipton, a nineteen-year-old Cornell student. Lipton was inspired by an Ogden Nash rhyme about a "Really-O Truly-O Dragon," and, using a dragon as the central figure, he came up with a poem about the end of childhood innocence. Lipton passed his work along to a friend, fellow Cornell student (and folk music enthusiast) Peter Yarrow, who put a melody to the words and wrote additional lyrics to create the song Puff, the Magic Dragon. After Yarrow teamed up with Mary Travers and Paul Stookey in 1961 to form Peter, Paul & Mary, the trio performed the song in live shows; their 1962 recording of Puff reached #2 on the Billboard charts in early 1963.
      The 1960s being what they were, however, any song based on oblique or allegorical lyrics was subject to reinterpretation as a "drug song," and so it was with Puff. (For Peter, Paul & Mary, at least, the revelation that their song was "really" about marijuana came after the song had finished its chart run; other groups were not so fortunate, and accusations of "drug lyrics" caused some radio stations to ban songs such as the Byrds' Eight Miles High from their playlists.) Puff was an obvious name for a song about smoking pot; little Jackie Paper's surname referred to rolling papers; "autumn mist" was either clouds of marijuana smoke or a drug-induced state; the land of "Hanah Lee" was really the Hawaiian village of Hanalei, known for its particularly potent marijuana plants; and so on. As Peter Yarrow has demonstrated in countless concert performances, any song — even The Star-Spangled Banner — can be interpreted as a "drug song."
      If the sheer ridiculousness of this rumor isn't enough to convince the faithful that Puff, the Magic Dragon is not a drug song, here is what the people who created it have said about the matter:

Leonard Lipton (co-writer):  "Puff" is about loss of innocence, and having to face an adult world. It's surely not about drugs. I can tell you that at Cornell in 1959, no one smoked grass. I find the fact that people interpret it as a drug song annoying. It would be insidious to propagandize about drugs in a song for little kids.

In putting together this post, I have to admit …. I looked at a ton if Internet lists; The Top 100 Guitar Solos of All Time, Ten Best Guitar Solos Ever,  All Time Greatest Guitar Solos, etc, etc, etc. In the end, I've included some of those for sure. But this list is personal, as they all are, so I've also included a few that you may not recognize. Perhaps my criteria are different. Skill ….. of course. Speed …. not so much. Originality …. yes! Dynamics and feel …. you bet! I looked for solos that are well constructed and that are so unique and well-played that they have you eagerly waiting for the rest of the song to "move along" so that you can get to the "good" part. Also …. I did not rank them. This is subjective enough and there are so many not included. Why rank? So they are in no particular order. They are all just very very tasty! Each can stand alone as a crown jewel in the history of Classic Rock!

Here they are:

Hotel California – Don Felder/Joe Walsh

This one is on a LOT of lists. Composed with a great deal of originality and melodic as can be, with some gorgeous harmonies it builds to a wonderful climax before gently fading into the sunset!

LISTEN

Sultans of Swing – Mark Knoffler

A great demo solo for that crisp, characteristic Strat sound, Lots of technique and tricks. It builds to those unmistakable triplets. Knoffler excels with this style of play! In the days of vinyl, you'd pick up the stylus and advance it to the break.

LISTEN

My Old School – Jeff "Skunk" Baxter

Wow ….. when I first heard this solo, it was so original that it just blew me away …. the staggered phrasing and attack were fabulous! Cool harmonics and more. There are two parts so be sure to listen to both.

LISTEN

Stairway to Heaven – Jimmy Page

This is #1 on many lists and for a very good reason. The whole song has an "epic" feel …. artistically grand and so it needed a guitar solo to match. Jimmy Page delivered perhaps the most memorable collection of riffs and phrases ever. This solo soars!

LISTEN

Fallen Angel – Doug Macaskill

You probably won't know this one. Former Stampeders and Moxy guitarist Macaskill added his subtle stylings to a predominantly keyboard 80s band from Toronto … The Arrows. This is a really well-crafted guitar solo in a riches to rags story. It begins with a single note melody line and grows into an amazing piece!

LISTEN

Al Along The Watchtower – Jimi Hendrix

Hard not to include at least one of Jimi's songs. What really gets me about this solo is the variety within the work. He moves from one technique and soundscape to another seemlessly. When you listen from front to back, it's marvelous!

LISTEN

People Get Ready – Jeff Beck

I'm looking for a word here … perhaps it's ethereal. This is a haunting solo which is all about sounds. Sounds and technique. It seems like no one quite masters the subtle use of the whammy bar like Beck. He takes notes to new places. You can feel the spirituality in this work … as it should be!

LISTEN

Free Bird – Gary Rossington/Allen Collins

Way up on a lot of lists. Can you say energy? From the moment the tempo in the song changes, it indeed does "fly". So do the guitars. Speed is somewhat important in this one. Maybe the best shared solo ever. What an amazing sonic ride!

LISTEN

Everybody's Everything – Carlos Santana

I've mentioned that some solos build their intensity as they progress. Not this one! Carlos Santana soars the moment the break begins and from then on it is a showcase for his virtuosity. This song also features a great keyboard solo which precedes the guitar. Wonderful!

LISTEN

Forever Man – Eric Clapton

This is everything a rock solo should be. The song is uplifting and the guitar maintains and even elevates that feel. Eric Clapton has a distinguished catalog and this work is among his best!

LISTEN

Wild Thing is arguably the greatest three chord rock song ever written. But the story behind the song is interesting and entertaining …. and where does Jon Voight fit in? Let's find out!

The year is 1965. A young failed pro golfer/turned song-writer with the stage name Chip Taylor is contemplating a new country song and playing around with three chords. He is on the way to the studio for a recording session and in about 20 minutes hammers out an idea for lyrics and a basic chorus. Wild Thing is born! Chip Taylor is born James Voight … he is the younger brother of soon-to-be film star Jon Voight … future uncle to Angelina Jolie. The song is recorded in 1965 by a New York band; Jordan Christopher and The Wild Ones a house band for a posh discotheque run by Richard Burton's ex-wife Sybil. It flops! Not enough raw energy, sensuality and perhaps not enough emphasis on those simple but wonderful three chords.  Meanwhile across the pond, a young aspiring musician named Reginald Ball … later Reg Presley had forned a band called the Trogladytes. Larry Page was a budding record producer who had struck lucky with a band called the Ravens. He renamed them the Kinks, and played them "Louie Louie", after which Ray Davies came up with You Really Got Me. Following this success he got a call from someone who said they had a tape by a group now called "The Troggs" who sang You Really Got Me better than the Kinks. He listened to the tape and told them to come back in a year's time, which they did – to the day! And so the Troggs' first recording session began. Lost Girl b/w The Yella In Me was released on CBS. According to Reg Presley it got one play on Radio Luxembourg at 3 a.m.! Later, during a trip to New York, Larry Page heard the demo of Wild Thing by The Wild Ones, but according to Reg Presley, he wanted the Troggs to record it as a B side, reserving the A side for The Lovin' Spoonful's "Did You Ever Have To Make Up Your Mind" instead. The band however thought differently – all those harmonies on the Spoonful song just wasn't them. The Larry Page Orchestra had a session booked, and The Troggs were told to wait outside in the van in case there was any studio time left. They waited in their van until they got the signal. There was three quarters of an hour for them to get their equipment in, get a sound, get the songs recorded and get out again. Wild Thing and With A Girl Like You were both recorded in two takes, in ten minutes! And the rest … as they say … is Rock and Roll History!

The Song

This was written by an R&B singer named Richard Berry in 1955. With his group The Pharaohs, he was also the first to record it, and it got some airplay in some cities in the Western US when it was released in 1957. Various garage bands heard it and started covering the song, until it became a phenomena with the Kingsmen's 1964 version. While much of the song's notoriety comes from the indecipherable lyrics, in Berry's original version words are quite clear: the song is about a sailor who spends three days traveling to Jamaica to see his girl.

The Truth

"The words to Louie, Louie are almost impossible to understand, and are rumored to be obscene. No question that this added significantly to the sales of the single. There was probably a leak somewhere that the lyrics were obscene; otherwise no one would have realized it. This was the most ingenious marketing scheme ever. The FBI tried to track down Richard Berry, The Kingsmen, and various record company executives. They were never able to determine the actual lyrics used. To this day, the Kingsmen insist they said nothing lewd, despite the obvious mistake at the end of the instrumental, where Jack Ely started to sing the last verse one bar too soon, and can be heard yelling something in the background. Ely also said that he sung far away from the microphone, which caused the fuzzy sound, and that the notoriety was initiated by the record company. The words sound much more like the official version seen below, especially the word "rose" instead of "bone." The lyrics rumor was a sham.

The Actual Richard Berry Lyrics

CHORUS:

Louie Louie
Me gotta go
Louie Louie
Me gotta go

Fine little girl she waits for me
Me catch the ship across the sea
I sail the ship all alone
I never think I make it home

CHORUS

Three nights and days me sail the sea
Me think of girl, constantly
On that ship, me dream she there
I smell the rose in her hair.

CHORUS

Me see Jamaica, the moon above
It won't be long, me see me love
Me take her in me arms again
I Tell her I'll never leave again

CHORUS

The Actual Kingsmen Lyrics

CHORUS:

See (mistake) See Jamaica, the moon above
It won't be long, me see me love
Take her in my arms again
I Tell her I'll never leave again

Let's go on outa here huh
Let's go!!

Other "Louie" Trivia

Louie Louie was prominently featured in the film Animal House, starring John Belushi, despite the fact that it wasn't actually recorded until almost two years after the period of time in which the movie is set (1962).

It cost $50 to record. The Kingsmen went to the studio after a radio station executive in Portland saw them perform it live and suggested they record it.

The song  was the only Kingsmen song with lead vocals by Jack Ely. Before this became a hit, he quit when band leader Lynn Easton assumed vocals and ordered Ely to drums. When this became a hit, Easton would lip-sync to Ely's vocals on TV performances.

According to lead singer Jack Ely, the studio had a 19-foot ceiling with a microphone suspended from it. Ely claims that was the cause of the "garbled" lyrics, but Paul Revere and the Raiders recorded their version of "Louie Louie" in the same studio the day after the Kingsmen's session, and their partly ad-libbed lyrics are clearly heard.

Louie became a national hit when a disc jockey in Boston played it and declared that it was the worst song he ever heard. Ah …..what did he know?

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