Trump has deployed roughly 35,000 federal troops within the United States this year, according to exclusive figures provided to The Intercept by official military sources. interc.pt/3IMxHV7
Outside of "Rock Around the Clock" and "Johnny B. Goode," I would be hard pressed to name a tune that had a greater influence on the history of rock and roll than this week's featured song. Hell, the Wikipedia entry for the song is longer than their write-up for the band...and I'm relatively sure that's an FNJ first.
The Kingsmen formed in 1959 (the year I was born--coincidence? I think not...) in Portland, Oregon and made their mark as a garage band in the Pacific Northwest. In 1962 the band heard a version of a song by Richard Berry called "Louie Louie" by Rockin' Robin Roberts while in a club and noticed the crowd's reaction was to dance their asses off. They learned the tune and later recorded it in the studio in April of 1963 (the band split the $50 fee--nice investment there, fellas!), and the rest, as they say, is history. Lead singer Jack Ely left the band before they even released their first album (his only vocal and instrumentation with the group was "Louie Louie"), but the Kingsmen have been together now (in about a billion different incarnations) for sixty years now. They have released twelve albums (the last in 1994), five of which hit the Billboard 200, 19 singles, 7 of which hit the Billboard Hot 100, and have released a whopping 20 compilations, which doesn't even include various artist collections. Amazing what a seminal single can do for your career options....
"Louie Louie" was released as a single in 1963, and the band would capitalize on its success by adding it to their debut album, The Kingsmen in Person,that same year. The single would go on to reach #2 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100, and would go on to be inducted into the Rock and Roll of Fame's Hall of Fame Singles, the Grammy Hall of Fame, and be a song of the century/all-time on numerous poll lists including NPR, Rolling Stone, and NME.
Fun Fact: While the exact number is unknown, it is estimated that there are over 1500 cover versions of "Louie Louie." Now that's influence.
Yeah, I'm going to write a paean to "Louie Louie"--much better writers than I have devoted entire books to it, let alone a paragraph. So much of the song's early appeal was the rumors that the song was obscene (many radio stations refused to play the song, it was banned in Indiana by its governor, and the FBI spent 31 months investigating it for obscenity only to conclude its lyrics were unintelligible), and Jack Ely's vocals sound slurred (in truth, Ely was a) wearing braces, and b) while recording was placed in the middle of his band mates and had to stand on his tiptoes and scream into the mike to be heard above the instruments). In reality, discovered many years later than it should have been, the song is quite tame--a sailor is telling a bartender that he's more than ready to get back to sea so he can get home to his lady love. It's doubtful in the internet age that a song today could ever have the mystique that "Louie Louie" did (we could google it and have the lyrics in a matter of seconds), but a testament to its utter greatness is that even though we now know the truth, the song remains an anthem in a league of its very own.
Fun Fact #2: The song does have an obscenity in it--if you listen carefully around the 0:55 mark, the drummer screams "Fuck!" because he dropped a drumstick as they were recording.
Lyric Sheet: "A fine little girl, she waits for me/Me catch a ship across the sea/Me sail that ship all alone/Me never thinks how I'll make it home..." (Come on, admit it: you had absolutely no idea that was the lyrics to the first verse...)
This week's tune is part of what I had in mind when I started Friday Night Jukebox--a chance to feature songs that weren't hit singles, or may have been overlooked on albums both best selling and those that reached a smaller audience. And let's face it: as most albums only have a couple of hit singles (if that), we music fans spend an awful lot of time listening to and enjoying songs that no one (be it the artist or the record company or the producer, et al) thought had much of a chance at commercial success.
While The Decemberists (another in a long line of artists introduced to me by my daughter, via their song "July, July!") have been around for just north of sixteen years they are still comparatively new to many of the previous bands featured here. Named for an 1825 civilian insurrection in Russia, the Decemberists formed in 2000 and have been going strong since. They've released seven studio albums, 9 EPs, had a #1 album, earned a Grammy nomination, and have quite the reputation as live peformers, most notably for their stage show encores which act out historical events (usually with local roots) or the songs themselves, all with audience participation. They also get bonus points for being early supporters of one Barack Obama, who we miss as President more and more with each passing day.
Fun Fact: In 2004. the Decemberists released an EP called The Tain, which was an eighteen minute song divided into five parts which was loosely influenced by an Irish epic, Tain Bo Cualinge. Near as I can tell the Irish prose work had something to do with the stealing of cows, which may help to explain why there isn't much of an audience for epic mythology anymore. While definitely worth a listen, it's also not a song you want to listen to when you're in your happy place....
Released on their The King Is Dead(the title is said to be an homage to The Smiths' The Queen is Dead) LP in 2011, "June Hymn" is about the beauty of Mother Nature on an early summer day in the small town town of Springville Hill. It's a portrait of the little things--ivy growing, thrushes and wrens singing, the surprise and wonder of seeing a cardinal--all with an underlying question of whether the hymn is for the day or for a special someone (or both) who may (or may not) be in an emotionally stable place. It's as peaceful of a song as I can ever remember hearing--the lyrics are really stunning for a pop song in the way it captures the natural surroundings and beauty of individual moments, especially in reminding you of summer day in June. The music is, like the song, simple: a guitar, a harmonica (emaycee fave!), and a lightly strummed cello (I think). In the end it's a paean to the beauty of a simple world that isn't always so simple...and it gets extra props for being the only song I know of that uses the word "panoply"...
Lyric Sheet: "And you were waking/And day was breaking/A panoply of song/And summer comes to Springville Hill..."
The average American gets paid just enough so he doesn't quit his job, and works just hard enough so he doesn't get fired.
"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross." Source unknown
Uncle emaycee Wants You For the Coming Class War! Enlist today....
Capitalism: Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you can exploit his labor, become filthy rich, and keep the poor bastard living paycheck to paycheck for the rest of his life.
