FBI Spent Years 'Researching' The Lyrics To 'Louie, Louie' Before Realizing The Copyright Office Must Have Them

Apparently, the government was being inundated with claims from people (some of which you can see in the file) insisting that they had heard the indecipherable lyrics were actually "obscene." If you want to see the supposedly "obscene" interpretation of the lyrics, there's one set on page 14 [pdf] of the document, though I warn you, even the falsely heard "obscene" lyrics are not particularly obscene by today's standards (and I'm at a loss as to how they're that obscene by the standards of 1963, frankly). On page 22, there's another, mostly different set of falsely heard "obscene" lyrics that at least includes the word "fuck." On page 35, yet another version with both "fuck" and "bitch."

There are also letters to Attorney General Robert Kennedy that include lines like "these morons have gone too far," and "This land of ours is headed for an extreme state of moral degradation what with this record, the biggest hit movies and the sex and violence exploited on T.V. How can we stamp out this menace? ? ? ?" Really.

There are lots of documents about the FBI playing the record, repeatedly, at different speeds, and all coming to the conclusion that you and I and everyone else already knows: the lyrics are basically indecipherable.

read the story by Mike Masnick​ >

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