Listen/Download - The Sonics perform Louie, Louie

• Posted by On The Flip-Side April 19, 2011 - 563 views

  

  Listen/Download here - The Sonics perform Louie, Louie.

   

   

  We love putting out rare, forgotten or hard to find music and letting you hear it. It's what we do. But today's SoTW may not fit into that category we've built for ourselves. In fact, the song, Louie, Louie, may be the most recognized rock song ever recorded. Ever. And anybody who has ever listened to more than two garage records or dared look into the history of punk rock will surely know about the Pacific Northwest Garage Gods that are The Sonics. But damn it, we are just lovingThe Sonics 1965 recording of the Pacific Northwest originated song Louie, Louie. So we need to give it some love.

   

  The Sonics -- Gerry Roslie, Andy Parypa, Larry Parypa, Rob Lind and Bob Bennet -- recordedLouie, Louie in 1965 at Wiley/Griffith Studios up in Seattle with producer Kearney Barton manning the controls. The song was recorded live with two tracks. One for the drums and one for the rest of the band. The Sonics change the song from it's familiar I-IV-V(minor) arrangement and instead give it a major chord I-III-IV arrangement. The change takes the bop out of the song and replaces it with a good old crunch. Gerry Roslie rips the vocals as hard as Larry Parypa rips the unrelenting barre chord progression on guitar. The result is truly a mind melt. Particularly when put into the context of 1965.

  The song was released as the Flip-Side to the band's stellar composition, Cinderella and would prove to be their last for Etiquette Records.