February 1, 1964

On February 1, 1964, Indiana Governor Mathew Walsh tried to get the rock song by the Kingsmen, “Louie, Louie” banned for obscenity. He went so far as to ‘ban’ the song from the airwaves in Indiana. He claimed that just trying to listen to it caused his ears to ‘tingle’. Mrs. Walsh smirked and said he should put the radio closer to his crotch and give her something to be obscene about. The FBI was called and assigned the case of determining if “Louie, Louie” was actually obscene. After a four-month investigation, the FBI said that the lyrics ‘as sung’ were unintelligible at any speed, and therefore could not be called obscene. The morale to this story is, if you want a song to make a ton of money, write a snappy tune and sing a bunch of mumbled, garbled words to it and have a conservative politician try to ban it for obscenity. Works every time.

About Joel Byers

Born in North Georgia and educated at some very fine public institutions. Real education started after graduating from college and then getting married and raising two boys. Has the ability to see the funny and absurd in most things and will always remark on it, even if it means getting the stink-eye from his victims.
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