The 69 New York Woodstock Experience
Woodstock was the third largest city in New York for three days. Strength came in numbers and in the common experience of 500,000 freaks and potential freaks. The new family. Prisoner on the planet earth, begins to grow and gain strength
Max Yasgur's 600 acre dairyfarm is a varied landscape of hills, woods, corn fields and lakes. It was this beautiful country that set the tone for Woodstock. For days before the first band played people started arriving at the farm to set up their camps among the trees and on the hillsides overlooking the music area. The 80 ft. stage was still being built and the fences had hardly been started. It was real country and for those smart enough not to have bought a ticket, it was free
By Friday, the official opening of the "Aquarian Exposition", thousands more than expected had arrived and the media was beaming out a disaster story: thousands of hippies invade Bethel; food and water shortage threatens crowd of 300,000; rain, mud and bad acid create health hazard at Rock Festival
Friday was a bad day. The local Bethel market sold out of every item in the store except for a solitary cup of Gefillte fish. Water wells dug for the occasion started pumping mud. Water trucks couldn't get through the jam on 17-B. Helicopters started the process of moving in food, medical supplies and serving as ambulances and transportation for performers
The various dope freaks, college students, etc. that made up the 500,000 who "invaded" Bethel spent three days learning to share, relax and face the elements together. Food and dope was passed around freely, there wasn't a fight or even disagreement and people crammed themselves shoulder to shoulder to listen to the music. When the rains came Sunday, people danced in the downpour or crowded together under plastic sheets or played football in the mud or joined in chants of "Ah Shit" and "Fuck the Rain." This was a real sign of the different culture and everyone felt it
The media started picking up the good vibes from Woodstock by the second day they couldn't ignore them. By Sunday stories about the festival of peace and cooperation were churning out of TV, radio and newspaper offices. The articles were like those early articles on Haight Street; full of polite adjectives, vivid contrasts and that journalistic distance we have all come to understand and hate. It was as if the media were watching a new breed of animal at the zoo and reacting with surprise at how gentle the animals were
A new lesson in crowd control was learned by the cops. With white kids not yet completely outside the culture, as many black people are, maybe it was best to cool it on the guns and stocks. At Woodstock, the cops wore bright red jackets with the words love and peace, and a dove printed on them. It was the Age of Aquarian burn in its full glory: cops giving V signs as they quietly took people away. Form without content, the symbols of revolution without change
Woodstock ’69 featured one of the most prolific musical lineups in history including such icons as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Joe Cocker, Santana, and The Who. Fans got a taste of a variety of music styles which came together in perfect harmony. The crowd at Woodstock in 1969, which reached near a half a million people sent a message to the world that individuals could come together peacefully to celebrate peace and music
The music at Woodstock in 1969 embodied extraordinary popular acts from all over the world. Legendary performances by such music icons as Jimi Hendrix, Joan Baez, Joe Cocker, Santana, the Grateful Dead and Janis Joplin are still considered landmarks in music history. Woodstock in 1969 was also among the last performances of Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin who are seen as some of the best in their respective fields. The entire psychedelic music vein became popularized at Woodstock 69 and still influences bands of all ages to this day
Reasons some music stars turned doen the woodstock event belowMbr> Jethro Tull passed on the event after Ian Anderson was quoted as saying that he “didn’t want to spend [his] weekend in a field of unwashed hippies”. Another theory is the belief that the large festival may have killed their career before it began
Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, according to the Class of the 20th Century U.S. television special, is quoted as saying “A lot of mud at Woodstock…We were invited to play there, we turned it down
Tommy James and the Shondells declined the invitation, Tommy James would later say “We could have just kicked ourselves. We were in Hawaii, and my secretary called and said, ‘Yeah, listen, there’s this pig farmer in upstate New York that wants you to play in his field.’ That’ s how it was put to me. So we passed.”
Free was asked to perform and declined with reason unknown
Spirit declined and instead launched a promotional tour
Tom jones declined because manager fordon mills dusliked the ideal
Mind Garage declined because they thought the festival would be no huge deal and they had a higher paying gig elsewhere
The Jeff Beck Group were booked to perform at An Aquarian Exposition, but broke up a week before the festival
Joni Mitchell was recommended by her agent to appear on the Dick Cavett show rather than at the Woodstock festival
Iron Butterfly ended up stranded at the airport and were kindly told where to stick it when they demanded helicopters and other special arrangements to aid them in attending the concert
Lighthouse the Canadian band was booked to play, but backed out for fear that Woodstock would be a bad scene
The Moody Blues were included on the original Wallkill poster as performers, but decided to back out after being booked in Paris the same weekend
Procol Harum were invited but declined because the festival was happening at the end of a long tour and the impending birth of band member Robin Trower’s child
Bob Dylan was in the middle of negotiations for the upcoming festival but backed out when his son fell ill
The Doors sat the Woodstock festival out with speculation pointing to Jim Morrison’s dislike of performing outdoors
Led Zeppelin was asked to perform, but manager Peter Grant decided that they would be just another band at the festival and launched a hugely successful summer tour
The Beatles promoters contacted John Lennon to discuss a Beatles performance at Woodstock. Lennon said that the Beatles would not play unless there was also a spot at the festival for Yoko Ono’s Plastic Ono Band. He was turned down
Woodstock was the third largest city in New York for three days. Strength came in numbers and in the common experience of 500,000 freaks and potential freaks. The new family. Prisoner on the planet earth, begins to grow and gain strength
Max Yasgur's 600 acre dairyfarm is a varied landscape of hills, woods, corn fields and lakes. It was this beautiful country that set the tone for Woodstock. For days before the first band played people started arriving at the farm to set up their camps among the trees and on the hillsides overlooking the music area. The 80 ft. stage was still being built and the fences had hardly been started. It was real country and for those smart enough not to have bought a ticket, it was free
By Friday, the official opening of the "Aquarian Exposition", thousands more than expected had arrived and the media was beaming out a disaster story: thousands of hippies invade Bethel; food and water shortage threatens crowd of 300,000; rain, mud and bad acid create health hazard at Rock Festival
Friday was a bad day. The local Bethel market sold out of every item in the store except for a solitary cup of Gefillte fish. Water wells dug for the occasion started pumping mud. Water trucks couldn't get through the jam on 17-B. Helicopters started the process of moving in food, medical supplies and serving as ambulances and transportation for performers
The various dope freaks, college students, etc. that made up the 500,000 who "invaded" Bethel spent three days learning to share, relax and face the elements together. Food and dope was passed around freely, there wasn't a fight or even disagreement and people crammed themselves shoulder to shoulder to listen to the music. When the rains came Sunday, people danced in the downpour or crowded together under plastic sheets or played football in the mud or joined in chants of "Ah Shit" and "Fuck the Rain." This was a real sign of the different culture and everyone felt it
The media started picking up the good vibes from Woodstock by the second day they couldn't ignore them. By Sunday stories about the festival of peace and cooperation were churning out of TV, radio and newspaper offices. The articles were like those early articles on Haight Street; full of polite adjectives, vivid contrasts and that journalistic distance we have all come to understand and hate. It was as if the media were watching a new breed of animal at the zoo and reacting with surprise at how gentle the animals were
A new lesson in crowd control was learned by the cops. With white kids not yet completely outside the culture, as many black people are, maybe it was best to cool it on the guns and stocks. At Woodstock, the cops wore bright red jackets with the words love and peace, and a dove printed on them. It was the Age of Aquarian burn in its full glory: cops giving V signs as they quietly took people away. Form without content, the symbols of revolution without change
Woodstock ’69 featured one of the most prolific musical lineups in history including such icons as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Joe Cocker, Santana, and The Who. Fans got a taste of a variety of music styles which came together in perfect harmony. The crowd at Woodstock in 1969, which reached near a half a million people sent a message to the world that individuals could come together peacefully to celebrate peace and music
The music at Woodstock in 1969 embodied extraordinary popular acts from all over the world. Legendary performances by such music icons as Jimi Hendrix, Joan Baez, Joe Cocker, Santana, the Grateful Dead and Janis Joplin are still considered landmarks in music history. Woodstock in 1969 was also among the last performances of Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin who are seen as some of the best in their respective fields. The entire psychedelic music vein became popularized at Woodstock 69 and still influences bands of all ages to this day
Reasons some music stars turned doen the woodstock event belowMbr> Jethro Tull passed on the event after Ian Anderson was quoted as saying that he “didn’t want to spend [his] weekend in a field of unwashed hippies”. Another theory is the belief that the large festival may have killed their career before it began
Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, according to the Class of the 20th Century U.S. television special, is quoted as saying “A lot of mud at Woodstock…We were invited to play there, we turned it down
Tommy James and the Shondells declined the invitation, Tommy James would later say “We could have just kicked ourselves. We were in Hawaii, and my secretary called and said, ‘Yeah, listen, there’s this pig farmer in upstate New York that wants you to play in his field.’ That’ s how it was put to me. So we passed.”
Free was asked to perform and declined with reason unknown
Spirit declined and instead launched a promotional tour
Tom jones declined because manager fordon mills dusliked the ideal
Mind Garage declined because they thought the festival would be no huge deal and they had a higher paying gig elsewhere
The Jeff Beck Group were booked to perform at An Aquarian Exposition, but broke up a week before the festival
Joni Mitchell was recommended by her agent to appear on the Dick Cavett show rather than at the Woodstock festival
Iron Butterfly ended up stranded at the airport and were kindly told where to stick it when they demanded helicopters and other special arrangements to aid them in attending the concert
Lighthouse the Canadian band was booked to play, but backed out for fear that Woodstock would be a bad scene
The Moody Blues were included on the original Wallkill poster as performers, but decided to back out after being booked in Paris the same weekend
Procol Harum were invited but declined because the festival was happening at the end of a long tour and the impending birth of band member Robin Trower’s child
Bob Dylan was in the middle of negotiations for the upcoming festival but backed out when his son fell ill
The Doors sat the Woodstock festival out with speculation pointing to Jim Morrison’s dislike of performing outdoors
Led Zeppelin was asked to perform, but manager Peter Grant decided that they would be just another band at the festival and launched a hugely successful summer tour
The Beatles promoters contacted John Lennon to discuss a Beatles performance at Woodstock. Lennon said that the Beatles would not play unless there was also a spot at the festival for Yoko Ono’s Plastic Ono Band. He was turned down
Tom Jones And Engelbert Humperdinck Bad Blood Fued
They have been sworn enemies for more than 20 years after reportedly feuding over who is the most successful singer
The fall-out had been blamed on a professional rivalry sparked early in their careers as they competed for the No 1 spot with songs such as Green Green Grass Of Home and Release Me
But the rivalry between Sir Tom Jones and Engelbert Humperdinck may have been sparked by a far more old-fashioned reason – jealousy over a girl
Jones, 75, spoke of the bad blood with 79-year-old Humperdinck last week as he promoted his autobiography
Asked if the pair would ‘ever patch things up,’ the Welsh-born singer replied: ‘No. It’s as I say, once a c***, always a c***.’
charlotte Laws a former girlfriend of Jones said she believed the feud had erupted after Humperdinck tried to seduce her
Californian entrepreneur Charlotte Laws, who had a three-year affair with Jones from 1979, said she met ‘Enge’ when he was performing in Las Vegas, across the street from where Jones was in concert
‘I’d been with Tom a year or two when I happened to be walking through the MGM and I was approached by members of Enge’s entourage. I was told he wanted to speak to me in private. It was no secret I was with Tom
Charlotte web said she was invited into engelberts dressing room where he then stood up and told her he had a problem before dropping his pants in front of her
Charlotte laughed off the silly notion and left engelberts dressing room and later broke the news to tom whom spent hours saying nothing
their were many rumors through the years including being on the same record label parott while under producer gordon mills leadership
Engelbert was rumored to have said in the 70s how he was still selling records while toms career was finished
Oddly enough engelbert in 1976 had a huge hit "After the lovin" and tom jones a year later had similar success with "Say youll stay until tomorrow
Both were sex symbols that wore side burns and had early success in their careers but the fued if charlotte laws spoken words were true is where it got much worse
Toms romantic fling with charlotte in the 70s was never in question
Through out their careers both singers have sung one anothers songs which proved very little difference in styles
Humperdink responded on toms remark, "To be honest, I feel sorry for Tom always being in a bad mood. Life is too short to hold anger inside. I wish him luck." Engelbert went on to say that he has put the outburst behind him as he prepared for his latest tour of Australia
They have been sworn enemies for more than 20 years after reportedly feuding over who is the most successful singer
The fall-out had been blamed on a professional rivalry sparked early in their careers as they competed for the No 1 spot with songs such as Green Green Grass Of Home and Release Me
But the rivalry between Sir Tom Jones and Engelbert Humperdinck may have been sparked by a far more old-fashioned reason – jealousy over a girl
Jones, 75, spoke of the bad blood with 79-year-old Humperdinck last week as he promoted his autobiography
Asked if the pair would ‘ever patch things up,’ the Welsh-born singer replied: ‘No. It’s as I say, once a c***, always a c***.’
charlotte Laws a former girlfriend of Jones said she believed the feud had erupted after Humperdinck tried to seduce her
Californian entrepreneur Charlotte Laws, who had a three-year affair with Jones from 1979, said she met ‘Enge’ when he was performing in Las Vegas, across the street from where Jones was in concert
‘I’d been with Tom a year or two when I happened to be walking through the MGM and I was approached by members of Enge’s entourage. I was told he wanted to speak to me in private. It was no secret I was with Tom
Charlotte web said she was invited into engelberts dressing room where he then stood up and told her he had a problem before dropping his pants in front of her
Charlotte laughed off the silly notion and left engelberts dressing room and later broke the news to tom whom spent hours saying nothing
their were many rumors through the years including being on the same record label parott while under producer gordon mills leadership
Engelbert was rumored to have said in the 70s how he was still selling records while toms career was finished
Oddly enough engelbert in 1976 had a huge hit "After the lovin" and tom jones a year later had similar success with "Say youll stay until tomorrow
Both were sex symbols that wore side burns and had early success in their careers but the fued if charlotte laws spoken words were true is where it got much worse
Toms romantic fling with charlotte in the 70s was never in question
Through out their careers both singers have sung one anothers songs which proved very little difference in styles
Humperdink responded on toms remark, "To be honest, I feel sorry for Tom always being in a bad mood. Life is too short to hold anger inside. I wish him luck." Engelbert went on to say that he has put the outburst behind him as he prepared for his latest tour of Australia
20 0f The Most Drugged Out Rock Stars Ever
Rolling Stones guitarist, Keith Richards, who has frequently made music magazines’ top ten musicians most likely to die, is not ready to dance with Mr. D quite yet. He has spent time with sister morphine, her brother heroin, cousin cocaine and the rest of the family, all while creating a fifty year rock dynasty with partner in crime, Mick Jagger and Despite a life lived as the poster child for rock-n-roll excess, he never overdosed, for which he attributes only using “high quality drugs” as the reason
The eccentric lead singer for The Doors, Jim Morrison had a gift for poetically sparking riots amongst his audience. As a result, he was targeted by the U.S. government, placed on a watch list, and subjected to music censorship,a known non stop drug user he was arrested on stage at another concert for indecent exposure after encouraging his audience to get naked, as he took off his clothes. He turned down a plea bargain from the Miami Police Department, refusing to do a free concert in exchange for having the charges dropped and On July 3, 1971 his body was found in the bathtub of his apartment in Paris, and although he was only 27-years-old, the cause of death was ruled as “natural causes” and no autopsy was done. Thirty years later, the manager of a nightclub came forth with the details of the fatal night. He claimed that Jim had actually overdosed on heroin in the bathroom of the club. Then the two dealers, who sold Jim the drugs, took Morrison’s body and dumped it in his bathtub
Ozzy Osbourne has barked at the moon and taken us all on a crazy train with his music and wild antics. He is notoriously known for biting the head off a bat during a concert. After urinating on the Alamo, he was banned from San Antonio, Texas for a decade, In 1984 during the Bark at the Moon tour, Mötley Crüe was his opening act. The tour is known as one of the craziest, drug and alcohol fuelled tours in the history of rock-n-roll. He and Nikki Sixx, drummer for Mötley Crüe, kept an ongoing gross-out showdown, One of the most disgusting moments happened right after Sixx snorted a huge line of cocaine, and told Ozzy to “beat that”. Ozzy bent down and snorted a line of ants, stood up, peed on the remaining ants, and then proceeded to lick the urine. Not wanting to be outdone, Nikki also peed on the sidewalk, but before he could bend down, Ozzy beat him to the slurp
Kurt was the lead singer of Nirvana, a band attributed to making grunge music popular in the ‘90’s. He would complain in interviews about not being prepared for the pressure of being famous, used drugs to cope with life, In 1994 his body was found in his apartment by an electrician. He had injected himself with a large mixture of heroin and Valium, and then shot himself in the head
Hendrix is a legendary guitar player, who is credited with pioneering the explosive abilities of the electric guitar, was the first musician to make the electric guitar “scream”, famous for his LSD inspired psychedelic rock, at Woodstock Hendrix performed his famous renegade version of “The Star Spangled Banner, jimmy would later die a mere sixteen days before Janis Joplin from asphyxiating on his own vomit after overdosing on heroin
Joplin was the lead singer of Big Brother and the Holding Company, Full Tilt Boogie, and had a successful solo career. Her love of Southern Comfort gave her the whiskey voice sound for which she was famous. Although whiskey was her drug of choice, she eventually got mixed up in other drugs, such as heroin and cocaine. One night at a party in San Francisco, she got into an argument with Jim Morrison and broke a bottle over his head, On October 4, 1970, Janis joined the 27 Club by overdosing on whiskey and heroin. She died within sixteen days of Jimi Hendrix, and ten months of Jim Morrison. In her will, she funded a $1500 “wake party” in the event of her demise
John Lennon, founder of the Beatles, was a musical genius, activist and lover of all things fun. The band’s drug use was well-known. While playing in Hamburg, Germany, they would do amphetamines to play at the all-night clubs. Bob Dylan would later introduce them to marijuana at a Grammy’s party. However, their first experience with LSD was at a dinner party thrown by their dentist. It was served with their tea,In 1966 his statement that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus caused the most controversy. After the statement, some states in the U.S. burned Beatles’ albums, cancelled their concerts and banned their songs from radio stations,he was shot outside his apartment in 1980 by a fan, who was still angry over the Jesus comment
Dylan is an American song writer, who can play any instrument. During his hey-day he wasn’t picky when it came to his drugs. He tried it all, amphetamines, marijuana, LSD, cocaine, alcohol, and especially heroin. In a 1966 documentary named Eat the Document Dylan can be seen riding around in a taxi with John Lennon having a drug hazed conversation. Lennon would later report to Rolling Stone Magazine that they had been snorting heroin all day, and Dylan almost overdosed a few times
Drummer for The Who, Keith Moon was more into alcohol than hard drugs. He gained the nickname “Moon the Loon” for his fascination with blowing up toilets with cherry bombs and M-80’s. He didn’t stop with toilets though. He trashed so many rooms; the band was forced to stay in neighboring towns when doing concerts after being banned from several hotels. The most infamous incident happened at a Holiday Inn when he drove his Bentley into the swimming pool. During one concert he passed out on stage so many times the band had to get a random drummer from the audience to finish the concert. Moon eventually died at the age of 32 from overdosing on a prescription drug designed to combat alcoholism
The founder of The Stooges, Iggy Pop is called the godfather of punk rock. His performances were influenced by none other than Jim Morrison. To live up to Morrison’s hubris, Iggy would undress on stage. He was also the first performer to do a stage dive. When the band wasn’t committing lewd and lascivious acts on stage, they were hanging out at a home they named “the fun house”. After they shot up with heroine, they would squirt blood left in the syringe onto the walls, creating gory Jackson Pollock-ish art
Before he became “Sir” Elton John, the lavishly dressed singer and piano man was all about the good times to be had. He was the poster child for Studio 54, and all of its “benefits”. He never met a drug he wouldn’t try, but loved cocaine. He admits to having epileptic seizures, passing out for a half hour, then waking up and snorting more coke. On one occasion, he invited his family from England to a huge party he was throwing in Hollywood. After consuming quite a bit of cocaine mixed with Valium, he yelled, “I’m going to die!” as he jumped from the hotel balcony into the swimming pool. His grandmother, clearly accustomed to Elton’s antics, reportedly replied, “I guess we’ll have to go home now"
The androgynous Brit david bowie, who has been a musical fixture for decades, has seen and done it all, including Mick Jagger, (allegedly). The story goes that Angie Bowie, then wife of David, walked in on the two naked in bed together. Afterward, Mick wrote the song “Angie” as an apology for banging her husband. Decades after the divorce, and her gag order had been lifted; she confirmed finding them in bed together, naked. She felt certain, at the time, that they had been making the beast with two backs. However, looking back she now feels that they were probably just coked-up, sweaty and talking. (Ok, Angie, we’ll play your silly little game.) David did have the nickname “old vacuum nose”. He also at one point snuck drugs into a psychiatric hospital for Iggy Pop, because he figured Iggy probably had gone without for too many days
The lead man for the Rolling Stones, Mick Jagger, has been rocking for over fifty years. Mick said, “You start playing rock and roll to have sex and do drugs. Then you start doing drugs, so you can have sex and play rock and roll”. He also said that it’s good manners to trash the hotel room early so you don’t wake up the other guests
First of all, he sang a song named “Cocaine”, that should be a clue that Eric Clapton has probably done a drug or ten. The Beatles were also very good friends of his, and he collaborated on a few songs with them. Clapton has admitted that, at his worst, he was spending $16,000 a week on heroin. He did an entire show lying down, and no one said anything about it. Of course, the audience was also so messed up they probably thought they were seeing sideways
Beyond the gross-showdown with Ozzy Osbourne, bass player for Mötley Crüe, Nikki Sixx led the ultimate rock-n-roll life. His love of drugs has caused him to overdose several times. On one occasion after overdosing on heroin, he was pronounced dead for two minutes in an ambulance. Luckily for him, the EMT was a huge fan, and continued working until he started Nikki’s heart. After waking in the hospital, Nikki ripped out all of the tubes and wires, and went home to do more drugs. The incident inspired the song “Jumpstart my Heart”. On a more romantic note, one Valentine’s night he overdosed at his dealer’s house. After the dealer couldn’t revive him by shoving ice down his pants or beating him to a pulp with a baseball bat, he dumped Nikki in a dumpster and left him for dead. Fortunately, Nikki’s craving for smack reached beyond the grave, and Nikki was able to crawl out to go do more drugs
Elvis began taking amphetamine pills to keep up with his nonstop touring. It wasn’t uncommon for musicians during that time to do a show, load up in a car, drive themselves to the next town, and barely have enough time to get ready for the next show. After his divorce, Elvis began doing more drugs, overdosing twice. During the first concert of his comeback tour he was so high he was slurring, couldn’t remember the words to his songs, and staggered all over the stage. He felt so threatened by the popularity of the Beatles; he tried to have them banned from the U.S. His third overdose would be the one that caused Elvis to permanently leave the building. He was pronounced dead on arrival from taking a lethal mixture of Valium, Demerol, codeine, and morphine
Led Zeppelin drummer, John Bonham, may have stuck to alcohol, but that didn’t stop his outrageous behavior. While staying at the Edgewater Hotel in Seattle, Washington, Bonham and manager, Richard Cole, stayed up all night catching fish off the balcony. They filled the room with various types of fish, including several mud sharks. After the concert, an overzealous redheaded groupie announced her penchant for being tied up during sex. Bonham and Cole proceeded to stick fish in various orifices of the bound girl, while saying things like “I’m putting a red snapper in your red snapper”. Later the incident would be immortalized by Frank Zappa’s song “Mud Shark”,Bonham didn’t limit his alcoholic behavior to unsuspecting groupies. While attending a party he found Beatles drummer, Ringo Starr passed out, and shaved his head and eyebrows. At the age of 32, Bonham died by asphyxiating on his own vomit after doing 40 shots of vodka
Stevie Nicks' $1million cocaine habit, fueled by her wild affair with married Mick Fleetwood, burned a hole in her nose so big she took the drug through her private parts,Tom Petty would frequently urge her to get help for her addiction
Rolling Stones guitarist, Keith Richards, who has frequently made music magazines’ top ten musicians most likely to die, is not ready to dance with Mr. D quite yet. He has spent time with sister morphine, her brother heroin, cousin cocaine and the rest of the family, all while creating a fifty year rock dynasty with partner in crime, Mick Jagger and Despite a life lived as the poster child for rock-n-roll excess, he never overdosed, for which he attributes only using “high quality drugs” as the reason
The eccentric lead singer for The Doors, Jim Morrison had a gift for poetically sparking riots amongst his audience. As a result, he was targeted by the U.S. government, placed on a watch list, and subjected to music censorship,a known non stop drug user he was arrested on stage at another concert for indecent exposure after encouraging his audience to get naked, as he took off his clothes. He turned down a plea bargain from the Miami Police Department, refusing to do a free concert in exchange for having the charges dropped and On July 3, 1971 his body was found in the bathtub of his apartment in Paris, and although he was only 27-years-old, the cause of death was ruled as “natural causes” and no autopsy was done. Thirty years later, the manager of a nightclub came forth with the details of the fatal night. He claimed that Jim had actually overdosed on heroin in the bathroom of the club. Then the two dealers, who sold Jim the drugs, took Morrison’s body and dumped it in his bathtub
Ozzy Osbourne has barked at the moon and taken us all on a crazy train with his music and wild antics. He is notoriously known for biting the head off a bat during a concert. After urinating on the Alamo, he was banned from San Antonio, Texas for a decade, In 1984 during the Bark at the Moon tour, Mötley Crüe was his opening act. The tour is known as one of the craziest, drug and alcohol fuelled tours in the history of rock-n-roll. He and Nikki Sixx, drummer for Mötley Crüe, kept an ongoing gross-out showdown, One of the most disgusting moments happened right after Sixx snorted a huge line of cocaine, and told Ozzy to “beat that”. Ozzy bent down and snorted a line of ants, stood up, peed on the remaining ants, and then proceeded to lick the urine. Not wanting to be outdone, Nikki also peed on the sidewalk, but before he could bend down, Ozzy beat him to the slurp
Kurt was the lead singer of Nirvana, a band attributed to making grunge music popular in the ‘90’s. He would complain in interviews about not being prepared for the pressure of being famous, used drugs to cope with life, In 1994 his body was found in his apartment by an electrician. He had injected himself with a large mixture of heroin and Valium, and then shot himself in the head
Hendrix is a legendary guitar player, who is credited with pioneering the explosive abilities of the electric guitar, was the first musician to make the electric guitar “scream”, famous for his LSD inspired psychedelic rock, at Woodstock Hendrix performed his famous renegade version of “The Star Spangled Banner, jimmy would later die a mere sixteen days before Janis Joplin from asphyxiating on his own vomit after overdosing on heroin
Joplin was the lead singer of Big Brother and the Holding Company, Full Tilt Boogie, and had a successful solo career. Her love of Southern Comfort gave her the whiskey voice sound for which she was famous. Although whiskey was her drug of choice, she eventually got mixed up in other drugs, such as heroin and cocaine. One night at a party in San Francisco, she got into an argument with Jim Morrison and broke a bottle over his head, On October 4, 1970, Janis joined the 27 Club by overdosing on whiskey and heroin. She died within sixteen days of Jimi Hendrix, and ten months of Jim Morrison. In her will, she funded a $1500 “wake party” in the event of her demise
John Lennon, founder of the Beatles, was a musical genius, activist and lover of all things fun. The band’s drug use was well-known. While playing in Hamburg, Germany, they would do amphetamines to play at the all-night clubs. Bob Dylan would later introduce them to marijuana at a Grammy’s party. However, their first experience with LSD was at a dinner party thrown by their dentist. It was served with their tea,In 1966 his statement that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus caused the most controversy. After the statement, some states in the U.S. burned Beatles’ albums, cancelled their concerts and banned their songs from radio stations,he was shot outside his apartment in 1980 by a fan, who was still angry over the Jesus comment
Dylan is an American song writer, who can play any instrument. During his hey-day he wasn’t picky when it came to his drugs. He tried it all, amphetamines, marijuana, LSD, cocaine, alcohol, and especially heroin. In a 1966 documentary named Eat the Document Dylan can be seen riding around in a taxi with John Lennon having a drug hazed conversation. Lennon would later report to Rolling Stone Magazine that they had been snorting heroin all day, and Dylan almost overdosed a few times
Drummer for The Who, Keith Moon was more into alcohol than hard drugs. He gained the nickname “Moon the Loon” for his fascination with blowing up toilets with cherry bombs and M-80’s. He didn’t stop with toilets though. He trashed so many rooms; the band was forced to stay in neighboring towns when doing concerts after being banned from several hotels. The most infamous incident happened at a Holiday Inn when he drove his Bentley into the swimming pool. During one concert he passed out on stage so many times the band had to get a random drummer from the audience to finish the concert. Moon eventually died at the age of 32 from overdosing on a prescription drug designed to combat alcoholism
The founder of The Stooges, Iggy Pop is called the godfather of punk rock. His performances were influenced by none other than Jim Morrison. To live up to Morrison’s hubris, Iggy would undress on stage. He was also the first performer to do a stage dive. When the band wasn’t committing lewd and lascivious acts on stage, they were hanging out at a home they named “the fun house”. After they shot up with heroine, they would squirt blood left in the syringe onto the walls, creating gory Jackson Pollock-ish art
Before he became “Sir” Elton John, the lavishly dressed singer and piano man was all about the good times to be had. He was the poster child for Studio 54, and all of its “benefits”. He never met a drug he wouldn’t try, but loved cocaine. He admits to having epileptic seizures, passing out for a half hour, then waking up and snorting more coke. On one occasion, he invited his family from England to a huge party he was throwing in Hollywood. After consuming quite a bit of cocaine mixed with Valium, he yelled, “I’m going to die!” as he jumped from the hotel balcony into the swimming pool. His grandmother, clearly accustomed to Elton’s antics, reportedly replied, “I guess we’ll have to go home now"
The androgynous Brit david bowie, who has been a musical fixture for decades, has seen and done it all, including Mick Jagger, (allegedly). The story goes that Angie Bowie, then wife of David, walked in on the two naked in bed together. Afterward, Mick wrote the song “Angie” as an apology for banging her husband. Decades after the divorce, and her gag order had been lifted; she confirmed finding them in bed together, naked. She felt certain, at the time, that they had been making the beast with two backs. However, looking back she now feels that they were probably just coked-up, sweaty and talking. (Ok, Angie, we’ll play your silly little game.) David did have the nickname “old vacuum nose”. He also at one point snuck drugs into a psychiatric hospital for Iggy Pop, because he figured Iggy probably had gone without for too many days
The lead man for the Rolling Stones, Mick Jagger, has been rocking for over fifty years. Mick said, “You start playing rock and roll to have sex and do drugs. Then you start doing drugs, so you can have sex and play rock and roll”. He also said that it’s good manners to trash the hotel room early so you don’t wake up the other guests
First of all, he sang a song named “Cocaine”, that should be a clue that Eric Clapton has probably done a drug or ten. The Beatles were also very good friends of his, and he collaborated on a few songs with them. Clapton has admitted that, at his worst, he was spending $16,000 a week on heroin. He did an entire show lying down, and no one said anything about it. Of course, the audience was also so messed up they probably thought they were seeing sideways
Beyond the gross-showdown with Ozzy Osbourne, bass player for Mötley Crüe, Nikki Sixx led the ultimate rock-n-roll life. His love of drugs has caused him to overdose several times. On one occasion after overdosing on heroin, he was pronounced dead for two minutes in an ambulance. Luckily for him, the EMT was a huge fan, and continued working until he started Nikki’s heart. After waking in the hospital, Nikki ripped out all of the tubes and wires, and went home to do more drugs. The incident inspired the song “Jumpstart my Heart”. On a more romantic note, one Valentine’s night he overdosed at his dealer’s house. After the dealer couldn’t revive him by shoving ice down his pants or beating him to a pulp with a baseball bat, he dumped Nikki in a dumpster and left him for dead. Fortunately, Nikki’s craving for smack reached beyond the grave, and Nikki was able to crawl out to go do more drugs
Elvis began taking amphetamine pills to keep up with his nonstop touring. It wasn’t uncommon for musicians during that time to do a show, load up in a car, drive themselves to the next town, and barely have enough time to get ready for the next show. After his divorce, Elvis began doing more drugs, overdosing twice. During the first concert of his comeback tour he was so high he was slurring, couldn’t remember the words to his songs, and staggered all over the stage. He felt so threatened by the popularity of the Beatles; he tried to have them banned from the U.S. His third overdose would be the one that caused Elvis to permanently leave the building. He was pronounced dead on arrival from taking a lethal mixture of Valium, Demerol, codeine, and morphine
Led Zeppelin drummer, John Bonham, may have stuck to alcohol, but that didn’t stop his outrageous behavior. While staying at the Edgewater Hotel in Seattle, Washington, Bonham and manager, Richard Cole, stayed up all night catching fish off the balcony. They filled the room with various types of fish, including several mud sharks. After the concert, an overzealous redheaded groupie announced her penchant for being tied up during sex. Bonham and Cole proceeded to stick fish in various orifices of the bound girl, while saying things like “I’m putting a red snapper in your red snapper”. Later the incident would be immortalized by Frank Zappa’s song “Mud Shark”,Bonham didn’t limit his alcoholic behavior to unsuspecting groupies. While attending a party he found Beatles drummer, Ringo Starr passed out, and shaved his head and eyebrows. At the age of 32, Bonham died by asphyxiating on his own vomit after doing 40 shots of vodka
Stevie Nicks' $1million cocaine habit, fueled by her wild affair with married Mick Fleetwood, burned a hole in her nose so big she took the drug through her private parts,Tom Petty would frequently urge her to get help for her addiction
THE HINCKLEY TRIAL: HINCKLEY'S COMMUNICATIONS WITH JODIE FOSTER
John Hinckley, psycho who shot Reagan to impress Jodie Foster
Dear Jodie,
There is a definite possibility that I will be killed in my attempt to get Reagan. It is for this very reason that I am writing you this letter now. As you well know by now I love you very much. Over the past seven months I've left you dozens of poems, letters and love messages in the faint hope that you could develop an interest in me. Although we talked on the phone a couple of times I never had the nerve to simply approach you and introduce myself. Besides my shyness, I honestly did not wish to bother you with my constant presence. I know the many messages left at your door and in your mailbox were a nuisance, but I felt that it was the most painless way for me to express my love for you. I feel very good about the fact that you at least know my name and know how I feel about you. And by hanging around your dormitory, I've come to realize that I'm the topic of more than a little conversation, however full of ridicule it may be. At least you know that I'll always love you. Jodie, I would abandon this idea of getting Reagan in a second if I could only win your heart and live out the rest of my life with you, whether it be in total obscurity or whatever. I will admit to you that the reason I'm going ahead with this attempt now is because I just cannot wait any longer to impress you. I've got to do something now to make you understand, in no uncertain terms, that I am doing all of this for your sake! By sacrificing my freedom and possibly my life, I hope to change your mind about me. This letter is being written only an hour before I leave for the Hilton Hotel. Jodie, I'm asking you to please look into your heart and at least give me the chance, with this historical deed, to gain your respect and love.
I love you forever, John Hinckley
John Hinckley, psycho who shot Reagan to impress Jodie Foster
Dear Jodie,
There is a definite possibility that I will be killed in my attempt to get Reagan. It is for this very reason that I am writing you this letter now. As you well know by now I love you very much. Over the past seven months I've left you dozens of poems, letters and love messages in the faint hope that you could develop an interest in me. Although we talked on the phone a couple of times I never had the nerve to simply approach you and introduce myself. Besides my shyness, I honestly did not wish to bother you with my constant presence. I know the many messages left at your door and in your mailbox were a nuisance, but I felt that it was the most painless way for me to express my love for you. I feel very good about the fact that you at least know my name and know how I feel about you. And by hanging around your dormitory, I've come to realize that I'm the topic of more than a little conversation, however full of ridicule it may be. At least you know that I'll always love you. Jodie, I would abandon this idea of getting Reagan in a second if I could only win your heart and live out the rest of my life with you, whether it be in total obscurity or whatever. I will admit to you that the reason I'm going ahead with this attempt now is because I just cannot wait any longer to impress you. I've got to do something now to make you understand, in no uncertain terms, that I am doing all of this for your sake! By sacrificing my freedom and possibly my life, I hope to change your mind about me. This letter is being written only an hour before I leave for the Hilton Hotel. Jodie, I'm asking you to please look into your heart and at least give me the chance, with this historical deed, to gain your respect and love.
I love you forever, John Hinckley
Here is a countdown of the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted Rock Stars
From top to bottom, the Beatles changed the world, often in ways that terrified the old guard. Enflamed by that fear, FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover pursued ex-Beatle John Lennon with extra vigorous zeal throughout the musician’s residency in early 1970s New York City. On top of that, Richard Nixon perceived Lennon’s anti-war activism and influence on young voters as posing a threat to his 1972 re-election, and thus he supplied the feds with all the juice they needed to make a damning case. As a result, FBI agents spied on Lennon constantly (uncovering salacious behavior such as John getting stoned and watching TV with crackpot Lower East Side folkie David Peel) and frantically pushed to legally deport John. One mitigating factor cited by the FBI was that Lennon’s effectiveness would be hampered by his “constantly being under the influence of narcotics.” John Lennon’s struggles with the U.S. government proved to be long, ludicrous, and ultimately triumphant—for him! These episodes have been fascinatingly detailed in numerous books and documentaries, as well as an entire website dedicated to his FBI file. Imagine!
Elvis Presley’s FBI files are unique in the rock star realm in that their highlight is a 1970 letter from The King to The Prez in which Elvis begged Richard Nixon to make him a secret agent!
Despite and/or because he was deluded on any number of chemicals at the time, Elvis believed he could help bring down the collective threat posed against the U.S. by the hippies, communists, “the drug culture,” and the Beatles. In justifying his request for official state powers, Elvis noted: “I can and will do more good if I were made a Federal Agent at Large and I will help out by doing it my way through my communications with people of all ages.”
As one of pop culture’s most famously bizarre photographs bears out, Elvis got to meet Nixon in the one house one surprising afternoon, and the singer even came away with an honorary badge and phony title—which he then reportedly tried to put to use on occasion.
Other details of Elvis’s FBI file include letters sent in by concerned 1950s citizens regarding Presley’s sexual hyper-power over the youth of the time. Although the Feds kept the correspondence, they opted not to further act on investigating the King’s hypnotically gyrating hips.
Proto-punk radicals the MC5 exploded out of the same metal-begetting late-‘60s Detroit cauldron that conjured up Alice Cooper, Ted Nugent, and the Stooges. Unlike their peers, though, the MC5 were explicitly left wing in their politics and ideas, which they expressed with firebomb intensity via their take-no-prisoners music. When the MC5 played Chicago’s Lincoln Park as the city hosted the 1968 Democratic National Convention (which resulted in chaotic riots and landmark legal actions taking against activists), FBI agents stood in the crowd, silently filming the band wailing and flailing at full-force. The soundless footage is very disconcerting to watch and figures prominently in the terrific 2002 documentary, The MC5: A True Testimonial.
While the FBI kept track of San Francisco’s late-’60s psychedelic gurus Jefferson Airplane due to the group’s involvement with drugs, fiery lead singer Grace Slick nabbed her own individual file over an alleged plot to get President Nixon high. Specifically, Slick’s plan was to turn Tricky Dick into Trippy Dick by dosing the Nixon with 600 micrograms of LSD during a party at the White House. Weirdly enough, Grace actually had the means, motive, and opportunity. It occurred when Tricia Nixon, the president’s daughter, organized a White House event for her fellow alumni of Finch College. Among them was Grace Slick, although she’d been invited under her original name, Grace Wing. In 2013, Grace revealed the details of her plan to CBS News, stating, “I’d be talking with Richard Nixon, and have the LSD in my fingernail, and just gesture over his tea cup. He would have been talking about the walls melting. We laughed just thinking about it.” Grace Slick showed up for the event, but security quickly gathered that she just didn’t belong there, and promptly delivered Grace to the sidewalk. On top of that, the president didn’t attend the gathering, anyway. Still, the FBI got one hilarious file out of the whole affair
The FBI versus the Lizard King built to a fever pitch over the course of the late 1960s, culminating with Jim Morrison’s over-the-top—and out-of-his-pants performance with the Doors in Miami on March 1, 1969. No document can possibly better sum up the occasion than Morrison’s FBI file itself, which states that the singer “reportedly pulled out all stops in an effort to provoke chaos among a huge crowd of young people. Morrison’s program lasted one hour during which time he sang one song and for the remainder he grunted, groaned, gyrated and gestured along with inflammatory remarks. He screamed obscenities and exposed himself.” Within a month, the Feds charged Morrison with lewd and lascivious conduct and labeled him a fugitive. He was ultimately convicted for profanity and indecent exposure. Somehow, America still stood when all was said and done, and the debate as to whether anything was actually, errr, whipped out has raged for decades.
For all his wild radicalism as an unprecedented musical genius, Jimi Hendrix’s FBI file runs a measly seven pages. The high points include youthful joyriding and a claim that Jimi loaded up his signature bandanas with LSD tabs, so that they’d time-release over the course of his performances while he worked up a sweat.
In 1989, Nine Inch Nails mastermind Trent Reznor was murdered on camera and the evidence was sent to the FBI after being labeled a “snuff film.” Of course, Reznor was just play-acting while making a music video for the NIN song “Down In It.” Still, the clip’s gruesome footage, which took off in a balloon-camera and was then discovered by a well-meaning farmer, proved convincing enough that the feds opened a short-lived investigation in the video homicide. The FBI itself iced the case upon discovering that Reznor was, indeed, alive and chipper after he happily showed up to answer the investigating agents’ questions.
Feds who took John Denver’s “Rocky Mountain High” too seriously poked around the wholesome granola-and-granny-glasses ’70s folk-pop icon to see how severely Mr. Far Out was actually mixed up in drugs. Denver turned out to be a casual toker of some forest-grown green stuff, although—brace yourself—John’s blonde bowl-cut locks were spotted bopping about an anti-war rally.
FBI agents who could apparently hear over the deafening din of screaming teenage girls at a 1967 Monkees concert concluded that the Prefab Four were, in fact, potential agents of United States government upheaval. In one of the goofiest/coolest live performance reviews of all time, the Monkees’ FBI file describes their show as consisting of “four young men who dress as beatnik types using a device that displayed ‘subliminal’, ‘left wing’ and ‘anti-US’ images about the war in Vietnam.” And the squares who wrote that hadn’t even caught the opening act—Jimi Hendrix!
“Louie Louie” began its long life as party rock’s supreme anthem as an original calypso toe-tapper composed and sung in 1957 by Richard Berry. Over the next few years, the song became a garage band favorite with numerous covers hitting 45-RPM vinyl all over America, but particularly from up in the Pacific Northwest. Chief among those “Louie Louie” releases was the one by Portland, Oregon’s joyfully shambolic noisemakers the Kingsmen. Their raucously out-of-control 1963 cover version became the definitive “Louie Louie” that continues to turn any room into a full-on blowout any time it gets played anywhere. So transcendently riotous was the Kingsmen’s “Louie Louie” on first impact, in fact, that the FBI promptly hurled kicked off an intense investigation of the song’s power, with a particular focus on what uptight parents everywhere believed just had to be ferociously “obscene” lyrics. The Kingsmen’s words, in reality, are utterly indecipherable—the result of singer Jack Ely wearing braces and the studio microphone being hung too high in the first place. Kids who heard the song then—as kids always will—just made up their own dirty lyrics, thereby sending moms and dads nationwide into various tizzies. One caveat: at the 56-second mark, drummer Gary Abbott blurts out something just barely audible, reportedly in response to dropping his sticks. It may or may not be an F-bomb. Regardless, from June until September 1964, FBI agents spent countless hours slavishly attempt to make sense of “Louie Louie” (a great way to spend your summer) before ultimately declaring the record “unintelligible at any speed.”
From top to bottom, the Beatles changed the world, often in ways that terrified the old guard. Enflamed by that fear, FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover pursued ex-Beatle John Lennon with extra vigorous zeal throughout the musician’s residency in early 1970s New York City. On top of that, Richard Nixon perceived Lennon’s anti-war activism and influence on young voters as posing a threat to his 1972 re-election, and thus he supplied the feds with all the juice they needed to make a damning case. As a result, FBI agents spied on Lennon constantly (uncovering salacious behavior such as John getting stoned and watching TV with crackpot Lower East Side folkie David Peel) and frantically pushed to legally deport John. One mitigating factor cited by the FBI was that Lennon’s effectiveness would be hampered by his “constantly being under the influence of narcotics.” John Lennon’s struggles with the U.S. government proved to be long, ludicrous, and ultimately triumphant—for him! These episodes have been fascinatingly detailed in numerous books and documentaries, as well as an entire website dedicated to his FBI file. Imagine!
Proto-punk radicals the MC5 exploded out of the same metal-begetting late-‘60s Detroit cauldron that conjured up Alice Cooper, Ted Nugent, and the Stooges. Unlike their peers, though, the MC5 were explicitly left wing in their politics and ideas, which they expressed with firebomb intensity via their take-no-prisoners music. When the MC5 played Chicago’s Lincoln Park as the city hosted the 1968 Democratic National Convention (which resulted in chaotic riots and landmark legal actions taking against activists), FBI agents stood in the crowd, silently filming the band wailing and flailing at full-force. The soundless footage is very disconcerting to watch and figures prominently in the terrific 2002 documentary, The MC5: A True Testimonial.
While the FBI kept track of San Francisco’s late-’60s psychedelic gurus Jefferson Airplane due to the group’s involvement with drugs, fiery lead singer Grace Slick nabbed her own individual file over an alleged plot to get President Nixon high. Specifically, Slick’s plan was to turn Tricky Dick into Trippy Dick by dosing the Nixon with 600 micrograms of LSD during a party at the White House. Weirdly enough, Grace actually had the means, motive, and opportunity. It occurred when Tricia Nixon, the president’s daughter, organized a White House event for her fellow alumni of Finch College. Among them was Grace Slick, although she’d been invited under her original name, Grace Wing. In 2013, Grace revealed the details of her plan to CBS News, stating, “I’d be talking with Richard Nixon, and have the LSD in my fingernail, and just gesture over his tea cup. He would have been talking about the walls melting. We laughed just thinking about it.” Grace Slick showed up for the event, but security quickly gathered that she just didn’t belong there, and promptly delivered Grace to the sidewalk. On top of that, the president didn’t attend the gathering, anyway. Still, the FBI got one hilarious file out of the whole affair
The FBI versus the Lizard King built to a fever pitch over the course of the late 1960s, culminating with Jim Morrison’s over-the-top—and out-of-his-pants performance with the Doors in Miami on March 1, 1969. No document can possibly better sum up the occasion than Morrison’s FBI file itself, which states that the singer “reportedly pulled out all stops in an effort to provoke chaos among a huge crowd of young people. Morrison’s program lasted one hour during which time he sang one song and for the remainder he grunted, groaned, gyrated and gestured along with inflammatory remarks. He screamed obscenities and exposed himself.” Within a month, the Feds charged Morrison with lewd and lascivious conduct and labeled him a fugitive. He was ultimately convicted for profanity and indecent exposure. Somehow, America still stood when all was said and done, and the debate as to whether anything was actually, errr, whipped out has raged for decades.
For all his wild radicalism as an unprecedented musical genius, Jimi Hendrix’s FBI file runs a measly seven pages. The high points include youthful joyriding and a claim that Jimi loaded up his signature bandanas with LSD tabs, so that they’d time-release over the course of his performances while he worked up a sweat.
In 1989, Nine Inch Nails mastermind Trent Reznor was murdered on camera and the evidence was sent to the FBI after being labeled a “snuff film.” Of course, Reznor was just play-acting while making a music video for the NIN song “Down In It.” Still, the clip’s gruesome footage, which took off in a balloon-camera and was then discovered by a well-meaning farmer, proved convincing enough that the feds opened a short-lived investigation in the video homicide. The FBI itself iced the case upon discovering that Reznor was, indeed, alive and chipper after he happily showed up to answer the investigating agents’ questions.
Feds who took John Denver’s “Rocky Mountain High” too seriously poked around the wholesome granola-and-granny-glasses ’70s folk-pop icon to see how severely Mr. Far Out was actually mixed up in drugs. Denver turned out to be a casual toker of some forest-grown green stuff, although—brace yourself—John’s blonde bowl-cut locks were spotted bopping about an anti-war rally.
FBI agents who could apparently hear over the deafening din of screaming teenage girls at a 1967 Monkees concert concluded that the Prefab Four were, in fact, potential agents of United States government upheaval. In one of the goofiest/coolest live performance reviews of all time, the Monkees’ FBI file describes their show as consisting of “four young men who dress as beatnik types using a device that displayed ‘subliminal’, ‘left wing’ and ‘anti-US’ images about the war in Vietnam.” And the squares who wrote that hadn’t even caught the opening act—Jimi Hendrix!
“Louie Louie” began its long life as party rock’s supreme anthem as an original calypso toe-tapper composed and sung in 1957 by Richard Berry. Over the next few years, the song became a garage band favorite with numerous covers hitting 45-RPM vinyl all over America, but particularly from up in the Pacific Northwest. Chief among those “Louie Louie” releases was the one by Portland, Oregon’s joyfully shambolic noisemakers the Kingsmen. Their raucously out-of-control 1963 cover version became the definitive “Louie Louie” that continues to turn any room into a full-on blowout any time it gets played anywhere. So transcendently riotous was the Kingsmen’s “Louie Louie” on first impact, in fact, that the FBI promptly hurled kicked off an intense investigation of the song’s power, with a particular focus on what uptight parents everywhere believed just had to be ferociously “obscene” lyrics. The Kingsmen’s words, in reality, are utterly indecipherable—the result of singer Jack Ely wearing braces and the studio microphone being hung too high in the first place. Kids who heard the song then—as kids always will—just made up their own dirty lyrics, thereby sending moms and dads nationwide into various tizzies. One caveat: at the 56-second mark, drummer Gary Abbott blurts out something just barely audible, reportedly in response to dropping his sticks. It may or may not be an F-bomb. Regardless, from June until September 1964, FBI agents spent countless hours slavishly attempt to make sense of “Louie Louie” (a great way to spend your summer) before ultimately declaring the record “unintelligible at any speed.”