RICHARD BERRY
Richard Berry (April 11, 1935 – January 23, 1997) was an African-American singer, songwriter and musician, who performed with many Los Angeles doo-wop and close harmony groups in the 1950s, including The Flairs and The Robins. He is best known as the composer and original performer of the rock standard “Louie Louie”. The song went on to be a hit for The Kingsmen, becoming one of the most recorded songs of all time; however, Berry received little financial benefit for writing it until the 1980’s, having signed away his rights to the song in 1959. In that same year, he wrote and released “Have Love, Will Travel”, which has been covered by many artists. (More from Wikipedia)
There about midway through the fourth side of Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965-1968 was a song that I didn’t think quite fit in: “Farmer John” by the Premiers. It was earlier than any of the other tracks, dating from 1964, and it sounded like it was recorded live at somebody’s picnic. The lyrics were simple – “Farmer John . . . I’m in love with your daughter . . . whoa-oh-oooh” – as was the beat and the slow, loping groove; but it just kept growing on me. Eventually Neil Young recorded a cover of the song in the same style on his excellent 1990 album Ragged Glory. The songwriter is Richard Berry – he is not related to Chuck Berry but has some seminal songs to his credit nonetheless; “Louie Louie” heads the list, but “Have Love, Will Travel” is almost as good. (See below).
(January 2011)
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Stiv Bators, the front man for one of the best punk rock bands the Dead Boys was trying to reinvent himself as a pop singer and released one excellent album in 1980 called Disconnected and a lot of other singles.
In about 1985, Stiv Bators was recording a new version of a Moody Blues “B” side, “The Story in Your Eyes”; and the flip side was going to be a cover of the Richard Berry anthem “Have Love, Will Travel”. (The connection to the popular TV western of 50-some years ago, Have Gun – Will Travel is likely not well remembered these days). Richard Berry (no relation to Chuck Berry) is the author of the immortal “Louie Louie”; one time, Stiv Bators also recorded a version of that song with a whole studio full of people – the new lyrics that he supplied extolled the virtues of his new home town and gave it the name, “L.A. L.A.”.
(September 2012)
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I’m not sure where I got the idea that “Farmer John” was written by Richard Berry , but I was mistaken about that; the song was actually written by Don “Sugarcane” Harris and Dewey Terry, who originally recorded the song in the mid-1950’s under the name Don and Dewey. Sorry about that. I’m still glad that I had something to say about Richard Berry though; he wrote some great songs, and not just “Louie Louie”.
(January 2014)
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The only song on Magic Lantern not written by the bandmembers in Haymarket Square is one of my all-time favorite songs, “Train Kept A-Rollin’” – in a world filled with great train songs, this might the best of them all for my money. The first time I encountered “Train Kept A-Rollin’” was on the Pebbles, Volume 10 LP, one of the first Pebbles albums that I purchased. This rapid fire rendition by the Bold (also known as Steve Walker and the Bold) – which actually has some train sounds in the intro and at the end – is still the best I have heard; but like the Bo Diddley song “I’m a Man”, the Van Morrison song “Gloria”, and the timeless “Louie Louie” that was written by Richard Berry, I have never heard a version of “Train Kept A-Rollin’” that wasn’t great.
(June 2015)
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The most famous case of supposedly offensive lyrics in popular music is “Louie Louie”, specifically the version by the Kingsmen. The original version of “Louie Louie” was released in 1957 by Richard Berry (who is also the songwriter); it has a Latin American beat, and the lyrics are clearly about a sailor pining away for his woman back home.
From Wikipedia: “The Kingsmen transformed [Richard] Berry’s easy-going ballad into a raucous romp, complete with a twangy guitar, occasional background chatter, and nearly unintelligible lyrics by [Jack] Ely. A guitar break is triggered by the shout, ‘Okay, let’s give it to ’em right now!’, which first appeared in the Wailers’ version, as did the entire guitar break (although, in the Wailers’ version, a few notes differ, and the entire band played the break).”
(June 2016)
