Mike Mitchell, founding member and guitarist of “Louie Louie” makers The Kingsmen, passed away on Friday at his 77th birthday.
Kingsmen drummer Dick Peterson has confirmed Mitchell’s death Rolling clip in a statement. No other cause of death was provided other than Mitchell ‘died peacefully’.
“We are very sad about Mike’s passing. “He was the friendliest and most generous man on the planet,” Peterson, a Kingsmen since 1963, said in a statement: USA. Mike is irreplaceable, and he will be greatly missed not only by us but also by the fans. Mike was a favorite for his comic character as well as his musicianship. ‘
Guitarist Joe Walsh said of Mitchell, who delivers the iconic guitar solo on ‘Louie Louie’, in a statement: ‘My deepest condolences. I learned to play guitar because of Mike Mitchell. I know each of his solos, mistakes and all. We’re losing the good guys. ”
Mitchell was the only remaining founding member still in the Kingsmen, formed in 1959 in Portland, Oregon, four years before the garage band achieved an unlikely hit with their loose rendition of Richard Berry’s 1957 song ‘Louie Louie’s. ‘. The song spent six non-consecutive weeks at number two on the Hot 100.
“An explosion of raw guitars and half-understandable screams recorded for $ 52, the Kingsmen’s cover of Richard Berry’s second R&B hit in 1963 – thanks in part to alleged pornographic lyrics that caught the attention of the FBI. has,” Rolling clip written by ‘Louie Louie’ for the 500 greatest list of all time, where it placed number 55.
“The Portland, Oregon group accidentally made the decidedly non-controversial lyrics (about a sailor trying to come home to see his lady) inadvertently by squeezing a single microphone together.” The single was so unspeakable that it was banned in Indiana and investigated by the FBI over the alleged obscene lyrics. The FBI eventually considers the song “incomprehensible at any rate.” “When ‘Louie Louie’ was banned in Indiana by the then Governor Walsh in 1964, every child had to have a copy, and the record started like a wildfire across the country! ‘
“I always thought the controversy was record company hype,” said then-Kingsmen singer Jack Ely, who died in 2015. Rolling clip. Peterson said in his statement Saturday: “When ‘Louie Louie’ was banned by Indiana’s then governor of Indiana in 1964, every child had to have a copy, and the record started like a wildfire across the country!”
The Beach Boys, Jan and Dean, the Troggs, the Sonics, the Beatles, Mothers of Invention, Motörhead, Black Flag and Iggy Pop would later record covers of ‘Louie Louie’, one of rock’s most influential songs.
While the founding members of the Kingsmen would be split by 1963 – Ely (who formed another The Kingsmen, which led to a legal battle over the name of the group) and bassist Bob Nordby both left before ‘Louie Louie’ became a hit – Mitchell would remain the band’s guitarist for the next 62 years.
With diverse Kingsmen lineups, Mitchell recorded six albums between 1963 and 1966, and although the group is often regarded as a one-hit marvel ‘because of the success of’ Louie Louie ‘, they did in the early half of the season’ released a series of successful singles. the sixties, including covers of ‘Little Latin Lupe Lu’, ‘Money (That’s What I Want)’ and the latest hit ‘Jolly Green Giant’.