Album: About Us
Year: 1973
. . .
It’s a shame that most younger people people now associate this song with an admittedly great (at the time) TV show that kinda fell into purgatory after its creator, the comedian Louis C.K., admitted to a whole bunch of bad behavior involving his dick and a power imbalance with the women who didn’t want him to show it to them.
I’m not here to re-litigate any of this — though those who decry “cancel culture” might wanna note that C.K. won a Grammy in 2022 — but rather to point out that I was a bit uneasy with the use of “Brother Louie” in the first place, because it took the chorus out of the context of the rest of the song. But I was OK with it, because it probably turned people on the the original, which still sounds great.
Nothing’s easy, is it? Which is kind of the message of “Brother Louie” in the first place.
Anyways, the band Stories was initially founded by Michael Brown of The Left Banke — Brown co-wrote “Walk Away Renee,” which remains on the shortlist of The Prettiest Song Ever, Baroque Pop Division — and formed Stories with raspy-voiced vocalist Ian Lloyd. Their first album, 1972’s Stories, definitely rocked harder than The Left Banke, but didn’t have quite the melodic heft of contemporaries like Badfinger and The Raspberries. It’s worth seeking out, though.
Their second album, About Us, actually hews a bit closer to Brown’s work with The Left Banke, which is ironic, because Brown left halfway through the recording, and wasn’t even on the recording of “Brother Louie,” which even wasn’t on the original pressing of the album, but stuck on later in the wake of the massive popularity of the single. As often happens.
Anyways, “Brother Louie” was a last-second cover of a Hot Chocolate song that had made it to #7 on the U.K. charts that somebody had decided would fit Lloyd’s high-pitch rasp to a T. Which it did, after gliding in on a piano, big-sounding drums and a mysterosio wah-wah guitar.
She was black as the night
Louie was whiter than white
Danger, danger when you taste brown sugar
Louie fell in love overnightNothing bout it was good
Louie had the best girl he could
When he took her home to meet his mama and papa
Louie knew just where he stood
This all sets up the chorus, an utter earworm, Lloyd’s voice resigned and sad, while the wah-wah does his crying for him.
Louie Louie Louie louie
Louie Louie Louie Lou I
Louie Louie Louie Louie
Louie Louie you’re gonna cry
I mean, honestly, this song should have probably been called “Louie Louie” instead of “Brother Louie,” except of course doing a song call “Louie Louie” and having that song NOT be the proper “Louie, Louie” was actually against the the law in 1973, a law that wasn’t really tested until the Pretenders did an original called “Louie Louie” near the end of Pretenders II. BTW, one of my initial disappointments with Pretenders II was that they didn’t actually cover “Louie Louie,” but that’s on me.
Anyways, after the first chorus, there’s a long guitar solo by guitarist Steve Love, followed by the introduction of the swooping strings that kinda did their own solo, which was weird, but somehow worked, all of which sets up the final verses.
There he stood in the night
Knowing what’s wrong from what’s right
He took her home to meet his mama and papa
Man, they had a terrible fightLouie nearly caused a scene
Wishin’ it was a dream
Ain’t no diff’rence if you’re black or white
Brothers, you know what I mean
OK, I was this many years old when I learned that the last line of the song is “Brothers, you know what I mean,” which is absolutely what Errol Brown of Hot Chocolate sings on their version — but I always heard Lloyd sing it as “Papa should know what I mean,” which adds so much more ambiguity to the whole thing, I think.
And it remains ambiguous: there are no more lyrics to tell us how the whole thing eventually turned out. Instead, after the second chorus, there’s a pretty cool call-and-response between guitarist Love and the string section, which takes us in to a couple more repetitions of the chorus, until the fade.
“Brother Louie” was a massive hit here in the U.S., making #1 on the Billboard Singles charts in the summer of 1973, and gods know that I heard it a zillion times on 13 KYNO, digging Lloyd’s voice and the repetition of the “Louie Louie.” But that was it for Stories, because while the success of “Brother Louie” helped About Us to make it to #29 on the Billboard Albums charts, the follow-up singles and album — credited to “Ian Lloyd and Stories” — totally stiffed, making them a true one-hit wonder.
Lloyd did a couple of solo albums after that, but I went and played the singles from those records to see if I remembered anything from the radio, and I didn’t, not even 1979’s “Slip Away,” which was written by Ric Ocasek (who also provides backing vocals) and would have totally been my jam back then, as it sounds just like a Cars song.
“Brother Louie”
“Brother Louie” live on The Midnight Special, 1973
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