# Did Bob Dylan ever record Louie Louie **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [September 16, 2021, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-bob-dylan-ever-record-louie-louie/950740 "2021-09-16T07:43:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2021, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-bob-dylan-ever-record-louie-louie/950740/1 "2021-09-16T07:43:43Z")
He performed it at Farm Aide in ‘86 but that’s not what I’m talking about. Many, many years ago a local station had a Louie Louie marathon. All day long, just cover versions of the song. I taped a few hours it. And I swear I remember hearing a Bob Dylan version. It was quite a bit slower than the original and it was kind of slurry. I was trying to find it online but couldn’t turn up any mention of it. Even Second Hand Songs didn’t list it. I’m hoping someone with better google-fu than I, could turn it up? ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2021, 9:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-bob-dylan-ever-record-louie-louie/950740/2 "2021-09-16T09:00:12Z")
To my knowledge that rehearsal with Tom Petty is the only recorded performance of Louie Louie by Bob Dylan. It was included on the 2005 DVD release _So Many Directions Home Vol. 2_. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/KhG3RVQox7g/hqdefault.jpg "Bob Dylan 1986 - Louie Louie") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhG3RVQox7g) ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2021, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-bob-dylan-ever-record-louie-louie/950740/3 "2021-09-16T13:58:42Z")
I’m a big Bob Dylan fan, have all his official releases including all his studio albums, live albums and the complete Bootleg Series and also have read a ton of books about him and his songs and recordings, and I’ve never heard about a studio version of “Louie Louie”. But what do I know, before this thread I didn’t know that this rehearsal version existed, so maybe in somebody’s basement there may be an old tape with that song… ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2021, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-bob-dylan-ever-record-louie-louie/950740/4 "2021-09-16T22:53:21Z")
I’m going to defer to EinsteinsHund here, but it must have been a joke played on the listeners. I’m sure they said it was Dylan but maybe it was some slowed down version of another cover. But I can hear it clearly in my mind. Me and my brother joked about it for years. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2021, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-bob-dylan-ever-record-louie-louie/950740/5 "2021-09-16T22:56:22Z")
However, all the other versions were real. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2021, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-bob-dylan-ever-record-louie-louie/950740/6 "2021-09-17T00:07:44Z")
[KFJC’s Maximum Louie Louie Playlist August 19-22 1983](http://www.reverbcentral.com/louie/maxlist.html) I see two Dylan parody tracks (by Juan Sana & the Hot Rocks and S. Ronan) but none by Bob himself. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2021, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-bob-dylan-ever-record-louie-louie/950740/7 "2021-09-17T04:53:52Z")
I come at from the opposite direction: I’m an enormous fan of _Louie Louie_; it’s the greatest pop/rock song ever written IMO. I have several hundred versions of it on cassette, LP, CD and mp3. And that live rehearsal is, as I said, the only recording of Dylan playing _LL_ that I know of. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2021, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-bob-dylan-ever-record-louie-louie/950740/8 "2021-09-17T05:21:47Z")
> [@blondebear](#): > > [KFJC’s Maximum Louie Louie Playlist August 19-22 1983](http://www.reverbcentral.com/louie/maxlist.html) I see two Dylan parody tracks (by Juan Sana & the Hot Rocks and S. Ronan) but none by Bob himself. Living in San Jose at the time I remember that but confess I didn’t hear the whole set. I feel so ashamed. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2021, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-bob-dylan-ever-record-louie-louie/950740/9 "2021-09-17T05:54:12Z")
Follow up question: did any of The Beatles ever record a cover of Route 66? ---
**Author:** ![tavaritz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/71e660/32.png) [@tavaritz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tavaritz)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2021, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-bob-dylan-ever-record-louie-louie/950740/10 "2021-09-17T11:34:33Z")
I f\*\*king searched news outlets and what not to try to find out if Bob Dylan has died. Why did you write “Did Bob Dylan ever record Louie Louie” instead of “Has Bob Dylan ever record Louie Louie”? ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2021, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-bob-dylan-ever-record-louie-louie/950740/11 "2021-09-17T13:20:17Z")
Putting it down to laziness. ---
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2021, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-bob-dylan-ever-record-louie-louie/950740/12 "2021-09-17T13:55:55Z")
Totally off-topic but England cricket captain Joe Root’s shirt number is 66. ---
**Author:** ![K364](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k364/32/5_2.png) [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2021, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-bob-dylan-ever-record-louie-louie/950740/13 "2021-09-17T14:15:33Z")
Dylan listened to the Kingmen’s version and thought “If anybody can make this less intelligible it’s me”