135 - Louie, Louie

About this song

Arranged by Michael Sweeney, recorded by The Kingsmen

Roadmap

There are two 4 measure solos written in succession, starting at measure 29. Typically, the first solo (drums) is cut, so that the trumpet solo happens at 29.

Notes

This piece is marked to be played at Tempo di Louie. This clearly means that the tempo of the piece is dependent on the rate at which some random person named Louie does... something. The actual metric of Louie that is to be measured is not defined. If no Louie is available, or said Louie does not have a suitable metric to measure, assume that either the current conductor or a member of the percussion is named Louie.

An alternative interpretation is that the tempo of the piece is defined as the tempo of the piece. Since the tempo is equal to itself, this means that any tempo is correct. Another similar interpretation is that the tempo is defined to be the square root of the tempo (sqrt(Louie*Louie)). Since the only value for Louie such that Louie=Louie*Louie is 1, this must imply that the tempo is 1bpm, making this the longest song in the band's repertoire. Another alternative interpretation is that the tempo is half of its own tempo (Louie=Louie+Louie), meaning that the tempo is 0bpm. This presents a problem and an interesting consequence. The problem is that the song takes an infinite amount of time to perform, but the consequence is that it can be stated that any band that has ever attempted to play Louie, Louie must still be playing the song, and will continue forever.