MAILBAG

                                                      Dear John from Conway, AR:

Thank you for your email of 2/29. Yes, we have read Dave Marsh’s Louie Louie book, and are also amazed that someone who gets paid to write about music can be so bottomlessly clueless, and not even employ a fact checker. In addition to writing, as you point out, that “the extremely rowdy and obnoxious” Henry Rollins sings Black Flag’s version of Louie Louie – despite the fact that singer Dez Cadena is on the cover of the single, and is credited on the inner label (one senses that Marsh isn’t even aware of the three Flag vocalists who preceded Rollins) – Marsh also writes that “Black Flag are the first and only band ever to scare the producers of ‘Saturday Night Live’ into using censorious tape delay, to preserve NBC’s federal license.” Although Black Flag was at one point booked to play on SNL, Marsh was undoubtedly referring to Fear’s infamous appearance on SNL, since Black Flag never appeared on the show. Which just goes to prove that even arrogant, pedantic blowhards like Dave Marsh are wrong sometimes.

Thank you for your query! We hope to hear from you again soon.