Louie, Louie, oh no, we can't go.
That's what would-be "Louie, Louie Parade" marchers are singing today instead of the real words to the 1963 Kingsmen hit because a city decision that led to cancellation of the fifth annual rock-and-roll spring fling.
WMMR-FM morning deejay John DiBella, who has led thousands of rock fans in strutting and blowing kazoos to the tune the last four years, was notified yesterday that the radio station's parade permit had been canceled.
"I'm p - - - - -," DiBella said of the action. "I am p - - - - -. Can you believe this? Here is this parade that originated in Philadelphia and we're not going to have one."
DiBella said he was told by city officials on Tuesday he had a permit for the parade today on Delaware Avenue between the Benjamin Franklin Bridge and Cottman Avenue, but that it was canceled in part because "community groups"
from the area complained.
"What I want to know is who lives on Delaware Avenue?" said DiBella of the largely commercial street.
The parade began in 1985 after DiBella joked about the idea on the air and was met with overwhelming listener response.
WMMR put the parade together as a fund raiser for the Leukemia Society, and $40,000 was raised during last year's edition. The idea has spread to about 40 other cities.
The parade has grown each year, and recent parades included floats, string bands and rock groups, in addition to the usual kazoo-bearing marchers who repeatedly sang the words to "Louie, Louie."
The parade was always somewhat off color like the song for which it was named.
City and police officials confirmed yesterday that the permit had been denied because of complaints about the 1988 parade and concern for "public safety."
"It's not the sponsors . . . " said City Managing Director James S. White. "It's the police department's concern about some spectators drawn to the parade and their conduct afterwards."
A police report filed after last year's parade stated that the event was ''disorganized," that the majority of the more than 100,000 people attending and marching were underage drinkers, and that a crowd of spectators had illegally formed on the steps of the Art Museum.
Police spokesman Capt. Richard DeLise said that the report "strongly recommended that WMMR not be granted permits to hold any further "Louie, Louie" parades on city streets."
DiBella contended yesterday that the parade was "completely organized."
He said there are plans in the works to hold the parade outside of the city.
"I can't say now, but I hope to be able to say (Monday) here's what's happening outside the city," DiBella said.
"I'm going to find a way to have this parade," he added.
The parade always has attracted a beer-swigging crowd, and has been scarred by injury.
In 1986, a 22-year-old Delaware man fell from a railing on the Chestnut Street overpass onto I-95, fracturing his skull and breaking his leg.
The following year, an 18-year-old woman was killed when she fell from the hood of a moving car in the parking lot of JFK Stadium after attending the parade.
The steps of the Art Museum were littered with broken beer bottles after last year's parade.
"Every year (WMMR) says don't bring beer, don't drink," said DiBella. ''That's like telling people don't drink at the Mummers parade."
