Since Opening Day in 1998, moments after the final out is recorded in a Boston Red Sox win at Fenway Park, the loudspeakers blare “Dirty Water,” a 1966 hit single, the only one, in fact, from a garage band called the Standells. The Fenway Faithful sing along to the lyrics from songwriter Ed Cobb.
Yeah, down by the river
Down by the banks of the river Charles
Oh, that’s what’s happenin’, baby
That’s where you’ll find me
Along with lovers, muggers, and thieves
Oh, but they’re cool people
Well, I love that dirty water
Oh, Boston, you’re my home
The garage rock band were formed in Los Angeles in 1962 by vocalist and keyboard player Larry Tamblyn and several others. Within a year or so, they settled on a lineup that also included lead vocalist and drummer, Dick Dodd (a former cast member of The Mickey Mouse Club), along with bassist Gary Lane and guitarist Tony Valentino. After several singles that went nowhere on a variety of labels, they recorded “Dirty Water” for the Tower label, a subsidiary of Capitol Records, with Cobb producing.
“Dirty Water” had some serious competition on the Record World singles chart when it peaked on July 16, 1966.
The song clicked and on July 16, 1966, with Dodd singing lead, it reached #11 on the Hot 100 (and #7 on Record World).
Tamblyn died on March 21, 2025, at age 82. The news was shared by his nephew, Dennis Tamblyn. In his brief tribute, the latter wrote, “A few years ago, The Standells played at Hotel Congress here in Tucson and Larry stayed with me. It was so great to hang out with him and catch up. He was still making music well into his later years. You will be missed, Uncle Larry.” Neither the place nor cause of death was revealed. Tamblyn was born on February 5, 1943.
In an interview with ClassicBands.com (no relation to BCB), Tamblyn was asked whose idea it was for Dodd to sing “Dirty Water” with “an attitude in his voice… like a punk, a wise guy.”
“That was his charm,” said Tamblyn. “That’s what sold him was his voice, ‘Boston you’re my home!’ He had that direct contact with the punk in all of us. Of course punk rock didn’t exist back then or garage rock. I attribute that to [our producer] Ed Cobb more than anything. He really brought that out in Dick.”
In the same interview, Tamblyn explained that Cobb had presented the band with “just… a standard Blues song that he wrote. We took the song with the condition that we could arrange in any way we want and we added the guitar riff into it and all of the wonderful vocal asides like, ‘I’m gonna tell you a story, It’s all about my town, I’m going to tell you a big fat story.’ That was all written by us. It was a different kind of arrangement than a straight Blues. Rather than a straight 7th, it was an extended 7th.”
The Standells never received any songwriting credit for their contribution. “No,” said Tamblyn. “In fact, Ed Cobb was buddies with a great classical composer, Lincoln Mayorga. He gave credits to Mayorga for arranging the music, which was really a slap in our faces because we really arranged it and wrote it. We were young. We didn’t do anything about it. But the fact is, we wrote a good part of that song. I wouldn’t say we wrote it all. Ed Cobb did write the basic melody if you want to call it that. He was in Boston. He got mugged there as the story goes and that’s what motivated him to write that.”
After several mid-chart follow-ups, Dodd left the band for a solo career. He occasionally reunited with the Standells; his final performance with them was in 2012. He died of cancer on November 29, 2013, at age 68.
When the Red Sox ended the so-called curse in 2004 by winning the World Series for the first time since 1918, the Standells performed the song at one of the team’s two home games.
Related: Musician deaths of 2025
- Larry Tamblyn, Founder of The Standells (‘Dirty Water’), Dies - 03/21/2025
- 11 Surprising 1970s Hit Songs (Part 6) - 03/19/2025
- Nancy Wilson Interview: The Moment She Knew Heart Had Made It - 03/16/2025
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