I was listening to Acid Flashback when a cover of “Dirty Water” came on. I was sure it was Mick Jagger singing. It wasn’t. The singer is Bill Hurley of The Inmates, a British pub rock band. Their cover version reached number 51 on the Billboard Hot 100 in January 1980 and helped launch their debut album, First Offence, on Radar Records. They changed the lyrics from Boston and the Charles River to London and the Thames.
The original was recorded by The Standells, a Los Angeles garage band, in 1966. Producer Ed Cobb wrote it after two men tried to mug him and a woman he was with on a trip to Boston. The song mentions the polluted Charles River, Boston University’s curfew for women students, and the Boston Strangler. Drummer Dick Dodd sang lead and ad-libbed the spoken parts in the studio. Tony Valentino played the guitar riff on a Telecaster.
It reached number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame later included it on its list of 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll. Boston adopted it anyway. The Bruins started playing it after home wins in 1995, and the Red Sox started in 1997.
Acid Flashback‘s playlist includes more than 1,300 cover songs. This is one of them. It is also the type of song, a psyche nugget, regularly heard on Psychedelic Psaturday with DJ Kaigem.
The Inmates Dirty Water and the Standells original
The original, 1966:
YouTube: The Standells, “Dirty Water”
The Inmates, 1979:
