ED COBB
Ed Cobb (February 25, 1938 – September 19, 1999) was an American musician, songwriter and record producer, most notably during the 1950’s and 1960’s. Cobb was a member of the pop group the Four Preps from its discovery in 1956 until he left the group in 1966, three years before it disbanded. After his performing career ended, Cobb became fully focused on work as a record producer and sound engineer. He became involved with acts such as the Standells, the Lettermen, the Chocolate Watch Band, the Piltdown Men, Fleetwood Mac, Steely Dan, and Pink Floyd. Cobb also wrote songs for many of his acts, most famously 1966’s “Dirty Water” for the Standells, 1964’s “Every Little Bit Hurts” for Brenda Holloway, and 1965’s “Tainted Love”. (More from Wikipedia)
Besides the darling cover on The Piltdown Men by the Piltdown Men showing an r&r band of cave men and women plus dinosaurs, I spotted the name “E. Cobb” in the songwriting credits and wondered if that could possibly be Ed Cobb. And sure enough it was: As their producer and songwriter, Ed Cobb greatly influenced the musical direction of what had up until then been a conventional rock band called the Standells. The song that he wrote for the band called “Dirty Water” made it to #11 on the national charts and changed the Standells into true punk rock heroes: Not for nothing was this landmark garage rock song placed on Nuggets (the very first garage rock/psychedelic rock compilation album, released in 1972) as the second track, right after “I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night)” by the Electric Prunes. Ed Cobb also wrote several more of the Standells’ most memorable songs, including the even fiercer “Barracuda” plus “Sometimes Good Guys Don’t Wear White” and “Why Pick on Me”. As a celebration of Boston and its River Charles, “Dirty Water” might seem like an odd choice for a Los Angeles band like the Standells; but Ed Cobb was from New England, so it was home to him.
Much to my amazement, Ed Cobb turned out to be a member of a band from the 1950’s called the Four Preps that could hardly be more different from the Piltdown Men and the Standells – come to think of it, those two later bands don’t have much in common either. (The other man behind the Piltdown Men, Lincoln Mayorga has had a long musical career, mostly behind the scenes, that began when he assisted his high school friends in that band; he became known as “the fifth Prep”). While instrumental rock bands like the Piltdown Men are extremely scarce these days – though a fine surf/psychedelic band called the Mermen released a new album this year (their first since 2004) – the musical genre from which the Four Preps arose was considered old-fashioned by the mid-1960’s and is almost completely extinct today. These all-male, all-white singing groups often had names evocative of bourgeois college days – in addition to the Four Preps, examples include the Lettermen and the Four Freshmen – and they sang in precise three- or four-part harmonies with a clean-cut look. The Four Preps’ big hit was a long-time favorite of mine called “26 Miles (Santa Catalina)”, a paean to Santa Catalina Island off the coast of California: “the island of romance, romance, romance, romance”.
(October 2010)
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Items: Ed Cobb
