THE STANDELLS
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. 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”.
And who was responsible for the distinctive growling vocals in “Dirty Water” that prefigured the snarling, snotty singing in so many 1970’s and 1980’s punk rock bands? His name is Dick Dodd, who handled lead vocalist duties on most of the Standells’ records; and he had been one of the original Mouseketeers (and no relation to “Head Mouseketeer” Jimmie Dodd). You just never know where someone’s life is going to go no matter how they start out, do you?
(October 2010)
