Larry Tamblyn, Keyboardist for 'Dirty Water' Garage Rock Pioneers the Standells, Dead at 82

[highplainsdem]

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/larry-tamblyn-keyboardist-the-standells-dirty-water-dead-obit-1235301740/

Larry Tamblyn, founding member and keyboardist for the pioneering garage rock band the Standells, has died at the age of 82.

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When the Standells formed as a doo-wop band in the early Sixties, Tamblyn initially served as their lead singer, including on their debut 1964 single “Girl In My Heart.” After the band signed with Liberty Records, they shifted toward rock music and enlisted Dick Dodd as their drummer and lead vocalist; Dodd died in 2013.

While the Standells formed in Los Angeles, their producer Ed Cobb hailed from Boston; it was Cobb who penned the band’s 1965 single “Dirty Water,” which would later become both an unofficial Boston anthem (thanks to references to the city laced into the lyrics) as well as a garage rock classic (thanks to its inclusion on the acclaimed 1972 Nuggets compilation).

“‘Dirty Water’ is still played to this day whenever the Red Sox or the Bruins win a home game,” Dennis Tamblyn wrote of his uncle; the Standells notably performed the song at Fenway Park during one of the Red Sox’s curse-ending World Series games in 2004.

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2014 interview:

[SheltieLover]

1. RIP

[tanyev]

2. A quick Google told me he is also brother to dancer Russ Tamblyn.

I wondered because it’s not a very common name and the kid on the far right in that second clip looks a lot like my favorite dancer in several classic musicals.

[Walleye]

3. Thank you! I was just about to ask Google that question.

My boyfriend went to school at North Hollywood High in the 50s and his classmate was Russ Tamblyn. Back then he was Rusty. My boyfriend used to speak of how acrobatic Tamblyn was, and how he liked to do handstands on the rocks when they went on field trips to the desert. I really enjoyed him in “West Side Story”. And he starred in “High School Confidential”, sort of 50s “Reefer Madness”. And “21Jump Street”. Jerry Lee Lewis does the title song, you brought back memories for me.

[tanyev]

4. Cool. Russ wrote a biography which came out last year.

It’s called Dancing On The Edge. I haven’t read it yet, but I hope to get to it soon.

[Walleye]

5. Thanks I will look for it.