Rant #3,663: Dirty Water

This passing didn't make the obituary section of my local newspaper, but I found it kind of personally important.

Larry Tamblyn, brother of actor Russ and the leader of The Standells rock group, left us the other day.

A lot of people looked at the Los Angeles-based band as something of a one-hit wonder and little more, but I looked at them a bit differently.

Sure, their "Dirty Water" hit single pretty much defined what garage rock was 60 years ago, but many of you might remember that the band guest starred on "The Munsters" TV show as the band that took over the ghoulish family's home with other hippie/beatnik types of thst time period.

It is a classic episode from a classic TV series, and it really typified the time when rock and its long-haired types were starting to be coming into our living rooms on a regular basis.

Things were changing, and TV was a major cog in that change.

The Standells recorded a number if LPs and singles during their most prolific time period, and they were featured on numerous TV variety shows during that period.

For the psst 50 years or so, there have been various incarnations of the band continuing to perform all over the country, and Tamblyn continued to keep the flame going into the present time.

Another reason that Tamblyn's passing hit me was that The Standells actually had a couple of side projects during their heyday, producing some recordings that are really difficult to find.

One was "The Sllednats"--Standells spelled backwards--which produced one single to my knowledge.

I don't have that one in my collection, but the next one I do have.

"Larry" was another side project, named after Tamblyn himself.

One song--"Summer Clothes"--came out of this project, and this 1967 tune is a bit of whimsy, certainly not the greatest record ever produced but a great addition to my collection when I found it several years ago.

(Heck, for this Larry to actually have a record by "Larry" kind if puts a cherry on top of my record collection.)

There are several Standells music compilations out there, and they are well worth getting.

And you can always see their appearance in "The Munsters," and on YouTube.

So, thanks to Larry Tamblyn, and to salute him, I am going to use a song title by Del Shannon, which I think fits the bill:

"Hats Off To Larry."

https://youtu.be/6qCRTtQ4XaU?si=bN-X9xSyHvhL9fU1