"Dirty Water", which became a hit in the mid 60’s and a Boston sports anthem, was written by Capitol Records producer Ed Cobb, who was with The Standells at the time in 1965.

The song painted a picture of the notorious pollution of Boston Harbor and Charles River and much of the song's references are reportedly based on an experience of Cobb and his girlfriend with a mugger in Boston.  

Before they became an iconic ‘One Hit Wonder’ garage band, the Standells had so many former lives that lead singer Larry Tamblyn came up with the band name due to the fact that they were always standing around booking agents' offices.

According to Tamblyn, ‘What really made it a hit was the guitar riff that Tony (Valentino) came up with that starts the song off—that famous guitar riff that everybody knows.  Also, singer, drummer and former Mouseketeer, Dick Dodd, actually wrote a lot of the lyrics—he wrote all of the famous asides like, “I’m gonna tell you a story about my town, I’m gonna tell you a big fat story baby…” He wrote all that—but none of us got any writing credit!’.

Various Sources