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Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of Michigan Citizens for Science and co-founder of The Panda's Thumb. He has written for such publications as The Bard, Skeptic and Reports of the National Center for Science Education, spoken in front of many organizations and conferences, and appeared on nationally syndicated radio shows and on C-SPAN. Ed is also a Fellow with the Center for Independent Media and the host of Declaring Independence, a one hour weekly political talk show on WPRR in Grand Rapids, Michigan.(static)

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Youtube Gems: The Standells

Posted on: December 5, 2009 9:02 AM, by Ed Brayton

Here's one of the all time great one-hit wonders from the 60s, from one of the all time great garage rock bands, the Standells. The song is Dirty Water, a tribute to Boston and the Charles River.

Comments

I'm been listening to a lot of Metallica's post-Black Album stuff recently, especially Death Magnetic. This song struck me as realizing how far the music has come, analogous to watching a baby's first steps on their own relative to an Olympic sprinter, both in technique and going from innocence to a celebration of awareness. Both are beautiful things.

Posted by: Michael Heath | December 5, 2009 9:21 AM

The last time I heard that number was in June of 1967.

Thanks.

Posted by: 6EQUJ5 | December 5, 2009 9:29 AM

The one song from the early days of rock and roll that I think has stood up well over time is The Animals version of House of the Rising Son. Whenever I hear it, I have to stop and remind myself that it was recorded before I was even born. Indeed, if it's 1960s origin wasn't given away by the organ, it would sound alot like music heard today in the Americana/Alt-country genre.

Posted by: carlsonjok | December 5, 2009 9:35 AM

Great song.

The Standells were from Los Angeles. Dirty Water was written by Ed Cobb who also wrote Tainted Love, the megahit by Soft Cell.

Posted by: Nal | December 5, 2009 9:36 AM

especially Death Magnetic.

They tried to make it too loud.

Posted by: 386sx | December 5, 2009 10:52 AM

One more time cuz I messed up teh linky. :D

They tried to make it too loud.

Posted by: 386sx | December 5, 2009 10:54 AM

Awesome tune!!!!

Posted by: Comrade PhysioProf | December 5, 2009 11:08 AM

386sx stated:

They [Metallica] tried to make it [Death Magnetic] too loud.

What??? ;)

I've read that before. I really never noticed a problem with this album's sound quality. I find it interesting I own four albums from the list you linked to 386sx (Wikipedia's entry for Loudness Wars), the albums from: Metallica, Aguilera, Queens of the Stone Age, and Red Hot Chili Peppers.

I usually listen to music in my man-cave while I'm lifting weights and if my teeth aren't rattling than it's too damn quiet. Plus it helps drown out the noises I'm making my wife would prefer not to hear when I'm doing dead lifts or squats.

Posted by: Michael Heath | December 5, 2009 11:09 AM

Comrade Physioprof:

Awesome tune!!!!

Are you ill? Got the swine flu? Little sleep last night? From you I expected, "Awesome fucking tune!!!!". ;)

Posted by: Michael Heath | December 5, 2009 11:15 AM

Michael Heath: I've read that before. I really never noticed a problem with this album's sound quality.

Well it's like a crunchy sound, but a bad kind of crunchy sound. You can hear it here especially towards the end of the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRyIACDCc1I

Or, maybe not. Maybe it doesn't matter all that much. Maybe they didn't mess it up. Metallica sure doesn't think so! I dunno. Maybe it's borderline. :D

Someone took the bad crunchy sound to the extreme just for a joke here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQEJh3kqZN0

I don't have anything against loudness either. I think it's great. Yay loudness war! But it can be overdone like in that joke video (?v=NQEJh3kqZN0).

Posted by: 386sx | December 5, 2009 11:34 AM

Well it's like a crunchy sound, but a bad kind of crunchy sound. You can hear it here especially towards the end of the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRyIACDCc1I

Weeeellll now that I listen to it again, I like the louder version better because it sounds like more energy. Oh well...

Shrug. (I still think they messed it up a little though.)

Posted by: 386sx | December 5, 2009 12:08 PM

I think one of the greatest mainstream one-hit wonders from the 60s is "Walk, Don't Run."

Posted by: Sadie Morrison | December 5, 2009 1:55 PM

The loudness wars are annoying because they don't actually have anything to do with how loud the song is. You can take a beautifully mixed song and dial it up to 11 on whatever sound system you have to get the same effect, without the recording itself being clipped or losing any quality.

To me the 'loud' version of Metallica above sounds muted. Maybe heavier, in a way, but it lacks the depth of sound. The drums in particular sound almost entirely different in that last section. With Lars that may be no big deal, but...

Posted by: Paul Schofield | December 5, 2009 3:14 PM

The loudness wars are annoying because they don't actually have anything to do with how loud the song is.

It has to do with the average loudness, i.e. a steady stream of loud vs. a more dynamic movement of volume levels.

You can take a beautifully mixed song and dial it up to 11 on whatever sound system you have to get the same effect, without the recording itself being clipped or losing any quality.

The dynamics would still be there! Plus it would be really freakin loud too!

Posted by: 386sx | December 5, 2009 4:20 PM

This Boston boy (a teen in the '60s) will stand up anywhere and belt this one out.

Posted by: joemac53 | December 5, 2009 9:40 PM

What??? ;)
I've read that before. I really never noticed a problem with this album's sound quality.

I'm no audiophile, but I noticed the clipping on my very first listen of Death Magnetic. I still love the album, but the mix is ridiculous.

Posted by: FishyFred | December 6, 2009 3:08 AM

Oh, crap, hope I don't start an audio flame war but: I think the attraction of things like tube electronics for a certain type of audiophile is that they take the "edge" off bad pop recordings. OK, bad classical recordings too (screechy strings).

But back to the song: FUCK YEAH! I think it could have been written equally well about cities like Detroit, Cleveland, Buffalo, Mobile...and was related to by (then) kids like me from those kinds of places. Even if we were from the burbs.

And now for something completely different, I'm off to my man cave/media room to wallow in some Mahler.

FWIW, my speakers are home built Linkwitz Orions.

Posted by: bcoppola | December 6, 2009 2:28 PM

What? The Standells are still around???
I saw some videos of the Chocolate Watchband on Youtube. They're still pretty good.
But unfortunately, it looks like we won't be seeing anything new by Sky Saxon.

Posted by: Christophe Thill | December 7, 2009 6:33 AM