SOX BEAT TRIBE AT FENWAY


GAME ONE IN THE BOOKS


WAY TO GO BOSTON RED SOX
Now for a bit of Redsox Dirty Secrets Revealed.....

‘Dirty’ secret about The Red Sox victory song
The Standells don’t have just Fenway fans to thank for making their song “Dirty Water” the Red Sox [team stats] victory anthem. They also have the Western Massachusetts town of Palmer and its barbecue chicken.

Last week the state Legislature made the garage rock classic the official Red Sox victory song, but the idea for the proclamation began 75 miles from Beacon Hill.

“Dirty Water” has been played after every Sox home win for more than a decade - and Red Sox Nation is hoping it will ring out this weekend in the American League title tilt against the Cleveland Indians. But it wasn’t until Chuck Burgess donated a couple copies of his new book, “Love That Dirty Water: The Standells and the Improbable Red Sox Victory Anthem,” to a Sept. 22 charity raffle and barbecue chicken dinner in Palmer that the ball got rolling.



“State Rep. Todd Smola was there and we just got to talking about how it’d be fun to do this,” Burgess said. “Well, Sen. Stephen Brewer was also there and he joined in the conversation. I didn’t expect anything of it. The next thing I know I got call from Brewer telling me how happy he was to do this.”

The bipartisan-supported proclamation not only commemorated the song, but bestowed honorary commonwealth citizenship on the Los Angeles-based Standells. Now they can honestly sing “Boston, you’re my home” for the first time.

“Dirty Water” was written by a non-Bostonian, Standells producer Ed Cobb, and released in 1966. The tale of lovers, muggers and thieves climbed to No. 11 on the Billboard charts, but it wasn’t until the ’90s that it began gaining traction in Fenway.

“The thing that’s different about ‘Dirty Water’ compared to other theme songs is that its popularity wasn’t manufactured or contrived, said Burgess’ co-author Bill Nowlin. “It was just the inspiration of a guy running the sound system. You can’t push on an audience and tell them this will be their favorite song. The Bruins [team stats] actually played it as a victory anthem before the Sox, but it just seemed to work better at Fenway. People just loved it.”