Description
The song is a mock paean to the city of Boston and its then-famously polluted Boston Harbor and Charles River.
Its Boston and Charles River references are reportedly based on an experience of Cobb and his girlfriend with a mugger in Boston in the mid-1960s. In addition to the river, other local interest items in the song include the Boston University women's curfew — "Frustrated women ... have to be in by twelve o'clock" — and a passing mention of the Boston Strangler — "have you heard about the Strangler? (I'm the man I'm the man)." Boston is also home to Simmons College, a women's college that, like many such institutions, had a curfew for students. There is disagreement regarding the identity of the "frustrated women". In a city with many colleges and universities, as well as a large Navy presence (historically), it could be purposefully unspecific.
Read more about this topic: Dirty Water
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