When Larry Tamblyn took the stage to perform with the band Yo Lo Tengo at his niece Amber’s wedding, the young men in attendance “screamed like little girls at a Taylor Swift concert,” she said.
Why? Because keyboardist and vocalist Tamblyn was a founder of the Standells, a 1960s Los Angeles garage band whose hits “Dirty Water” and “Sometimes Good Guys Don’t Wear White” have earned him the moniker “The Godfather of Punk.” The Standells are said to have influenced both the Ramones and the Sex Pistols.
“Uncle Larry was the cool uncle,” said Amber Tamblyn, a writer and actor who starred in “Joan of Arcadia,” “General Hospital” and “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.” Her father, Russ Tamblyn, is also an actor, having played Riff in the 1961 movie “West Side Story” and many other roles.
“Uncle Larry was progressive, through and through,” she said. “And in his attitude and his way of life, he was punk.”
He died at his Newnan home on March 21 of a rare blood disorder, surrounded by his family members. He was 82 years old.
Born in Inglewood, California, in 1934, Lawrence Arnold Tamblyn was the youngest of three sons of Sally and Eddie Tamblyn, vaudeville performers. They moved to Los Angeles so Eddie could get into the movie business, said Glenda Tamblyn, Larry’s widow.
Larry had been a solo recording artist in the late 1950s before assembling the Standells in 1962. He chose the name because his bandmates and he were always standing around the offices of booking agents, trying to get work.
The group appeared in various television shows throughout the 1960s. In 1966, they recorded “Dirty Water,” written by their manager, Ed Cobb, about his experiences in Boston. The song went to No. 11 on the Billboard charts in July 1966. The band continued to tour and play across the country and in Europe.
The song has become the official anthem of both the Boston Red Sox and the Boston Bruins. In 2004, the Red Sox flew the members of the Standells and their partners to Boston to perform during the World Series, Glenda Tamblyn said.
Credit: Courtesy of family
Credit: Courtesy of family
In the early 1990s, Larry Tamblyn met Glenda Chism, an actor who had been in the movie “My Girl” and other movies. They were engaged for six years, Glenda said, “because we wanted to see if this one stuck,” and then married in 2000. Having worked with booking agents for fine arts acts, she became the manager of the Standells.
In 2020, the couple decided to sell their house in arid Palmdale, California,” and move to someplace greener,” Glenda said. Whenever they watched a movie, it seemed, the Georgia Peach logo popped up at the end — it is the trademark for Georgia-made productions — so they decided to head East, in part to be closer to their extended family in metro Atlanta.
Larry and Glenda found a house they liked in Newnan, hoping to find work in Pinewood Studios. That didn’t happen, but Larry continued making music and was editing film, Glenda Tamblyn said. He also voiced his opinion in the AJC’s Letters to the Editor about Georgia’s gun laws, President Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 election having been stolen and the claims of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
“Uncle Larry didn’t suffer any fools lightly,” Amber Tamblyn said. “He said what he thought was right, and he was a feminist. He encouraged me to use my voice.”
In addition to his wife, Larry Tamblyn is survived by his brother, Russ Tamblyn; his six children, Micah, Blue Morris (Shane), Lisa, Shon (Echo), Sharis Kendrick (Jake) and Joel (Jenna); and many grandchildren and nieces and nephews. There will be a memorial service in early May.
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