Dirty
Water - The Standells (different song; different artists)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5apEctKwiD8*
Although just for the 'record'
, the Charles River and Boston Harbor have been clean for decades. And the Standells aren't from Boston, but the water
was wicked dirty when the song was released. I was a college freshman in Boston at the time.
Kind of like how everyone knew you didn't give no lip to Big John, everyone knew you didn't go swimming in the Charles back then.
As for the rest of the song . . .
*
EDIT> In 1968, a year or two after the song's release, the Watertown Arsenal, directly upriver on the Charles from Boston, was closed, being cited by the EPA National Prioroties (Superfund) List of Highly Contaminated Sites. The Arsenal remained on that list until 2006, 40 years later. Watertown, Cambridge, the Charles, and Boston are much cleaner these days as a result.