Breedloves's Folk Songs

MTA

  • “M.T.A.”, often called “The MTA Song”, is a 1948 song written as “Charley on the MTA”
    by Jacqueline Steiner and Bess Lomax Hawes. The lyrics are about a man named Charlie
    trapped on Boston‘s subway system, then known as the Metropolitan Transit Authority
    (MTA). The song was a 1959 hit when recorded and released by The Kingston Trio, an
    American folk group. The name Charles may be a reference to the Charles River, the
    largest waterway in the region. The Boston subway system has named its electronic card-
    based fare collection system the CharlieCard“, which is a tribute to this song, as the
    Charlie Card system simplifies fare collection. The song, based on a much older version
    called The Ship That Never Returned” (or its railroad successor, Wreck of the Old 97“),
    is said to have been composed in 1948 as part of the election campaign of Walter A.
    OBrien, a Progressive Party candidate for Boston mayor. As the story goes, O’Brien was
    unable to afford radio advertisements, so he enlisted local folk singers to write and sing
    songs from a touring truck with a loudspeaker (he was later fined $10 for disturbing the
    peace“).
    According to this story, one of his major campaign planks was to lower the price of riding
    the subway by removing the complicated fare structure involving exit fares — so
    complicated that at one point it required a nine-page explanatory booklet. In the Kingston
    Trio recording, the name “Walter A. O’Brien” was changed to “George O’Brien,”
    apparently to avoid risking protests that had hit an earlier recording, when the song was
    seen as celebrating a socialist politician.
    Spoken:
    These are the times that try men’s souls. In the course of our nation’s history, the people
    of Boston have rallied
    bravely whenever the rights of men have been threatened. Today, a new crisis has arisen.
    The Metropolitan
    Transit Authority, better known as the M. T. A., is attempting to levy a burdensome tax on
    the population in the
    form of a subway fare increase. Citizens, hear me out! This could happen to you!
    (Eight bar guitar, banjo introduction)
    Well, let me tell you of the story of a man named Charley on a tragic and fateful day.
    He put ten cents in his pocket, kissed his wife and family, went to ride on the M. T. A.
    Chorus:
    Well, did he ever return? No, he never returned and his fate is still unlearned. (What a
    pity! Poor ole Charlie.
    Shame and scandal. He may ride forever. Just like Paul Revere.)
    He may ride forever ‘neath the streets of Boston. He’s the man who never returned.
    Charlie handed in his dime at the Kendall Square Station and he changed for Jamaica
    Plain.
    When he got there the conductor told him, “One more nickel.” Charlie couldn’t get off of
    that train.
    (Chorus)
    Now, all night long Charlie rides through the station, crying, “What will become of me?!!
    How can I afford to see my sister in Chelsea or my cousin in Roxbury?”
    (Chorus)
    Charlie’s wife goes down to the Scollay Square Station every day at quarter past two,
    And through the open window she hands Charlie a sandwich as the train comes rumblin’
    through.
    (Chorus)
    Now, you citizens of Boston, don’t you think it’s a scandal how the people have to pay
    and pay?
    Fight the fare increase! Vote for George O’Brien! Get poor Charlie off the M. T. A.
    (Chorus)
    He’s the man who never returned. He’s the man who never returned. Et tu, Charlie?

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