Somebody's gotta explain 'The MTA Song' to redqueen

[Oeditpus Rex]

I'm too busy terraformin' shit. :headbang:

[Parche]

1. explain it to me

What is MTA song? :shrug: :hi:

[Oeditpus Rex]

2. A classic by the Kingston Trio

whom she hates. :eyes:

[trof]

4. Then I hate her.

pffftttt

[redqueen]

5. I didn't say I hated them!

You stop telling those stickily lies! x(

[Oeditpus Rex]

7. Did too! Did too!

:P

[redqueen]

9. Noooooo... I only said they were crap.

:7

[Oeditpus Rex]

11. I have PROOF!

:P

[redqueen]

12. Hehehehehehe

:P

[no name no slogan]

23. zOMG!!! YOU DISSED TEH TRIO!!!111!!

And so soon after John Stewart kicked the bucket :cry:

[trof]

13. Kingston Trio is (are?) NOT crap.

Why would you think that?

[redqueen]

14. The sound?

:shrug:

[trof]

15. It's called 'harmony'.

You don't hear that much any more.
For some really good, check out The Four Freshmen.
Jazz vocalists.

Kingston Trio was VERY big when I was a teen/20-something.
Still love 'em.
Call it nostalgia for music you could understand and sing along to.
Music that didn't scream at you in some incomprehensible dialect.

Geezer?
Guilty!

KT was music I could SING.
And pretty well too.
;-)

[Oeditpus Rex]

16. How 'bout the Hi-Los?

Hey, y'gotta cut redqueen some slack. She's from Texas.

[trof]

18. *AHEM* I am a Texan-By- Marriage. Texas Cajun, to boot.

After 37 years I understand them as well as anyone can.
Which is hit-or-miss, at best.
;-)

[Oeditpus Rex]

19. So, how do you account

for their HORrible taste in music? :shrug:

[trof]

20. You dissin' ZYDECO?

Your feet stink and you don't love Jesus.
And that's that!

[Oeditpus Rex]

21. I'm dissin' people who dis the Kingston Trio

Or, for that matter, the Limeliters.

[trof]

22. FOLKIE!!!!

Yeah.
:thumbsup:

[Oeditpus Rex]

25. My folkieness was re-generated

when I discovered the Foremen in the mid-'90s.

Indeed, their bassist was Andy Corwin, late of the Limeliters.

[redqueen]

17. Awww... I'm only playing really!

I think that one song about the greenbacka dollar sounds funny... but other than that I really don't know any of their stuff. :)

I like harmony!

[trof]

3. Charlie and the MTA? Kingston Trio?

In the 1940s, the MTA fare-schedule was very complicated - at one time, the booklet that explained it was 9 pages long. Fare increases were implemented by means of an "exit fare". Rather than modify all the turnstiles for the new rate, they just collected the extra money when leaving the train. (Exit fares currently exist on the Braintree branch of the Red Line.) One of the key points of the platform of Walter A. O'Brien, a Progressive Party candidate for mayor of Boston, was to fight fare increases and make the fare schedule more uniform. Charlie was born.

The text of the song was written in 1949 by Jacqueline Steiner and Bess Lomax Hawes. It was one of seven songs written for O'Brien's campaign, each one emphasized a key point of his platform. One recording was made of each song, and they were broadcast from a sound truck that drove around the streets of Boston. This earned O'Brien a $10 fine for disturbing the peace.

The song:
Let me tell you the story
Of a man named Charlie
On a tragic and fateful day
He put ten cents in his pocket,
Kissed his wife and family
Went to ride on the MTA

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 could not get off that train.

Chorus:
Did he ever return,
No he never returned
And his fate is still unlearn'd
He may ride forever
'neath the streets of Boston
He's the man who never returned.

Now all night long
Charlie rides through the tunnels
the station
Saying, "What will become of me?
Crying
How can I afford to see
My sister in Chelsea
Or my cousin in Roxbury?"

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.

As his train rolled on
underneath Greater Boston
Charlie looked around and sighed:
"Well, I'm sore and disgusted
And I'm absolutely busted;
I guess this is my last long ride."
{this entire verse was replaced by a banjo solo}

Now you citizens of Boston,
Don't you think it's a scandal
That the people have to pay and pay
Vote for Walter A. O'Brien
Fight the fare increase!
And fight the fare increase
Vote for George O'Brien!
Get poor Charlie off the MTA.

Chorus:
Or else he'll never return,
No he'll never return
And his fate will be unlearned
He may ride forever
'neath the streets of Boston
He's the man (Who's the man)
He's the man who never returned.
He's the man (Oh, the man)
He's the man who never returned.
He's the man who never returned.

[Oeditpus Rex]

6. Ka-ching!

Perhaps now she'll understand the insult I have hurled upon her. :evilgrin:

[trof]

8. And the insult was?

Hurl away.

[Oeditpus Rex]

10. I told her Arsenal ride the MTA

:evilgrin:

[sniffa]

27. You're all welcome for the earworm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VMSGrY-IlU

[sniffa]

29. PS: There's no longer an exit fair at Braintree

Up until 1/1/07, Braintree had an exit fare. Up until then, the 3 previous stops in Quincy (JQA and Quincy Center and Wollaston) did not have an exit fare, but each had a "double fare" entry. Braintree had the double entry as well if I'm not mistaken (I've only taken a train from that stop maybe twice in my life, and that was around 1992, so I may be mistaken on the entry fair there).

The Charlie Card (yes, blamed, I mean named, after this song) eliminated every last quirk (and yes there were a lot more than the most famous on the first day of 2007.

I have no link, as I'm just relating my close to life long ridership on the MBTA (formerly, the MTA).

And look at Charlie! At his age he still looks young, even though he obviously had a stroke.

[KamaAina]

24. Bonus Kingston Trio trivia

Two of the three members were from Hawai'i; they met at the exclusive private Punahou School, whose most famous alumnus is President Obama.

Dave Guard went on to be one of the top-rated TV presenters in Australia for many years before his premature death.

The MBTA or "T", successor to the MTA, calls its electronic fare card (the equivalent of NYC's MetroCard) the "CharlieCard"!

[Pacifist Patriot]

26. Now why did I think they were from the U of Washington. Or am I thinking of ...

The Lettermen or something?

[RevolutionaryActs]

28. How can she deny the goodness of "The Tijuana Jail"??

The only video I could find :shrug:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kw6p6ns45Lz



:P