My boys are young but they adore this video! I think they get a kick out of Charlie getting stuck on the train and never able to leave. The song is dated but still has a timeless appeal.
I'm amused that the MBTA chose the name Charlie Card while also raising the rates! Gotta wonder if they really understood the reasoning behind the song.
cool picture of Boeing LRV # 3507. does anyone remember the LRV that derail at the curve going into North Station in 1978 or 1979? it was LRV # 3507. i knew the driver of that car.
That kind of happened to me when I was in my twenties - got on the wrong train that went all the way out to the zoo, I think, and the conductor kicked me off - "End of the line!" and I had run out of money! The Boston P.D. picked me up walking through a sketchy neighborhhod, gave me fare, and got me to another station so I could get home. Bless those cops!
@pamiejune77 I'm from the south and the cops here are the complete opposite. They would question about what you're up too in an accusatory manner and try to bust you for something rather than help you. I was just in Boston for the first time last week and I was pleasantly surprised how nice and caring the officers are.
@Fallingdown232 That's what my mother always asked -- she was 12 when the K3 version came out -- and I had to explain it to her: Mr. and Mrs. Charlie were protesting the exit fare. Giving him the extra nickel would be surrender.
They had to have the exit fare because fare boxes couldn't take 2 coins at once. New York got around this in 1953 when theirs went from 10 to 15 cents by inventing the subway token. I think Philly and Toronto are the only North American cites that still use tokens.
So my fellow T lovers,i am going to admit something i have never told anyone. I use to work in Charlestown,overnight till 5am.I would walk to Sullivan Station and then the blue line up to the north shore (lynn).But if i needed to do some bank stuff id have to wait till eight,when the BoA opened.3 Hours.while waiting,I rode every line of the system out and back.Folks would stare at me on the Green line for cuppin my hands around my eyes so i could see in the tunnels.LOL.Ive done it all my life :)
City of Bostons government should be a shamed of themselves. Major city, no transit service much pass 12 midnight. Cinderalla city. Even in Buffalo buses run till 1:30 Am on a lot of routes. Toronto 24 hour service. Cleveland much smaller city, 24 hour service, Montreal 24 hour service. Boston return home at 12 midnight or turn into a pumpkin!!!!!!!! Cinderalla city with a joke. I would never live in such a town with idiotic Municipal State officials. Boston Ha Ha Ha Ha with a joke!!!!!!!!!!!
Seattle Metro runs limited overnight routes an hour or 1/2 apart
I can certainly write a song of them, just change a few of the words.
I'm sure seattle transit Train runs thru the tunnels now.
Been 5 years since I been there.
We do this song in Jam all the time, a guy who helps me out with it knows the whole story cause he lived in Boston at the time this happened, and I get him to explain MTA to the crowd. That is very important in and of itself.
@gmcbuses Since the Green, Orange, Red, and Blue lines are a 7 days a week operation, they have to do maintenance on the lines at some point, and they can only do it when the trains aren't running.
@Mcoov Okey so they should then run shuttle buses, on lines they are doing maintenance on, when the trains cannot run. Some of the busroutes should run 24 hours.
@letsgoceltics123 You shut the hell up. Go jump in the lake you twat. I"m right Boston should have 24 hour bus service. There is no excuse why a big city should not have 24 hour bus service. Boston is Cenderella City.
@gmcbuses wow real mature im a twat you douche you probably came on this board to talk politics and rant about transportation no one likes people like that so please shut the hell up and by the way you sound like a faggot because you mention cinderella so god dam much.. boo hoo boston doesnt have a 24 hour bus service well then how abou you get on the bus on time asshole i happen to like boston
@letsgoceltics123 Listen jerkoff, number 1 watch your language, number 2 it is quite obvious you do not actually depend on, and use public transportation much, Boston is a lower class city, because it does not have 24 hour bus service. Smaller Citys like Cleveland do. You shut the hell up idiot. Jump in the lake. It is obvious you do not like Boston otherwise you would also be for it having 24 hour bus service. Your a faker. Boston looks good when fans have to leave a playoff game at 12:00AM.
@gmcbuses umm i dont think you can decide if i want to watch my language i happen to think it is not a lower class city because it isnt so it has one thing you dont agree with big deal.. i happen to think boston is a pretty great city
@gmcbuses I agree that we should have 24 hour bus service, but you could have managed to say so without insulting people in the process. It is a pain, though, that if I visit a friend's place for a party, I have to leave by midnight or stay overnight. In the suburbs, everyone used cars and could stay later, but parking is such a pain in the city, so we leave earlier. I'd happily pay more for my monthly pass if it ran later.
I read online that the T is currently in the process of restoring Jamaica Plain service past Heath Street as part of the Big Dig mitigation. The line has been "temporarily suspended" since 1985
Some of those old cars in the first few seconds were still in use on the Green Line in the early 80's. They were noisy, uncomfortable and not air-conditioned. But I'm glad I got to ride them to and from college.
Their replacements (made by Boeing, I think) couldn't handle the sharp curves in Jamaica Plain, so the E line got terminated at Heath Street...
Great video collage. I don't remember seeing the trolleys operating on the Watertown line, but I remember taking a ride from the Watertown yard on of the old trackless-trolleys up Mt Auburn St line to Harvard. They looked like a PCC car, but ginormous tires. I remember there was wood trim inside and cloth seats (the PCC cars were all vinyl by that time, early 70s?) When they tore up Mt Auburn St in mid 80's, they revealed tracks that looked brand new, set in cobblestones w/cement pavement.
As the song was originally written, the listener was admonished to vote for Walter A. O'Brien, a Progressive Party candidate for Boston mayor in 1948. However, McCarthyite Red Scare era blacklisting pressures persuaded the Kingston Trio to change it to "George O'Brien", lest right wing protests ensue.
Wonderful pictures, I love the trolleys!! I will never forget the terrible day I got on the green line C instead of the green line D. For a tourist, it was quite a shock to be dumped out in the middle of nowhere without a map, but fortunately, I could just follow the tracks back, and eventually get home!! nice post
Know its early '60's tongue-in-cheek, but when you are a little kid & adults (going to Harvard, MIT, BU, and Tufts) had a big party in a rude apartment on Louis Prang Street and they had one big bass, a guitar or two, a banjo, and a ukele. Well, Ponderosa65, you learn the songs, and those of the Brothers Four, etc.
So whadda they do with me? Was allowed to hang out til I was put in an equipment room and told to watch the oscillograph until the screen changed. Sit there for hours, I would.
It's from the late 1940s with the person being "Walter O'Brien", but Kingston Trio made it famous in the early 1960s and changed the name because O'Brien's Progressive Party campaign was associated with Communism. The song was a campaign song originally and must have upset a lot of people because Boston nearly banned it.
@TheFlanker35 This is true. However, in 2004 the MTA (by then the MBTA) started a program where you could by a card that wouold let you on to the subway system. And what did they call the card? What else? The "Charlie Card."
I love the "T" and I always sing this song when I ride -- when I am in my beloved hometown. Curley would never have permitted such outrages as higher fares no tokens and George O'Brien.
'Course we had to buld James Michael his big House in Jamaica Plain. Yeah, but Curley was worth every penny he stole.
The Kingston Trio is still around...after a fashion. There IS a group that goes by that by that name made of members who replaced the originals who quit. As a result, the group that we have today doesn't have single original member in it. As for the originals, I'm not sure which one, but I do know that one passed away a while back.
So, yes, there is still a group called the Kingston Trio, but the original group is long gone and will never be back.
Hey, it's silly comedy. It's not supposed to make sense. If the Professor ohn "Gilligan's Island" was so smart, why didn't he just build a boat and leave? Russell Johnson said "Simple. If they got off the island, there would be no more show." Same's true of this song. It wouldn't exist if it made sense.
it really good but the mbta sould be able to raise fares.i mean it has to maintain huge amouts of PCC cars,deasil-electric engines,subway cars,passanger cars,trolly lines {green line and ashmont extention] besides i like the mbta
I believe on some buses you still pay on the way out... maybe it's the trackless trolleys. I'm just waiting to become the new Charlie when I have ten cents too few on my card.
Too late. The MBTA fare hike went into effect in January 2007, jumping from 1.25 to 1.70. To add to the irony of this ditty, the magnetic card is called "The Charlie Ticket."
We always sung this at camp! I LOVE IT! :D
frowerhousestudios 1 month ago
SCP-342,anyone?
lordofgangstas 4 months ago
@2:11 are those Orange Line cars at the Northeastern stop on the Arborway? Orange Line cars on the Green Line used to always flip me out.
40Waxx 6 months ago
My boys are young but they adore this video! I think they get a kick out of Charlie getting stuck on the train and never able to leave. The song is dated but still has a timeless appeal.
I'm amused that the MBTA chose the name Charlie Card while also raising the rates! Gotta wonder if they really understood the reasoning behind the song.
PhantomTF 7 months ago
cool picture of Boeing LRV # 3507. does anyone remember the LRV that derail at the curve going into North Station in 1978 or 1979? it was LRV # 3507. i knew the driver of that car.
lucy082011 10 months ago
@lucy082011 Yes Lucy, I was a student a NorthEastern when that happened. Jammed up the Green Line all afternoon.
40Waxx 6 months ago
A great song from 1959! My daughter was always singing this when she was about 6 or 7.
fordude60 11 months ago
That kind of happened to me when I was in my twenties - got on the wrong train that went all the way out to the zoo, I think, and the conductor kicked me off - "End of the line!" and I had run out of money! The Boston P.D. picked me up walking through a sketchy neighborhhod, gave me fare, and got me to another station so I could get home. Bless those cops!
pamiejune77 1 year ago
@pamiejune77 I'm from the south and the cops here are the complete opposite. They would question about what you're up too in an accusatory manner and try to bust you for something rather than help you. I was just in Boston for the first time last week and I was pleasantly surprised how nice and caring the officers are.
rondellw 11 months ago
Why didn't charlie's wife throw him money instead of a sandwich?
Fallingdown232 1 year ago
@Fallingdown232 That's what my mother always asked -- she was 12 when the K3 version came out -- and I had to explain it to her: Mr. and Mrs. Charlie were protesting the exit fare. Giving him the extra nickel would be surrender.
They had to have the exit fare because fare boxes couldn't take 2 coins at once. New York got around this in 1953 when theirs went from 10 to 15 cents by inventing the subway token. I think Philly and Toronto are the only North American cites that still use tokens.
UncleMikeNJ 9 months ago
So my fellow T lovers,i am going to admit something i have never told anyone. I use to work in Charlestown,overnight till 5am.I would walk to Sullivan Station and then the blue line up to the north shore (lynn).But if i needed to do some bank stuff id have to wait till eight,when the BoA opened.3 Hours.while waiting,I rode every line of the system out and back.Folks would stare at me on the Green line for cuppin my hands around my eyes so i could see in the tunnels.LOL.Ive done it all my life :)
danthomastherocker1 1 year ago
Now, all night long, Charlie rides through the stations
crying, "What will become of me?
It was bad enough when it was 15 cents but
it's now a dollar-seventy!"
UncleMikeNJ 1 year ago 2
Maybe they finally let Charlie off after they shut down Arborway!
Madness832 1 year ago
T still sux even today!
g33k33z 1 year ago
Comment removed
Madness832 1 year ago
City of Bostons government should be a shamed of themselves. Major city, no transit service much pass 12 midnight. Cinderalla city. Even in Buffalo buses run till 1:30 Am on a lot of routes. Toronto 24 hour service. Cleveland much smaller city, 24 hour service, Montreal 24 hour service. Boston return home at 12 midnight or turn into a pumpkin!!!!!!!! Cinderalla city with a joke. I would never live in such a town with idiotic Municipal State officials. Boston Ha Ha Ha Ha with a joke!!!!!!!!!!!
gmcbuses 2 years ago
@gmcbuses
Seattle Metro runs limited overnight routes an hour or 1/2 apart
I can certainly write a song of them, just change a few of the words.
I'm sure seattle transit Train runs thru the tunnels now.
Been 5 years since I been there.
We do this song in Jam all the time, a guy who helps me out with it knows the whole story cause he lived in Boston at the time this happened, and I get him to explain MTA to the crowd. That is very important in and of itself.
capt777737 2 years ago
@gmcbuses they close at 2
pat442389 2 years ago
Maybe they recently expanded the hours. That is a good move.
gmcbuses 2 years ago
@gmcbuses Since the Green, Orange, Red, and Blue lines are a 7 days a week operation, they have to do maintenance on the lines at some point, and they can only do it when the trains aren't running.
Mcoov 1 year ago
@Mcoov Okey so they should then run shuttle buses, on lines they are doing maintenance on, when the trains cannot run. Some of the busroutes should run 24 hours.
gmcbuses 1 year ago
@gmcbuses shut the hell up and just listen o the song if you dont like it you dont have to comment on it
letsgoceltics123 1 year ago
@letsgoceltics123 You shut the hell up. Go jump in the lake you twat. I"m right Boston should have 24 hour bus service. There is no excuse why a big city should not have 24 hour bus service. Boston is Cenderella City.
gmcbuses 1 year ago
@gmcbuses wow real mature im a twat you douche you probably came on this board to talk politics and rant about transportation no one likes people like that so please shut the hell up and by the way you sound like a faggot because you mention cinderella so god dam much.. boo hoo boston doesnt have a 24 hour bus service well then how abou you get on the bus on time asshole i happen to like boston
letsgoceltics123 1 year ago
@letsgoceltics123 Listen jerkoff, number 1 watch your language, number 2 it is quite obvious you do not actually depend on, and use public transportation much, Boston is a lower class city, because it does not have 24 hour bus service. Smaller Citys like Cleveland do. You shut the hell up idiot. Jump in the lake. It is obvious you do not like Boston otherwise you would also be for it having 24 hour bus service. Your a faker. Boston looks good when fans have to leave a playoff game at 12:00AM.
gmcbuses 1 year ago
@gmcbuses umm i dont think you can decide if i want to watch my language i happen to think it is not a lower class city because it isnt so it has one thing you dont agree with big deal.. i happen to think boston is a pretty great city
letsgoceltics123 1 year ago
@gmcbuses I agree that we should have 24 hour bus service, but you could have managed to say so without insulting people in the process. It is a pain, though, that if I visit a friend's place for a party, I have to leave by midnight or stay overnight. In the suburbs, everyone used cars and could stay later, but parking is such a pain in the city, so we leave earlier. I'd happily pay more for my monthly pass if it ran later.
swagmonkey 1 year ago
Charlie can't get off at Hingham, because the subway doesn't stop there. lol!
NeoSirLeader 2 years ago
I heard that too, but I think there are some law suits pending and if they win, I guess they will either have to dig up the tracks or lay new ones...
Sulla2300 2 years ago
yes
dl1154 2 years ago
wont hear this very often ive always liked it
y00sta 2 years ago
@y00sta
You will here
capt777737 2 years ago
Do you know if this song is in the public domain? (i.e. not copyrighted)
TrainManTy 2 years ago
@TrainManTy
Yep it is, we jam it all the time in bluegrass.
capt777737 2 years ago
I read online that the T is currently in the process of restoring Jamaica Plain service past Heath Street as part of the Big Dig mitigation. The line has been "temporarily suspended" since 1985
Sulla2300 2 years ago
who?
Mikosch2 2 years ago
it was.
Mikosch2 2 years ago
yes it was, it became MBTA in the 1960s, before that it was MTA and before MTA it was BERy
jdgator95 2 years ago 2
yep but former it was called MTA
Mikosch2 2 years ago 3
Mr Cooldit1 asked why his wife doesn't just give him a nickel.
I think it's pretty obvious that she doesn't want him off that train.
Alwaus.
roberty maos'n
gepetto887 2 years ago 6
his wife bothered to give him a sandwich everyday, why didn't she just give him a nickle?
cooldit1 2 years ago 2
@cooldit1
I wondered the same thing about 50 years ago when I was 10 years old!!
matteighm 1 month ago
Some of those old cars in the first few seconds were still in use on the Green Line in the early 80's. They were noisy, uncomfortable and not air-conditioned. But I'm glad I got to ride them to and from college.
Their replacements (made by Boeing, I think) couldn't handle the sharp curves in Jamaica Plain, so the E line got terminated at Heath Street...
Iznibz 2 years ago 2
I didnt know that? It would be awesome though if they still continued through Jamaica plain! Some train going to Watertown wouldnt hurt either!
werzoid 2 years ago 2
Great video collage. I don't remember seeing the trolleys operating on the Watertown line, but I remember taking a ride from the Watertown yard on of the old trackless-trolleys up Mt Auburn St line to Harvard. They looked like a PCC car, but ginormous tires. I remember there was wood trim inside and cloth seats (the PCC cars were all vinyl by that time, early 70s?) When they tore up Mt Auburn St in mid 80's, they revealed tracks that looked brand new, set in cobblestones w/cement pavement.
anthrocite 2 years ago 2
Great photos. I remember riding the Green Line along Comm. Ave. as a kid. Loved the old street cars.
bbxx44 3 years ago 2
I remember riding the old PCCs with the windows open coming around the bend before the Boyleston station. The screeching was exhilarating.
lmferg 3 years ago
charlie card and ticket
sieman700 3 years ago
Pain in my ass, I have T tokens left over from when I worked on the dig. Might I add they were 75 cents a ride.
TozziWelding 2 years ago 2
As the song was originally written, the listener was admonished to vote for Walter A. O'Brien, a Progressive Party candidate for Boston mayor in 1948. However, McCarthyite Red Scare era blacklisting pressures persuaded the Kingston Trio to change it to "George O'Brien", lest right wing protests ensue.
BenAliGtor 3 years ago
thats so funny now if you played the banjo in boston you get your ass shot by a gl0ck!
josephkennith 3 years ago
Wonderful pictures, I love the trolleys!! I will never forget the terrible day I got on the green line C instead of the green line D. For a tourist, it was quite a shock to be dumped out in the middle of nowhere without a map, but fortunately, I could just follow the tracks back, and eventually get home!! nice post
k9henrydog 3 years ago
I strongly we play this song every time they attempt to give us another rate increase.
mrmatchgame 4 years ago
Awesome!
Patrik9211 4 years ago
WHAT YOU ARE IN FAVOR OF PAYING 75 cents more?? ME GREEDY AND STINGY
Bozewani 4 years ago
You know, of course,that the song is from the early 1960s and is tongue in cheek.....
Ponderosa65 4 years ago
Know its early '60's tongue-in-cheek, but when you are a little kid & adults (going to Harvard, MIT, BU, and Tufts) had a big party in a rude apartment on Louis Prang Street and they had one big bass, a guitar or two, a banjo, and a ukele. Well, Ponderosa65, you learn the songs, and those of the Brothers Four, etc.
So whadda they do with me? Was allowed to hang out til I was put in an equipment room and told to watch the oscillograph until the screen changed. Sit there for hours, I would.
Anselcat 3 years ago
@Ponderosa65,
It's from the late 1940s with the person being "Walter O'Brien", but Kingston Trio made it famous in the early 1960s and changed the name because O'Brien's Progressive Party campaign was associated with Communism. The song was a campaign song originally and must have upset a lot of people because Boston nearly banned it.
TheFlanker35 1 year ago
@TheFlanker35 This is true. However, in 2004 the MTA (by then the MBTA) started a program where you could by a card that wouold let you on to the subway system. And what did they call the card? What else? The "Charlie Card."
frepler 10 months ago
I love the "T" and I always sing this song when I ride -- when I am in my beloved hometown. Curley would never have permitted such outrages as higher fares no tokens and George O'Brien.
'Course we had to buld James Michael his big House in Jamaica Plain. Yeah, but Curley was worth every penny he stole.
Anselcat 4 years ago
I support the fare increse!!!!!!!Good song.
tacosandtrains 4 years ago
NAAAAA!!! It's all there!!!!!!!!!! Thisis THE best!!!
It was written in 1949 but who doesn't love it today??
kloran 4 years ago
The Kingston Trio. I wonder if they are still around. This song was popular when I was in High School and the fare for kids was five cents!
awreslr2 4 years ago 2
The Kingston Trio is still around...after a fashion. There IS a group that goes by that by that name made of members who replaced the originals who quit. As a result, the group that we have today doesn't have single original member in it. As for the originals, I'm not sure which one, but I do know that one passed away a while back.
So, yes, there is still a group called the Kingston Trio, but the original group is long gone and will never be back.
smilodino 4 years ago
Hey, it's silly comedy. It's not supposed to make sense. If the Professor ohn "Gilligan's Island" was so smart, why didn't he just build a boat and leave? Russell Johnson said "Simple. If they got off the island, there would be no more show." Same's true of this song. It wouldn't exist if it made sense.
smilodino 4 years ago
Folk music souldnt be currupted by politics.Its all I am say'n.Seeze!
CitationCJ1 4 years ago
What do ya think started folk music??? Geeze if it wasn't for social/political situations there would be no folk music.
kloran 4 years ago
it really good but the mbta sould be able to raise fares.i mean it has to maintain huge amouts of PCC cars,deasil-electric engines,subway cars,passanger cars,trolly lines {green line and ashmont extention] besides i like the mbta
vega7689 4 years ago 3
Splendid!
Comwhiz2002 4 years ago 2
Oh, the memories! Thank you for this video.
LoisJoy 4 years ago 2
I believe on some buses you still pay on the way out... maybe it's the trackless trolleys. I'm just waiting to become the new Charlie when I have ten cents too few on my card.
basketccase 4 years ago 4
Urban folk music. Awesome.
nunavuter 4 years ago
Meet me at Scollay Square!
Ponderosa65 4 years ago 4
Too late. The MBTA fare hike went into effect in January 2007, jumping from 1.25 to 1.70. To add to the irony of this ditty, the magnetic card is called "The Charlie Ticket."
FranklyMisterShankly 4 years ago 3
yeah but there is no exit fare so for the first time , charlie can get off the new to him MBTA
PVincent342 4 years ago 3
i wonder why his wife dosent give him a nickel instead of a damn sandwich! lol
MBTA1116 4 years ago
he could get off that damn trian
youjerk1978 4 years ago
not in Hingham! lol
Ponderosa65 4 years ago
he's off the train now because by now he's an old man and qualifies for the senior citizen discount which reduces his fare to already paid.
pete5668 3 years ago 5
BC lower campus?
Ponderosa65 4 years ago 2
God Bless Johnny Kelly! Hey, I was thinking of going to the marathon next week. Do you know anywhere I can park a bus?
xanadu28 4 years ago
Excuse me but is this the substitute "T"?
xanadu28 4 years ago 2
The "T" is the logo for the Mass. Bay Transportation Authority, and that's what they call the system as is:
"The T".
videonut33 4 years ago 2