Nick Reynolds, a founding member of the Kingston Trio, has passed away at age 75. He is best remembered amongst railfans as the singer of the 1958 hit record, "MTA". "MTA" is the fictional story of "A man named Charlie..." who couldn't get off the Boston subway because of a 5 cent fare increase during his ride. It was a tremendous hit at the time, following "Tom Dooley". From 1957 to 1967, the Kingston Trio was the #1 American recording group in the nation.

The Boston "T" uses their "Charlie Cards" to control fares today, as a nod to the famous song.

Richard, ya' had to remind me. Nick, the shortest member of the Trio and often the subject of many jokes to the effect, added a lot of humor and talent to onstage charm of the the Trio in their Dave Guard and John Stewart years respectively.

The Trio's lead vocalist Bob Shane suffered a heart attack a few years ago, but is thankfully still among the living, although retired.

Other notable songs with railroad motifs sung by or written by the Trio:
Fast Freight
Chilly Winds
500 Miles
Bonny Hielan' Laddie
Buddy Get On Down The Line
To Morrow
Two-Ten, Six-Eighteen

Kelly Lynch

Sung by? Certainly. "Written by"? Hardly. The folk tradition is full of mangled attributions and "Trad. arr." A quick perusal of my own K3 anthologies reveals only partial attribution to Dave Guard on "Bonnie Hieland Laddie," which is a melody and song/chantey going back a century or more before the Trio. "Fast Freight" is attributed to Terry Gilkyson; "Hobo's Lullaby" (another rail-themed song) to Goebel Reeves.......... Now, "Scotch and Soda," Bob Shane's notable solo, WAS written by...... Dave Guard...........

Now, now Sandy you know I don't meant to attribute all of these songs to the KT, especially better known ones such as "500 Miles" and "Chilly Winds."

"MTA" (which I can almost sing without cue cards) bears a strong resemblance to "The Wreck of Old 97". The best known version is by Johnny Cash, but the song dates back to at least the 1920's and the incident on which it's based occurred around 1900. According to music historian and radio personality Barrett Hansen (known to many as "Dr. Demento") the tune goes back to "The Ship That Never Returned".
As a side note:
Older recordings of "Old 97" have the line "Then he turned around and said to his black greasy fireman, hey shovel on a little more coal....." Some time around 1960 it changed to "big greasy fireman". During the steam era, in the southeastern part of the USA, African Americans could fire steam locomotives, but would not be promoted to the engineer's job.
We now return to our regular railway preservation program....

The story I heard is that the "MTA" words/song was actually a campaign song for a candidate for mayor of Boston around 1950 or so. The Kingston Trio used the campaign song pretty much as written. Maybe someone from Beantown can provide some light as to whether that story is true or not. That is, if they can be torn away from the BoSox for a while.

Les

"MTA" was written to help get a Socialist candidate named O'Brien elected to a city office, whether it was council or mayor, I don't remember. The song was slower and not as well arranged as when the Trio got it. Dave Guard was in charge of the threesome's music, while Nick covered transportation, and Bob handled the matching shirts and slacks. They were discovered by manager Frank Werber, and he helped tumble off the rough edges, making them the immortal singing group they became. In 1961, Dave left the group and John Stewart took his place, singing with Bob and Nick until 1967. Bob Shane is the only survivor of the original group.

"Scotch and Soda" was an established song, written years before the group even got together. The correct story is that Guard and Shane heard it being played while visiting the parents of a mutual friend. They both liked the bluesy-boozey lilt to the song, and Guard arranged it for Bob Shane to sing. It became his signature song. He did it so well, in fact, that when somebody suggested to Sinatra that he cover it, Sinatra said "No. It's been done", in deference to Bob's version.

As posted above, The Kingston Trio did a fair number of railroad related songs, and some even written by "professional hoboes". Nic Reynolds choose "Hobo's Lullaby" as his last song to perform solo in concert.

The explanation given here is pretty much in accord with my high school age memory

http://www.mit.edu/~jdreed/t/charlie.html

The Boston Elevated's fare structure was indeed byzantine and I sometimes wonder if administering it was actually the straw which broke the camel's back and led to the formation of the MTA in when I was in my early teens, but then again this is the transit system that gave us two-rooms-and-a-bath streetcars.
GME

Hmm, I wonder if anyone is writing old style folk songs about what's going on in the railroad biz today?

No, instead the folks that would have written those songs now just complain long and loud at places like TrainOrders, etc. and websites like [InsertRailroadNameHere]Sux.com.............

Seriously, we've long had the joke of "why are there no conservative-leaning folk songs?" The answer is that they're commercially-successful music....... <:-)

I've always heard it as "Black greasy". As a matter of fact, both fireman aboard that night were white. But I'm guessing it doesn't matter what color you are, you'll eventually end up greasy and black.