"M.T.A.", often called "The MTA Song", is a 1949 song byJacqueline Steiner andBess Lomax Hawes. Known informally as "Charlie on the MTA", the song's lyrics tell an absurd tale of a man named Charlie trapped onBoston'ssubway system, which was then known as theMetropolitan Transit Authority (MTA). The song was originally recorded as a mayoral campaign song forProgressive Party candidateWalter A. O'Brien. A version of the song with the candidate's name changed became a1959 hit when recorded and released byThe Kingston Trio, an Americanfolk singing group.^[1]

The song has become so entrenched inBoston lore that the Boston-area transit authority named its electronic card-based fare collection system the "CharlieCard" as a tribute to this song.^[2] The transit organization, now called theMassachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), held a dedication ceremony for the card system in 2004 which featured a performance of the song by the Kingston Trio, attended by then-governorMitt Romney.^[1][3]

The Kingston Trio version begins with a spoken recitation by Dave Guard accompanied by a bowed bass fiddle: "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 MTA, 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."

The song's lyrics^[4] tell of Charlie, a man who boards an MTA subway car, but then cannot get off because he does not have enough money for the new "exit fares". These additional charges had just been established to collect an increased fare without replacing existing fare collection equipment.

When he got there the conductor told him,
"One more nickel."
Charlie couldn't get off of that train.

The song goes on to say that every day Charlie's wife hands him a sandwich "as the train comes rumbling through" because he is stranded on the train. It is probably best known for its 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.

After the third line of the chorus, in the natural break in the phrasing, audiences familiar with the song oftencall out "Poor Old Charlie!" or "What a pity!" As the song fades out, the words "Et tu, Charlie?" are spoken by Nick Reynolds, meaning "You too, Charlie?"

The song, based on a much older version called "The Ship That Never Returned" (or its railroad successor, "Wreck of the Old 97"), was composed in 1949 as part of the election campaign ofWalter A. O'Brien, aProgressive Party candidate for Bostonmayor. 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").^[4][5]

One of O'Brien's 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. The Progressive Party had opposed the public buyout of Boston's streetcar system, which it argued enriched the previous private ownership and was followed by higher fares to city residents. 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.^[1][6]

The song has Charlie boarding at the Kendall Square station (now calledKendall/MIT) and changing forJamaica Plain. Kendall is on what is now theRed Line (the lines were not color-coded until 1965), so his "change for Jamaica Plain" would have been atPark Street. There, he would have boarded a#39 streetcar (later theGreen Line E branch) for Jamaica Plain. In 1949, the line went all the way toArborway in Jamaica Plain, but the line was truncated toHeath Street at the northern edge of Jamaica Plain in 1985.

The song further mentions that his wife visited him every day atScollay Square, which today isGovernment Center on the Green Line.

• TheChad Mitchell Trio song "Super Skier", written by Bob Gibson, used the tune and although its lyrics have nothing to do with subways, ends with a call to "get Charlie off the MTA".
• Boston-basedpunk rock bandDropkick Murphys wrote a variation,Skinhead on the MBTA, with askinhead in place of Charlie, on their 1998 albumDo or Die.
• The Front Porch Country Band recorded a song called "The Man Who Finally Returned" about Charlie getting off the MTA because the track's renovation duringthe Big Dig.
• Bob Haworth, a member of The Kingston Trio, wrote and recorded a song called "MTA Revisited" in 2003.^[8]
• Fred Small wrote and recorded a parody called "Sergei in the Milky Way" with the true story of Soviet cosmonautSergei Krikalyov, who was temporarily stranded in space when the Soviet Union broke up. Small mimicked the Kingston Trio arrangement almost note for note.
• Frank Black sings "You can't get off your stop / Like old Charlie on the MTA" in his song "Living on Soul".
• InMalcolm in the Middle, the song was performed byHal'sbluegrass group The Gentleman Callers, in the episode "Long Drive".
• In response to the 2022 monthlong shutdown of theMBTA Orange Line, a group of local musicians gathered atBack Bay Station to perform a parody called "Charlie (Baker) on the MBTA," with lyrics mocking the shutdown as well as Massachusetts governorCharlie Baker's reputation for never utilizing public transit while in office.^[9] A clip from the performance was featured onAll Things Considered's segment about the shutdown.^[10]
• Dave Van Ronk recorded "Georgie on the IRT", about a man who is decapitated by a closing door on the New York subway, leaving his body at Times Square while his head endlessly rides back and forth to Flatbush Avenue.

• The computer scientistHenry Baker references the song in his paper "CONS Should Not CONS Its Arguments, Part II: Cheney on the M.T.A.", which describes a way of implementingCheney's algorithm usingC functions that, like Charlie, never return.^[11]
• The computer scientistsGuy L. Steele Jr. andGerald Jay Sussman also make reference to the song in one of theLambda Papers when discussing functions such as the Lisp driver loop which never returns, just like Charlie in the song.^[12]

• List of train songs

• Charlie on the MTA lyrics and history
• Boston Globe obituary of Bess Hawes
• Video with soundtrack of the Kingston Trio recording onYouTube
• "Will Charlie Ever Get Off That Train?" by Peter Dreier and Jim Vrabel

• 1949 songs
• 1959 singles
• Capitol Records singles
• Songs about trains
• Songs about Boston
• The Kingston Trio songs
• Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority
• Protest songs

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata