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Did He Ever Return?: The Forgotten Story of "Charlie and the M.T.A."

Did He Ever Return?: The Forgotten Story of "Charlie and the M.T.A." PETEr DrEIEr anD JIm VraBEl On a clear, chilly day in november 2004, massachusetts' then-governor mitt romney stood inside a large white tent set up on the plaza outside Boston City Hall. He was there to sing a song--something he did with gusto as he joined the Kingston Trio in a rousing rendition of "m.T.a.," the well-known ballad about a "man named Charlie" doomed to "ride forever 'neath the streets of Boston" and become "the man who never returned." The purpose of this unusual concert was to launch the "Charlie Card," an electronic fare card that replaced tokens on the Boston subway system.1 romney said he had wanted to sing that song in public "since about the fifth grade." This isn't surprising because, since the Kingston Trio's hit recording of the song in 1959, "m.T.a." has become a part of american culture, recorded by other performers, reprinted in myriad songbooks, and sung at countless summer camps. There are now at least fifty versions of the song on YouTube by professional and amateur performers, including versions from Ireland and Denmark. In 1996 the conservative magazine National Review included "m.T.a." in its tongue-in-cheek list of the 100 "most conservative rock http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png American Music University of Illinois Press

Did He Ever Return?: The Forgotten Story of "Charlie and the M.T.A."

American Music , Volume 28 (1) – Mar 18, 2010

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Publisher
University of Illinois Press
Copyright
Copyright © University of Illinois Press
ISSN
1945-2349
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Abstract

PETEr DrEIEr anD JIm VraBEl On a clear, chilly day in november 2004, massachusetts' then-governor mitt romney stood inside a large white tent set up on the plaza outside Boston City Hall. He was there to sing a song--something he did with gusto as he joined the Kingston Trio in a rousing rendition of "m.T.a.," the well-known ballad about a "man named Charlie" doomed to "ride forever 'neath the streets of Boston" and become "the man who never returned." The purpose of this unusual concert was to launch the "Charlie Card," an electronic fare card that replaced tokens on the Boston subway system.1 romney said he had wanted to sing that song in public "since about the fifth grade." This isn't surprising because, since the Kingston Trio's hit recording of the song in 1959, "m.T.a." has become a part of american culture, recorded by other performers, reprinted in myriad songbooks, and sung at countless summer camps. There are now at least fifty versions of the song on YouTube by professional and amateur performers, including versions from Ireland and Denmark. In 1996 the conservative magazine National Review included "m.T.a." in its tongue-in-cheek list of the 100 "most conservative rock

Journal

American MusicUniversity of Illinois Press

Published: Mar 18, 2010

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