Great song. A local band does an excellent cover of it, but I still have Kingston trios version on my Zune.

I've seen these guys perform in thier various incarnations over the years. I listened to the "College Concert" albumn until the needle wore out the grooves. They were reponsible for me learning to play the guitar, and consequently getting me laid by a bunch of folkie chicks. Thanks, boys, and rest easy Nick.

"...and through the open window she hands CHARLIE A SANDWICH as the train comes rumblin' through!"


What a great song.

I always loved that song. I found a fascinating story about the history of the song online. It was written in 1949 as a campaign song for a candidate running for mayor in Boston on a platform that included reducing the fares on the M.T.A. (now the M.B.T.A.)

George O'Brien was not the man's name. (It was Walter A. O'Brien.) Details about how Walter became George are available on the link above.

The electronic fare payment card used by the MBTA (the MTA's successor) is named the "Charlie Card" after the man whose life was ruined by the fare payment system.

It has been suggested that Charlie must have been a bad husband, otherwise his wife would have handed him a nickel instead of a sandwich.

You never go MtA!

I kept waiting for Nick Reynolds to hit the other guitar player in the face with the head of that silly little four-string he's playing.

That "silly little four-string" is called a tenor guitar, and it's a perfectly kickass instrument in the proper hands.

The Kingston Trio was one of my dads favorite group. The popularity of Tom Dooley began the Folk Music movement that reached it's peak in 1960 with such people as Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Peter, Paul and Mary and Richie Haven.

They could sing a serious song and novelty songs with equal enthusiasm and talent and they were pretty funny onstage. If you get a chance listen to there live albums.

When they were in San Francisco at the Hungry I club, Kingston Trio said this "We were in LA which, as you know, is an intellectual town, and we were fortunate to run into him...."

Well, as always happens when someone dies....

alt.binaries.mp3 a.b.folk.mp3 a.b.1950's.mp3 will be very interesting.

/think I have every album
//that is album as in VINYL
///several bootlegs live recordings

One of my fathers favorites. Therefor worthy of my praise. Many fond memories of the 8 track best of.

The first time I heard this song was in an Irish pub called Murphy's in Old Town Alexandria, Va. There were some changes though. Mainly that Charlie's wife handed him a Guinness instead of a sammich.

I was at a private party in Atlanta some years ago and the guest of honor was an engineer who started with the MTA and then came south to work for MARTA. Bob Guard lived nearby and brought his guitar to the party. Charlie never returned because he got on the MARTA train to nowhere.

Great memory.