"burned like the Sun" - great line and great parody.

Kingston trio? Are we showing our age or just a broad musical spectrum?

A broad musical spectrum - I already showed my age quite explicitly in "Sick Of Bohemian Rhapsody"... but yes, my age comes through here as well, seeing as I did grow up with an older brother who was and still is a fan of The Kingston Trio.

Great parody....but admitting to knowing this song is not at all showing my age lol....I was born quite some time after

Thanks John, Rick, and Billy !

JD, This looks good but I don't know the song even 'tho I'm probably old enough to. Know where I could get a listen to the original at?

Check it out, Guy:

http://www.atr.org/audiovisual/kingston_trio_charlie_on_the_mta.mp3

Guy, if you want to actually download the entire mp3, go to this site:

http://www.atr.org/audiovisual/

......., and if you're using Windows, do the right-click-thingie to "Save Target As" on the link titled ""Charlie on the MTA" by The Kingston Trio". The mp3 of this song is offered for free no-strings-attached download at that site, and is 3.02 MB in size. It is the full version of the original performance.

You missed a verse but otherwise this was great. And not an easy song to do.

Thanks Michael - you're right, it's not an easy song to do. The verse that I omitted was the "Vote for George O'Brien!" campaign-slogan verse at the very end of the original song. I felt that I was able to tell my parody's whole story concisely and completely without that superfluous verse. The original "M.T.A." song was intended to be a political-campaign-slogan-folk-song - the original song is therefore an example of slightly bizarre but nonetheless classic & entertaining American folk music.

Dr Hall, I came across this one and had to vote and comment. This song has a very interesting history. The song "The Ship That Never Returned" was written in 1865 by Henry Clay Work. That tune was popular but probably would have been forgotten had it not been modified and revived in the early twentieth century as "The Wreck of the Old 97" about a train wreck. That song included the lyric "She was coming down the grade making ninety miles an hour . . ." This line was purloined almost verbatim in the Chad Mitchell Trio's 1962 parody "Super Skier." But before that, the song would be used as a campaign song for Walter O'Brien, a 1948 candidate for Mayor of Boston. Walter was apparently too controversial so when the Kingston Trio picked up this song in 1959 they changed his name to "George" to thinly veil his identity. (This was ostensibly to avoid ticking off the good conservative Bostonians.) This song was then parodied (as mentioned) by the Chad Mitchell Trio in 1962, but they were obviously aware of the earlier (though not earliest) version of the song. The reason I know all of this is because I researched it in order to give a ridiculous introduction to my parody "The Elder Who Never Returned" poking fun at a Missionary who seemed doomed to stay in our ward forever (one week later he FINALLY got a transfer - lol!). I did this as part of a show at my church. My punchline was "I tell you all of this to show that; like any good songwriter, I respect two great songwriting ideals: Tradition and plagiarism." It got a laugh, though it might have been all the root beer. So, how's THAT for information you'll never use - lol! Great parody, JD, as usual!

Wow, cool historical info there, Stray Pooch - thanks for sharing, dude!! And thanks for your vote, too!