Slight updates on my "Charlie on the MTA" questions

[xiphias]

sokmunky pointed out that Ms. Jaqueline Steiner has an email address.

So I emailed the following:

Dear Ms. Steiner;

First, I wanted to thank you for writing the brilliant "Charlie on the MTA".

I was doing a little research into Mr. O'Brein's campagin, and I learned that he had a seven-plank platform, of which affortable public transit was only one plank. I also found something that said that a folksong was written for each plank.

I was wondering if you had any information about what the other six songs were, since I have only ever heard of the one which you wrote.

Thank you;

Ian Osmond

I received the following email in reply:

Dear Mr. Osmond:

Thanks so much for your e-mail and your interest in Charlie on the MTA, as well as in Walter O'Brien (it's not O'Brein, as you had it).

I remember just one other song in the group -- a talking blues kind of thing. One of the choruses ran: "You vote for Hynes, but, man alive, all he can sing is that State Street jive, You gotta use your ballot, O'Brien is
your man." (As you must know, John Hynes won that election.)

I think the person who can help you is Sam [last name and town deleted, but it's local. If I get his permission to, I'll post them. For all I know, some of you may be his friends -- he seems like Our Kind Of Folks] I'll look up his e-mail and send it to you. Sam was a member of the folk song group headed by Bess Lomax Hawes (co-writer of the MTA song), and he sang some of the campaign songs on a sound track that traversed Boston during the
campaign.

Are you a Bostonian? What prompted you to research the O'Brien campaign?

Best wishes,

Jacqueline Steiner

I thought about her question, and replied as follows:

Thank you for responding! And sorry for my terrible spelling.

I am a Bostonian -- I live in Melrose. Nothing in particular prompted me: I'm just generally curious, did a Google search on "Charlie on the MTA" one day, and found out that it was one of a series. I assume just about anybody with a grain of curiousity in their body would have to start wondering at that point.

So I started just asking my friends about it, as a conversation, and in curiousity, to see if anyone else knew, and one of them did a Google search, and pointed out that you had an email address, and that you'd probably know more. . .

So no particular interest, except that it's a great song, and Walter O'Brien seemed like a fascinating person -- as a fourth-generation progressive myself (my parents helped organize anti-Vietnam protests, as well as more recent protests against some of the current messes we're in now, and my great-grandparents were Wobblies), he just seemed like someone I would have liked to know.

And, well, I have a guitar, and there's just so little good protest music being written these days -- Emenem and Green Day had one or two political-type songs, but that's more the exception than the rule. In the Eighties, when I was growing up, we had a few politically charged songs: "Hammer to Fall", "Age of Confusion",
"Born in the U.S.A.," and so forth.

And, again, those were all, in a sense, BIG. Songs that covered the country. So the notion of folk songs that were local in their import and impact -- that really intrigued me -- because it feels like something that, maybe, I could do. I couldn't write a song like Springstein can, about being a Vietnam veteran whose government turned its back on me, but maybe I could write a song about, I don't know, how I feel that gay friends of mine can get married.

Anyway, thank you for your response. I hope I'm not boring you with my blathering on -- do you mind if I post your response to my blog, which is where I was having the conversation were someone suggested your name?

- Ian Osmond

She seemed amused, and replied as follows:

Dear Ian,

Thanks for the reply. Sam [lastname]'s e-mail is: [deleted for politeness's sake].

Wally O'Brien was a wonderful man, a trade unionist, a warm, generous, passionate progressive. He and his wife Laura had retired to Cundy's Harbor, Maine during their last years, and I had the good fortune to visit them a year or two before Wally's death. Laura died a couple of years after that. Their children still carry on their tradition.

Happy to hear about your heritage.

You're right, not enough topical songs are being written these days. So why not go ahead and try it yourself? You have themes that need to be expressed.

If you like, you can use my "deathless words" in your blog. But please don't use Sam's info unless he gives you permission.

All the best,

Jackie

So, I just dropped an email to Sam, and we'll see what he says.

I'm having fun with this.

Comments

[gingicat]

This is marvelous! I'm looking forward to what will come of it.

And you know, some of us *do* write songs on a small scale. Kinda.
http://www.gingicat.org/filkindex.html
http://www.gingicat.org/jacob/

[stakebait.livejournal.com]

This is so cool! What neat stories wait inside each bit of culture, if you have the patience to tease them out. I usually don't, but I enjoy the results when you do.

[rebmommy.livejournal.com]

nice userpic! draws me right inside. what is it a picture of and where did you find it?

[stakebait.livejournal.com]

From an online ad for Columbia University on www.nytimes.com. I hope they don't mind my using it -- I had no clue who to ask.

There wasn't too much more of the pic in the actual ad, but I think they're hedges, planted in a spiral.

[rebmommy.livejournal.com]

Yes - it looks like hedges to me, too. Is it a labyrinth? At Columbia University?

[stakebait.livejournal.com]

None that I've ever seen, and I went there. I think it was supposed to be something cool done by a graduate.

[rebmommy.livejournal.com]

Thanks for replying. It is< cool. Must be effort to maintain, though.

[fibro-witch.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much for sharing this with us. I am looking forward to hearing from Sam.

[teddywolf.livejournal.com]

Went looking for this earlier.

http://www.livejournal.com/users/teddywolf/151318.html

[rebmommy.livejournal.com]

I like treasure hunts, and this one is about music - makes it extra-special! Looking forward to hearing about what else you discover. When you find all seven, let's have a party and sing them all. We can invite Jacqueline and Sam.

[sokmunky.livejournal.com]

So, did you ever hear anything?

S.