From the recording Irish Songs!

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Written by by Jacqueline Steiner and Bess Lomax Hawes

This is a song my Grandmother used to sing to me. In the original song, they sang about George O'Brien ~ we took some poetic license and changed it to James Michael Curley. JMC was the Boston Mayor roughly from 1914 to 1950. So powerful was he that he was once Mayor while in prison. Robin Hood my grandmother would say.

Lyrics

Well, let me tell you of the story of a man named Charlie
On a tragic and fateful day
He put ten cents in his pocket, kissed his wife and family
Went to ride on the MTA

Well, did he ever return?
No he never returned and his fate is still unlearned
He may ride forever 'neath the streets of Boston
And he's the man who never returned

Charlie handed in his dime at the Kendall Square station
And he changed for Jamaica Plain
When he got there the conductor told him, "One more nickel"
Charlie couldn't get off of that train

But did he ever return?
No he never returned and his fate is still unlearned
He may ride forever 'neath the streets of Boston
He's the man who never returned

Now, all night long Charlie rides through the station
Crying, "What will become of me?
How can I afford to see my sister in Chelsea
Or my cousin in Roxbury?"

But did he ever return?
No he never returned and his fate is still unlearned
He may ride forever 'neath the streets of Boston
He's the man who never returned

Charlie's wife goes down to the Sculley Square station
Every day at quarter past two
And through the open window she hands Charlie a sandwich
As the train comes rumbling through

But did he ever return?
No he never returned and his fate is still unlearned
He may ride forever 'neath the streets of Boston
He's the man who never returned