She Caught the Katy

Question

One of my favourite blues/soul songs is "She Caught the Katy."

I've been trying to find out what these lyrics mean:

She caught the katy
Left me a mule to ride
I've Googled some music groups and come up with the following:
1)

Katy, or KT, which stands for Kansan and Texas Railroad (K&T);

Mule, refers to a slower moving, local train. Actual meaning of mule: a hybrid between a horse and a donkey, in particular the offspring of a male donkey and a mare. In this case it's metaphor for a slow transport.
2)

The "Katy" was the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Line train. The M-K-T was often called "the K-T" or "the Katy" for short.
3)

I-10 is known as the Katy Freeway in Houston. There used to be tracks paralleling the freeway until 5-10 years ago.
+++
Can anyone confirm any or all of this?
Can anyone think of similar usages in songs?

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]One of my favourite blues/soul songs is "She Caught the Katy." I've been trying to find out what these lyrics mean: She caught the katy Left me a mule to ride I've Googled some music groups and come up with the following:[/nq]
(Longer exposition suggesting the Katy is

1) Kansan and Texas Railroad
2) Missouri-Kansas-Texas Line train
3) I-10, the "Katy Freeway")
3) is obviously absurd. The expression dates to the 19th century, whilethe Katy Freeway is post-WWII.
The correct answer is close to (2). The railroad was the "Missouri, Kansas, and Texas Railroad" (1866) or "Missouri, Kansas, and Texas Railroad of Texas" (1891). The "Missouri" and "Kansas" part were largely fiction. The original planned railroad would have been wholly in Kansas (1865) and the 1866 renaming was largely wishful thinking.

This railroad had almost 1600 miles of track in Texas, usually between
80 and 120 locomotives (fewer as they got better) and over 1000 cars.The merger with Missouri-Pacific in 1989 put an end to it.

If you really care, check

1952 Masterson, The Katy Railroad and the Last Frontier
1970 Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad Company, The Opening of the GreatSouthwest, 1870-1970

1986 Collias & George, Katy Power: Locomotives and Trains of theMissouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad, 1912-1985

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]One of my favourite blues/soul songs is "She Caught the Katy." I've been trying to find out what these lyrics ... used to be tracks paralleling the freeway until 5-10 years ago. +++ Can anyone confirm any or all of this?[/nq]
No, but it sounds believable. Subways and xways are often build on unused railroad right-of-ways because it works so well.

There was a proposed plan to build a trucks-only or cars-only alternative to the Pa. Turnpike but using unused railroad property, but I don't think it happened. (Trucks do most of the damage to roads.)
[nq:1]Can anyone think of similar usages in songs?[/nq]
In "Get Charlie off the MTA", the lyricist uses the initialism MTA.

s/ meirman If you are emailing me please
say if you are posting the same response.
Born west of Pittsburgh Pa. 10 years
Indianapolis, 7 years
Chicago, 6 years
Brooklyn NY 12 years
Baltimore 20 years

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]One of my favourite blues/soul songs is "She Caught the Katy." I've been trying to find out what these lyrics ... used to be tracks paralleling the freeway until 5-10 years ago. +++ Can anyone confirm any or all of this?[/nq]
I took this question not to ask which is the most likely explanation for the song lyric, but which of them is true. They might all be true.
[nq:1]Can anyone think of similar usages in songs?[/nq]
s/ meirman If you are emailing me please
say if you are posting the same response.
Born west of Pittsburgh Pa. 10 years
Indianapolis, 7 years
Chicago, 6 years
Brooklyn NY 12 years
Baltimore 20 years

Usenet · Answer

"meirman"> >Can anyone think of similar usages in songs?
[nq:1]In "Get Charlie off the MTA", the lyricist uses the initialism MTA.[/nq]
It's "Charley and the MTA" by the Kingston trio, and the real name of what we here call the T is the MBTA, Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority. I guess the B was awkward to fit in the song.
"And he never returned,
no he never returned,
and his fate is still unlearned,
he must travel forever 'neath the streets of Boston, he's the man who never returned."

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]"meirman"> >Can anyone think of similar usages in songs?[/nq]
[nq:2]In "Get Charlie off the MTA", the lyricist uses the initialism MTA.[/nq]
[nq:1]It's "Charley and the MTA" by the Kingston trio, and the real name of what we here call the T ... returned, no he never returned, and his fate is still unlearned, he must travel forever 'neath the streets of Boston,[/nq]
ride?
[nq:1]he's the man who never returned."[/nq]
s/ meirman If you are emailing me please
say if you are posting the same response.
Born west of Pittsburgh Pa. 10 years
Indianapolis, 7 years
Chicago, 6 years
Brooklyn NY 12 years
Baltimore 20 years

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]"meirman"> >Can anyone think of similar usages in songs? It's ... unlearned, he must travel forever 'neath the streets of Boston,[/nq]
[nq:1]ride?[/nq]
[nq:2]he's the man who never returned."[/nq]
Ride,
the song celebrated one of the T's fare increases. The T ,while not up to the standard of Montreal's Metro, is a good deal and perfectly safe to ride.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]"meirman"> >Can anyone think of similar usages in songs?[/nq]
[nq:2]In "Get Charlie off the MTA", the lyricist uses the initialism MTA.[/nq]
[nq:1]It's "Charley and the MTA" by the Kingston trio, and the real name of what we here call the T is the MBTA, Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority. I guess the B was awkward to fit in the song.[/nq]
In those days, it was "MTA". The MTA was formed in 1947 and became the MBTA in 1964. The MBTA was almost immediately nicknamed the "T".

The song was not written by the Kingston Trio: it was written and first recorded by the Almanac Singers, and it was a campaign song of Walter O'Brien, Progressive candidate for mayor in 1948 and opponent of the much-ridiculed MTA fare structure. It was so controversial that O'Brien was fined for playing it in public, and Coral Records was forced to withdraw a recording by Will Holt. But it is the KT's 1959 version, in which political controversy was damped by emending Walter to George, that became well-known.
"Now you citizens of Boston,
Don't you think it's a scandal
That the people have to pay and pay
Vote for Walter A. O'Brien
And fight the fare increase
Get poor Charlie off the MTA."
And there neither was nor is a "Jamaica Plain" station on the MTA or T. But a rhyme for "train" was needed badly enough to invent one.
[nq:1]"And he never returned, no he never returned, and his fate is still unlearned, he must travel forever 'neath the streets of Boston, he's the man who never returned."[/nq]
See "Charlie on the MTA" by Jonathan Reed, at
http://www.mit.edu/people/jdreed/t/charlie.html

Chris Green

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]"meirman"> >Can anyone think of similar usages in songs? It's ... Iguess the B was awkward to fit in the song.[/nq]
[nq:1]In those days, it was "MTA". The MTA was formed in 1947 and became the MBTA in 1964. The MBTA ... "Jamaica Plain" station on the MTA or T. But a rhyme for "train" was needed badly enough to invent one.[/nq]
There are stations in JP though Forrest Hills being the major one.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]"meirman"> >Can anyone think of similar usages in songs?[/nq]
[nq:2]In "Get Charlie off the MTA", the lyricist uses the initialism MTA.[/nq]
[nq:1]It's "Charley and the MTA" by the Kingston trio, and the real name of what we here call the T ... his fate is still unlearned, he must travel forever 'neath the streets of Boston, he's the man who never returned."[/nq]
Except it wasn't by the Kingston Trio, and the MBTA ("T") was then the MTA. The MTA was formed in 1947. The name changed in 1964, and (maybe because "MBTA" doesn't rank high on anybody's scale of euphony) it was promptly nicknamed the "T".
It was a campaign song of the 1948 Progressive candidate for mayor, Walter O'Brien: his platform included an attack on the byzantine and much-ridiculed MTA fare structure. It was written and performed by the Almanac Singers, who were featured in his campaign. The song (as well as O'Brien himself) was so controversial that O'Brien was fined for disturbing the peace, and Coral Records was forced to withdraw a recording by Will Holt.
"Now you citizens of Boston,
Don't you think it's a scandal
That the people have to pay and pay
Vote for Walter A. O'Brien
And fight the fare increase
Get poor Charlie off the MTA."
The Kingston Trio dropped the controversial Walter, replacing him with a nonexistent and uncontroversial George, and had a hit with it in
1959.

There never was a "Jamaica Plain" station, but necessity is the mother of invention.

Chris Green

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]what guess[/nq]
[nq:2]ride?[/nq]
[nq:1]Ride, the song celebrated one of the T's fare increases. The T ,while not up to the standard of Montreal's Metro, is a good deal and perfectly safe to ride.[/nq]
I wasn't suggesting it wasn't safe to ride, but that the word in the song is "ride" and not "travel".
s/ meirman If you are emailing me please
say if you are posting the same response.
Born west of Pittsburgh Pa. 10 years
Indianapolis, 7 years
Chicago, 6 years
Brooklyn NY 12 years
Baltimore 20 years

She Caught the Katy

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