Soupy Sales and his buddies are long gone but the subway still goes rolling along.
Yeah, I heard the Bozo the Clown story years ago, and you'r right, it's probably an urban legend, kind of like the alligators in the New York City sewers.
UNLESS there's someone out there who witnessed same, in which case we'd love to hear from you!
I remember it like it was only 49 years and 365 days ago. Absolutely, it was Pookie who sang the song. The strikes and balls and green paper bit, well, I admit I must have missed those shows but friends told me about them in school the next day but I sure remember Pookie singing about the subways. Yeah, it's always some "stupid kid" who ruins things. The little *** probably ran to his mommy and there you go.
Remember the Bozo the clown controversy? It went something like this:
Little boy muffs some activity on the show and says'
"Ahhh sh..!"
Bozo says, "That's a Bozo no-no!"
Kid says, "Eff off, clownie!"
probably an urban legend.
If your folks get bugged, do it in the hall!
Pookie sang the subway song? I don't remember that, but it WAS almost (gasp!) 50 years ago! I remember Pookie the Lion though, he was hilarious!
Soupy said "kiss her on the strikes...."? I don't know, that would have been kind of risque' for an afternoon TV show back in the 60's. But then Soupy was accused of saying things he never said. I do remember the "green pieces of paper" incident very well though, I was watching at the time. I got the joke, my friends got the joke (did you hear what he said?), even Lady Firestorm (who I had yet to meet) was a fan and she got the joke. Realizing that his audience were kids Soupy usually was very careful about what he said.
But there's always some "stupid kid" somewhere who doesn't get it and wrecks things for everyone, like taking the "green pieces of paper" joke seriously. Usually the same "stupid kid" who puts on a bedsheet and jumps out a window trying to fly like Superman, or tries to copy a Three Stooges routine, or blows off some fingers with an M-80. Me and my friends wanted to get an expedition together and find out where this legendary "stupid kid" lived and explain the facts of life to him and to stop ruining things for the rest of us!
"How come they took Soupy off the air?" "Ahhh, some stupid kid somewhere..."
Can't believe I still get PO'd over this after five decades! Oh well, Lady Firestorm's still PO'd over it too! But then she NEVER forgets and NEVER forgives! Frightening...
"Heyyyy, do the Mouse yeah! Heyyyy, you can do it in your house yeah..."
Remember this one? "Show me our first presidents dentures, and I'll show you the George Washington Bridge!"
Firelock, It must be pointed out that Pookie is the one who sang the subway song. Didn't Soupy say how when he took his girlfriend to the ball game, he kissed her on the strikes and she kissed him on the balls?
Do the mouse!
Dave, you're a fine man and a true gentleman and a great fount of knowledge. I wouldn't offend you for the world.
Well, perhaps I overreacted. I wonder about any fear of riding the 2 or 3 north of 96th in the 70's. I often left a Metro North train from White Plains North Station at 125th, walked across 125th Street and boarded the 2 or 3 to 72nd to be on time for afternoon-evening prayer at Shearith Israel. Sure, I was the only white face on the street, but somehow I never felt threatened. Most people are good, and if there had been any trouble, most bystanders would have come to my aid. The worst that happened was a building problem of some sort that caused panick, and in the press of people eyeglasses fell to the sidewalk. But I never deliberately explored side streets just to show how brave I was or something, just stuck to 125th. I started working in White Plains in 1971 and continiued to 1996.
Well said Overmod! The song was intended to be a spoof, that's all it was intended to be, and remember, for something to be funny it has to have a grain of truth to it, doesn't it?
I first heard the song as a kid in the 60's watching the Soupy Sales show weekdays on Channel 5, the old WNEW. Even as a kid living in the Jersey 'burbs I got it, and so did all of my friends. Remember, this was in the time when NYC was on the downhill slide, the old John Lindsay days.
Take it easy Dave, it's all in fun.
By the way, my great-grandfather lost a leg building the subway, so I've kind of got a "proprietary" interest.
As a true native New Yorker (born at St. Luke's and then living at 114th and Amsterdam) I have to question the seriousness of these allegations.
Most everyone I know in New York uses sardonic humor regarding many, many aspects of New York life. Doesn't mean we don't love, and appreciate, the place. But it also doesn't mean we don't whack that miserable Stoneburner, or complain about high rents and weird real-estate practices, or .. make jokes about the subway being a hole in the ground.
Have you no appreciation of the wonderful tradition of theater/Yiddish wit? The more you insult something, the more you loved it to begin with. And the sense of humor easily tends toward the black...
OF COURSE the MTA has made great strides since the dark days of the 1970s. But I also clearly remember when what was in Soupy Sales's song was instantly recognizable and familiar to subway riders. I thought it was perfectly normal for the ends of the platform to reek of urine, for example. And the God-awful screeching on the IRT West Side line (now 1 line) had to be heard to be believed! (Now fixed, praise the Lord -- but don't try to pretend it wasn't so just for jingoistic purposes... ;-}
I always rode the subway by preference. Going to Columbia (coming in by bus over the Bridge, and I would have taken the IND if it had been extended over) I adjusted my schedule so I could make the loop through South Ferry looking out through the open front window, instead of just getting off at 116th. Almost had my arm taken off one day when my briefcase (still clutched in my hand) wound up inside the closing doors, with me outside and a conductor whose brain was elsewhere. You should have heard the screaming inside the car ... the conductor didn't. Took the following 1 to 96th Street, transferred to the first express, and caught the miscreant a couple of stops down. The conductor actually then had the nerve to ask me how I knew it was my briefcase, and how could I possibly be at his train if I'd missed it!
I do remember fairly frequently being 'accosted' by other riders in a manner that might have turned bad if not handled correctly. My father and I used to go to Ryans and Condons, and I remember him being pushed up against the car door by a belligerent drunk (he had police-surgeon credentials and was carrying at the time; I was proud of him for taking the abuse and not using force). Did this stop me from riding? No. But if you asked me whether I would ride the 2 or 3 north of 96th Street in the '70s? Hell no! We'd be singing 'he never returned, no he never returned' for a VERY different reason. (That ended, conclusively, during the Giuliani years -- I even lived in the South Bronx for a while when going to grad school. But in Mayor Dinky's time? ... or during Abe Beame's little 'time of troubles'? it was kinda hard to be proud of the subway no matter how good the engineering to build it had been, or how much we enjoyed things like riding the old steel cars still being used on the IND. That does not mean we didn't love it in our own way.
RME
I think many of the posters and contributors to the link should be ashamed of themselves. I they ride the subway regularly, then they are insulting themselves, and if they don't, they are insulting those who do ride. Using the terms wop, ***, ***, pollack, are not allowed anymore in polite conversation, but doesn't this song do the same job on New Yorkers? Most of whom ride the subway?
About half my life was as a New Yorker. Birth (1932) - 1949, then 1970 - 1996. I must have ridden the subway about 150,000 times in total, and I would say about 80% of those times were enjoyable.
On two occasions I did direct a transit cop to control bad behavior.
Perhaps you are insulting your own parents most of all.
Your link page is deleted. But didn't I allude to this somewhere with'may he ride forever 'neath the streets of Boston'?
Appropriately sung to the tune of "The Wreck of the Old 97" (or, more accurately, to the Henry Clay Work tune for 'The Ship That Never Returned', which had turned to 'The Train That Never Returned' somewhere along there...)
May he ride forever!
There is also this, to the (seemingly appropriate) tune of "Harper Valley PTA"
Boston, Massachusetts M.T.A.
(I am sorry not to have a link to the unimitable performance of this latter masterpiece - if anyone has one, let me know and I will edit this post to put it here!)
Wow, never heard that song. However I have fond memories of family sing-a-longs on long car rides which always featured an off key rendition of "Charlie & the MTA", an old political campaign song that folk group The Kingston Trio popularized in the early 1960's which satirized fare hikes on Boston's mass transit system (now known as the MBTA).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M.T.A.
"I Often Dream of Trains"-From the Album of the Same Name by Robyn Hitchcock
Now I see, goodness me, that we all may cease to be, as the subway goes folding along,
Yes we all start to frown as our car is shoved uptown, and the subway goes folding along,
We were so carefree, we had new CBTC, what could possibly go worng [echo: worng, worng, worng, with a Yuliy Borisovich accent]
For we lose all hope, when we start to tel-es-cope, as the subway goes folding along...
Oh dear God, now we stop, as the voltage starts to drop, and the subway stops rolling along,
And we shout awful names, as we start to smell the flames, as the subway stops rolling along,
Oh its Hie, Hie, Hee -- oh we'd better start to flee -- drop to your knees and pray along
For that light's not the Lord, it's a speeding Number 4, as the subway stops rolling along.
OvermodYou;ll be pe-rish-in' if you cannot hold it in, while the subway goes rolling along...
You give new meaning to "Take the A Train."
OOOOOOOO, that's COLD! Hee, hee, hee!
If in Harlem on a ride, do not turd over the side, as the subway goes rolling along
For we saw someone who tried, and he slipped and then he died, as the subway went rolling along
It's a 6 train, gents, not a public convene-i-ence -- hold in your bowels nice and strong
You;ll be pe-rish-in' if you cannot hold it in, while the subway goes rolling along...
OK, now I don't think Soupy came up with THAT one back in the 60's, would have been a bit much for those days, but if it's yours Overmod, WELL DONE! I'm LMAO!
Yes it's true there's often poo on the uptown Number Two, as the subway goes rolling along;
And the pee I often see is a factor, yessirree, as the subway goes rolling along
For it's sure a drain, on the #7 train -- gee, the smell is getting kinda strong... (Yes! Yes!! Yes!!)
Oh it's more than a ride, it's a circus on the side, as the subway goes rolling along...
Say, anyone remember this old Soupy Sales standard "As The Subway Goes Rolling Along"?
It's sung to the tune of "As The Cassions Go Rolling Along" and it goes like this: (ahem)
From the Bronx to Times Square twice a day we pay our fare as the subway goes rolling along.
Travel near, travel far, it's a human cattle car! And the subway goes rolling along.
(Chorus)
For it's such a mess on the Lexington Express to mingle among the "fragrent" throng-
PEE-YEW!
You get more than a ride it's a circus on the side as the subway goes rolling along!
Every morning at nine it's a fight to get in line as the subway goes rolling along.
Every evening at five it's a fight to stay alive as the subway goes rolling along.
There's the people you meet fifty feet below the street as the subway goes rolling along.
Some guys booze, some guys snooze, it you snooze they'll steal your shoes as the subway goes rolling along.
For it's such a mess on the Lexington express to mingle among the "fragrent" throng-
You get more than a ride it's a circus on the side as the subway goes rolling along.
KEEP IT ROLLING!
As the subway goes rolling along!
Didn't know I could sing, did 'ya?
If anyone knows any other verses I'd love to hear them!
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