Charlie Card: MBTA mascot inspired by song.Is it a case of life imitating art or of art imitating life? Many locals have heard, or at least heard of, the old folk song “M.T.A.” – better but incorrectly known as “Charlie on the M.T.A.” The tune’s tale of a misfortunate guy named Charlie who is taken for an unending ride around and under Boston on the M.T.A. – the precursor to the MBTA – strikes a political chord these days.

The snow and ice of the region’s worst winter in years have exposed pretty much every problem bedeviling the MBTA. The weather, which literally brought the commuter trains, subways, and trolley cars to a halt, has turned every T rider into a version of the misfortunate “Charlie” of yore. As crowds waited in the frigid elements for trains that never came and buses that arrived erratically, if at all, everyone likely felt that they were being taken for an endless ride by the T. At least the fictional “Charlie” caught his train. Now, another Charlie, rookie Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker, probably feels like “Charlie on the MBTA” – the ride won’t end unless he and his administration find a way to pay.

Not surprisingly for Boston, the musical saga of the original Charlie came to life some 66 years amid a heated Boston political race that centered on a recent unpopular fare increase imposed by the M.T.A. In 1949, five candidates were battling to become mayor. The incumbent happened to be a tarnished but formidable legend – “Himself,” James Michael Curley. Among those looking to send Curley into retirement were the estimable John B. Hynes and a man named Walter A. O’Brien, Jr., who, running on the Progressive Party ticket, opposed the M.T.A.’s charge of an extra nickel to exit trains at above-ground stops.

Making the issue the centerpiece of his campaign, the O’Brien team commissioned a group of talented musicians to record several campaign songs. Under the name Boston Peoples Artists, they recorded at a studio on Boylston Place in downtown Boston. Jackie Steiner was a classically trained singer who was turning his considerable talents to folk music; he was also a staunch supporter of O’Brien. Steiner penned most of the lyrics for a composition the group entitled “Charlie on the M.T.A.”

On Oct. 24, 1949, the group unveiled the song in public for the first time outside the gates of factories in South Boston and Roxbury. Workers who rode the M.T.A. immediately fell in love with the song’s last verse: “Now, citizens of Boston, don’t you think it is a scandal / That the people have to pay and pay? / Join Walter A. O’Brien to fight the fare increase / Get poor Charlie off that M.T.A!”

The song’s popularity soared in every corner of the city. It didn’t matter whether audiences heard it played by the group or on a soundtrack. At O’Brien campaign stops, crowds gathered more to hear the song than the candidate. Unfortunately for O’Brien, the song’s success surpassed his vote tally. In the five-candidate field, he finished last, far behind Hynes, who barely beat Curley.

Over the next few years, “Charlie’s” popularity with the public spread. Then, in the mid-1950s, radio stations suddenly stopped playing it, and it vanished from record stores. In the anti-Communist hysteria of the era, station owners were being flooded with complaints that the song lionized a “a Red” – Walter O’Brien. In 1955, the Massachusetts Legislature’s incarnation of the US House Committee on Un-American Activities accused O’Brien, his wife Laura and other Progressive Party members of being “Communists or Communist sympathizers.” For the O’Briens, who denied all of the charges, life in Boston politics was over. They moved to Maine.

In 1959, “Charlie” began a comeback. The Kingston Trio recorded “M.T.A.” that year, but with one major change: They dropped the controversial name of “Walter O’Brien” and simply replaced it with “George O’Brien.” The furor vanished, and the song went on to score big across a wide array of interpretations from the original folk to rock, funk, and reggae.

Turning the clock from the 1950s to today, it looks as though the first “Charlie” might have fared (pun intended) better than the Charlie who now sits in the governor’s chair. Within scant weeks of his inauguration, he ran head on into historically deep snow and ice – and historically deep MBTA problems, both operational and financial. Today’s Charlie not only has to worry about pressure to raise fares, but he also has to address irate T riders’ outcries for redress and reimbursement for passes that in February were about as useful and valuable as Confederate currency.

A fare increase drove the creation of the M.T.A.’s “Charlie.” Money – or the lack of it – for the MBTA now confronts Charlie of the MBTA. At the moment, the T is nearly $5.5 billion in the red – a “red” that is far more tangible than the charges leveled against Walter O’Brien. The interest alone on that figure for 2015 is said to be some $420 million.

On Channel 5, political reporter Janet Wu asked if some of the T’s financial mess can be directly related to an even bigger mess – the Big Dig, pointing out that Charlie Baker was one of the chief overseers of the project. Still, if he and his team are able to bring change to the MBTA, he could rival the popularity of M.T.A. “Charlie.”

Charlie of the MBTA can’t control the weather. He has had the misfortune of stepping into his new job at the moment that “rapid transit” turned into a snow- and ice-choked oxymoron. “Charlie” of the M.T.A never got off his train, but for those dreadful days over the past wintry weeks when throngs of T passengers could not board a train or trolley and waited hours for buses, he might well have had an easier ride than this winter’s frustrated riders and a governor named Charlie.