Joe O.

I can't put my hands on it now but an old Sing Out collection I have showed, I thought, that Bess Hawes shared the writing credit for Charley on the MTA.

What makes me think that my memory of this is right is that about fifteen years ago, a friend took me to a strange little bar in an alley in San Francisco, perhaps the name of the bar was "Spec's". It was directly across from City Lights Bookstore. The bartender there, my friend told me, had written Charley on the MTA. Since I was from Boston, this was interesting stuff. When I mentioned my interest to the bartender, he told me about Bess Hawes and there was something about his relation with her that I don't remember.

Of course, there is the possibility that I am wrong. (I have been wrong before. I have been wrong as recently as the late fall of 1975. ;-)>

There is such a concentration of knowledge and experience around here that someone will probably be able to tell me the name of the bartender, the bar and the alley as well as the definitive answer to who wrote Charley on the MTA. I keep being amazed.

Sourdough