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The Talkin' CTA Blues (Rahm Emanuel Version)

from Rahm Songs by Andrew Francis

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The CTA is still crashing trains, but instead of Mayor Daley making things right, we’ve got Rahm Emanuel.

I wrote the original version about a CTA crash on the blue line in 2006, but since there was just recently another one, I figured I better update the song a little. This one is a little different than the original.

For one, Chicago isn’t trying to get the Olympics any more, but Mayor Rahm does want to use our hard earned dollars and change to build a shiny basketball arena for DePaul University. They MUST need it bad, huh? Go ahead and read up on it. The Chicago Reader always has some good points.

lyrics

Now I went down to a Blue Line station to see what kind of delays I'd be facing. They told me everything was fine, that I would be right on time, as long as I didn't mind a little smoke in my face, and being stuck underground for fifty-nine minutes straight. Well, I had a little extra time so I figured I'd give it a try. I swiped my Ventra Card, went through the turnstile, got overcharged. And then I waited, and waited and waited, and I debated if it woulda been faster to ride the bus, or drive a car, or hop on my bike, or walk or crawl, or just stay right at home. Then down the line come a rattling train, so I hoped aboard and I went on my way. I sat in a seat that was facing backwards, so I wasn't quite sure where we were. Felt like I was going back, straight into the past, before I had a cell phone or an ipad or any electrical gadget that could distract me from home bad Chicago's public transportation is. Well the train went from stop to stop and people got on and off, until deep down in the subway tunnel the train must've hit a mighty big, sticky, wet mud puddle. Came to a screeching halt. And no matter what anybody says, it wasn't my fault. I was just minding my own business. Well it wasn't long before the conductor woke and I sure was glad that the CTA's loud speakers are never broke. He said something that sounded exactly like this [crackling noise]. I understood him perfectly. He said that for over an hour and then the power went off and people started to cough and yell, get sweaty and smell, started to kiss each other and pray out loud and bang on the doors and exit the train and then get blamed for making a bad situation worse. Well it wasn't until after the real sparks flew that Rahm Emanuel said, "Hey, I think there's a problem with the CTA too!" But I'm willing to cut him some slack cause he's got a whole lot of great city improvements on track. Like a billion dollars to build a basketball arena by twenty-sixteen, and making sure that the downtown part of the city is nice and clean, gotta keep the tourists happy and feeling good cause they're never coming out to the neighborhoods, riding the trains, going to the schools, getting shot, or living in the city that works for about one percent of the people.

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from Rahm Songs, track released May 9, 2014

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Andrew Francis Chicago, Illinois

Andrew Francis is a song-writing folk singer living and performing in the city of Chicago, located in the Midwestern United States.

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