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Video: Every Subway Train Should Have A Singing Motorman
By
Jen Carlson
Published Jun 16, 2014
Modified Jun 16, 2014
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By
Jen Carlson
Published Jun 16, 2014
Modified Jun 16, 2014
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Sometimes good things can happen in our subway system. Good things that will restore your faith in New York City, and even humanity, and make your forget about that time... eh, take your pick.
With that in mind, meet motorman Mike Conklin, who recently made the best of a delay by coming out of his booth to perform some old school tunes with some buskers on the train.
According to the Daily News, this happened on the 1 train during a ten minute delay at South Ferry terminal—"passengers groaned and sighed about the delay," when a trio of buskers started to rehearse a song. The 53-year-old Conklin—known for his singing amongst coworkers—asked if they knew any Sam Cooke...
The tabloid got a little bit of Conklin's backstory after some videos were uploaded to YouTube—they note that he "grew up on the Upper West Side and Harlem listening to rhythm and blues. Cooke. Aretha Franklin. Marvin Gaye. He was raised by his single mother, a big James Brown fan, who took Conklin to the Apollo Theater. He made a few attempts at a singing career. He performed at the Apollo in his 20s on an amateur night, was in a rock band and did some demo tapes. It didn’t pan out. But he hasn’t given up hope."
Sadly, there's only a 30-second clip from the moment, but there will probably be another 1 train delay in our future.
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Jen Carlson
Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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