City Of New Orleans (Steve Goodman, Arlo Guthrie)
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C             G           C        Am                F              C
Riding on the City of New Orleans, Illinois Central, Monday morning rail
C                G                C
Fifteen cars and fifteen restless riders
Am                G                    C
Three conductors, twenty-five sacks of mail
     Am                              Em
All along the southbound odyssey the train pulls out of Kankakee
G                                   D
Rolls along past houses, farms, and fields
Am                              Em
Passing towns that have no name freight yards full of old Black men
        G                          C
And the graveyards of rusted automobiles.

:
F             G           C         Am                 F               C-G
Good mornin' America, how are you?  Don't you know me, I'm your native son?
        C                   G             Am - D
I'm the train they call the City of New Orleans,
        Bb        F       G                     C
I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done.

        C                   G              C
Dealing card games with the old men in the club car,
Am                   F              C
penny a point, ain't no one keeping score.
C              G                  C
Pass the paper bag that holds the bottle
    Am              G                    C
And feel the wheels grumbling 'neath the floor.
        Am                              Em
And the sons of Pullman porters and the sons of engineers
           G                             D
Ride their fathers' magic carpet made of steam
Am                               Em
Mothers with their babes asleep, rockin' to the gentle beat
        G                               C
And the rhythm of the rails is all they dream.



C                 G           C        Am               F              C
Night time on the City of New Orleans, changing cars in Memphis, Tennessee
C                G                 C
Halfway home and we'll be there by morning
            Am                   G                   C
Through the Mississippi darkness rolling down to the sea
    Am                               Em
But all the towns and people seem to fade into a bad dream
        G                                D
And the steel rail still ain't heard the news
       Am                            Em
The conductor sings his song again, "Passengers will please refrain"
     G                                       C
This train has got the disappearing railroad blues.
          F         G            C
  Goodnight America, how are you? . . .