City Of New Orleans

City Of New Orleans
by Steve Goodman
© Published by Al Bunetta d/b/a Jurisdad Music
o/b/o itself & Turnpike Tom Music (ASCAP)

Riding on the City of New Orleans
Illinois Central Monday morning rail
Fifteen cars and fifteen restless riders
Three conductors, twenty-five sacks of mail
We’re out on the southbound odyssey
The train rolls out of Kankakee
Riding past the houses, farms and fields
Passin' trains that have no name
And freight yards full of old black men
Graveyards of rusted automobiles

It’s good morning America how are you?
Sayin’ don't you know me? I'm your native son
I'm the train they call the City of New Orleans
I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done

Dealin' cards with the old men in the club car
Penny a point there weren’t no one keepin' score
Say won’t you pass the paper bag that holds the bottle
You could feel the wheels grumblin' through the floor
And the sons of pullman porters
And the sons of engineers
Ride their father's magic carpet made of steel
Mothers with their babes asleep
Rockin' to the gentle beat
The rhythm of the rails is all they feel

It’s good morning America how are you?
Sayin’ don't you know me? I'm your native son
I'm the train they call the City of New Orleans
I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done

Nighttime on the City of New Orleans
Changing cars in Memphis, Tennessee
It’s halfway home, and we'll be there by morning
In the Mississippi darkness
Rolling down to the sea
And all the towns and people seem
To fade into a bad dream
The steel rail still ain't heard the news
The conductor sings his song again
The passengers will please refrain
This train’s got the disappearing railroad blues

It’s good night, America, how are you?
Sayin’ don't you know me? I'm your native son
I'm the train they call the City of New Orleans
I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done

This song appears on Tom Chapin's Tom Chapin - 70 CD.

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