The City of New Orleans

The City of New Orleans
Steve Goodman
performed by Arlo Guthrie


Riding on the City of New Orleans,
Illinois Central, Monday morning rail,
Fifteen cars, and fifteen restless riders
Three conductors and twenty-five sacks of mail

All along the southbound odyssey
The train pulls out at Kankakee
Rolls along past houses, farms and fields,
Passin' trains that have no names,
Freight yards full of old black men
And the graveyards of the rusted automobiles

Good morning America, how are you?
Say 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' card games with the old men in the club car
Penny a point, ain't no one keepin' score
Pass the paper bag that holds the bottle
Feel the wheels rumblin' 'neath the floor

And the sons of pullman porters
And the sons of engineers
Ride their father's magic carpets made of steel,
Mothers with their babes asleep
Are rockin' to the gentle beat
And the rhythm of the rails is all they feel

Good morning America, how are you?
Say 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,
Half way home, we'll be there by morning
Through the Mississippi darkness
Rolling down to the sea

And all the towns and people seem
To fade into a bad dream
And the steel rails still ain't heard the news,
The conductor sings his song again
The passengers will please refrain
This train's got the disappearin' railroad blues

Good night, America, how are you?
Say 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