City of New Orleans - by Steve Goodman

Intro:   | G / / / | G / / / |

| G      /      D    /   |  G   / / / |
  Riding on the City of New Orleans
| Em       /       C      /     | G   /   /   /   |
  Illinois Central Monday morning rail
| G       /        D       /      | G   /   /   / |
  Fifteen cars and fifteen restless riders
       | Em     /    D           /      | G  /  /  / |
Three conductors and twenty-five sacks of mail
  | Em        /           /    /     | Bm          /      /     /   |
All along the southbound odyssey, the train pulls out of Kankakee
| D      /         /       /       | A   /   /   /  |
  Rolls along past houses, farms and fields
| Em       /          /       /   | Bm      /             /         /   |
  Passing trains that have no name, freight yards full of old black men
  | D      /      D7     /    | G    /   /   /   |
And graveyards of rusted automobiles


| C      /      D    /   |  G      /    /   /   |
  Good morning America, how are you?
   | Em        /        C        /    | G      /    /
Say, don't you know me, I'm your native son
D  /  | G          /        D    /    | Em    /   Em6   /   
I'm the train they call the City of New Orleans
      | Bb        C       D                   | G    /   /   /   |
I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done

Dealing card games with the old men in the club car
Penny a point, ain't no one keeping score
Pass the paper bag that holds the bottle
Feel the wheels rumbling 'neath the floor
  And the sons of Pullman porters and the sons of engineers
  Ride their fathers' magic carpets made of steel
  Mothers with their babes asleep, rocking to the gentle beat
  And the rhythm of the rails is all they feel

Refrain

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

Goodnight 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

Goodnight 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
      | Bb        C       D                   | C    /   G   /   |
I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done