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Intro: G
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Riding on the City of New Orleans,
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Illinois Central Monday morning rail.
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Fifteen cars and fifteen restless riders,
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Three conductors and twenty-five sacks of mail.
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All along the south bound odyssey, the train pulls out of Kankakee,
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Rolls along past houses farms and fields,
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Passing trains that have no name, freight yards full of old black men
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And the graveyards of rusted automobiles.
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Good morning, America, how are you?
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Don't you know me? I'm your native son.
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I'm the train they call the City of New Orleans.
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I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done.
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Dealing card games with the old men in the club car,
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Penny a point, ain't no one keeping score.
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Pass the paper bag that holds the bottle,
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Feel the wheels rumbling 'neath the floor.
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And the sons of Pullman porters and the sons of engineers
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Ride their fathers' magic carpets made of steel.
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Mothers with their babes asleep rocking to the gentle beat
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And the rhythm of the rails is all they feel.
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Good morning, America, how are you?
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Don't you know me? I'm your native son.
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I'm the train they call the City of New Orleans.
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I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done.
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Nightime on the City of New Orleans,
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Changing cars in Memphis Tennessee.
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Half way home, we'll be there by morning,
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through the Mississippi darkness rolling down to the sea.
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But all the towns and people seem to fade into a bad dream
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And the steel rail still ain't heard the news.
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The conductor sings his songs again, 'Passengers will please refrain ... .'
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This train got the disappearing railroad blues.
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Good night, America, how are you?
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Don't you know me? I'm your native son.
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I'm the train they call the City of New Orleans.
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I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done.
Written by Steve Goodman