City of New Orleans

Steve Goodman / Arlo Guthrie (1972)

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	Riding on the	City of New	Orleans,	Illinois Central,	Monday morning	rail.

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	Fifteen cars and	fifteen restless	riders, Three	conductors, and	twenty-five sacks of	mail.

	Em	Bm
All	slong the southbound odyssey -- The	train pulls out of Kankakee

	D	A
And	rolls along the houses, farms and	fields.

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	Passing trains that have no name -- And	freight yards full of old black men

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And	graveyards of the	rusted auto	mobiles.

Dealing card games with the old men in the club cars, A penny a point, ain't no one keeping score.

Pass the paper bag that holds the bottle, And feel the wheels rumbling 'neath the floor.

And the sons of Pullman porters -- And the sons of engineers

Ride their fathers' magic carpet made of steel.

Mothers with their babes asleep -- Rocking to the gentle beat

And the rhythm of the rails is all they feel.

Nighttime on the City of New Orleans, Changing cars in Memphis, Tennesee.

Halfway home, and we'll be there by morning, Through the Misissippi darkness, rolling down to the sea.

But 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 songs again -- The passengers will please refrain

This train's got the disappearin' railroad blues.