CITY OF NEW ORLEANS          (Arlo Guthrie)

C             G           C        Am                F              C
Riding on the City of New Orleans, Illinois Central, Monday morning rail.
C                G                Am            F           G                    C
Fifteen cars and fifteen restless riders, three conductors, twenty-five sacks of mail.
     Am                               Em
All along the South-bound Odyssey the train pulls out of Canka Quay
    G                                  D
And rolls along past houses, farms and fields.
Am                                Em
Passing trains that have no name, freightyards full of old black men
        G                        C
And the graveyards of the rusted automobiles.

Ch:
   F             G            C
   Good morning, America, how are you?
   Am                 F               C
   Don't you know me? I'm your native son.
  G        C                   G           Am
   I'm the train they call the City of New Orleans.
           Bb        F       G                     C
   I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done.


Playing card games with the old man in the Club Car,
Penny a point, ain't no-one keeping 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 fathers'.magic carpet made of steel,
Mothers with their babes asleep, rockin' to that gentle beat,
And the rhythm of the rails is all they feel.

Ch.

Night time on the City of New Orleans,
Changing cars in Memphis, Tennessee.
Halfway home, we'll be there by morning,
Through the Mississippi darkness rollin' 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.

Ch: Good night,America,......