City Of New Orleans
Steve Goodman (1971)


4/4 | d - D u - u d u |


[C] Riding on the [G] City of New [C] Orleans [C]
[Am] Illinois Central [F] Monday morning [C] rail [C]
[C] Fifteen cars and [G] fifteen restless [C] riders [C]
Three con- [Am] ductors and [G] twenty-five sacks of [C] mail [C]
All a- [Am] long the south-bound odyssey the [Em] train pulls out of Kenkakee
[G] Rolls along past houses farms and [D] fields [D]
[Am] Passing trains that have no name [Em] freight yards full of old black men
And the [G] graveyards of [G7] rusted automo- [C] biles [C]

Chorus
[F] Good morning A- [G] merica, how [C] are you? [C]
Say [Am] don't you know me, [F] I'm your native [C] son [G]
I'm the [C] train they call the [G] City of New [Am] Orleans [D7]
I'll be [Bb] gone five [F] hundred [G] miles when the day is [C] done [C]

Dealing [C] card games with the [G] old men in the [C] club car [C]
[Am] Penny a point ain't [F] no-one keeping [C] score [C]
[C] Pass the paper [G] bag that holds the [C] bottle [C]
[Am] Feel the wheels [G] rumbling 'neath the [C] floor [C]
And the [Am] sons of Pullman porters and the [Em] sons of engineers [Em]
Ride their [G] father's magic carpets made of [D] steel [D]
[Am] Mothers with their babes asleep [Em] rocking to the gentle beat
And the [G] rhythm of the [G7] rail is all they [C] feel [C]

Chorus
[F] Good morning A- [G] merica, how [C] are you? [C]
Say [Am] don't you know me, [F] I'm your native [C] son [G]
I'm the [C] train they call the [G] City of New [Am] Orleans [D7]
I'll be [Bb] gone five [F] hundred [G] miles when the day is [C] done [C]

[C] Night time on the [G] City of New [C] Orleans [C]
[Am] Changing cars in [F] Memphis Tennes- [C] see [C]
[C] Half way home [G] we'll be there by [C] morning [C]
Through the [Am] Mississippi darkness [G] rolling down to the [C] sea [C]
But [Am] all the towns and people seem to [Em] fade into a bad dream
And the [G] steel rail still ain't heard the [D] news [D]
The con- [Am] ductor sings his songs again
The [Em] passengers will please refrain
This [G] train got the disap- [G7] pearing railroad [C] blues [C]

Chorus
[F] Good night A- [G] merica, how [C] are you? [C]
Say [Am] don't you know me [F] I'm your native [C] son [G7]
I'm the [C] train they call the [G] City of New [Am] Orleans [D7]
I'll be [Bb] gone five [F] hundred [G] miles when the day is [C] done [C]
I'll be [Bb] gone five [F] hundred [G] miles when the day is [C] done [C]

#Play along with Steve Goodman in this key. (It's a bit pitchy)

#Capo on 6th fret to play with Arlo Guthrie

#Last Updated 06/28/19 JJ
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