City of New Orleans

[highrailjon]

The City of New Orleans
by Steve Goodman

Riding on the City of New Orleans,
Illinois Central Monday morning rail
Fifteen cars and fifteen restless riders,
Three conductors and twenty-five sacks of mail.
All along the southbound odyssey
The train pulls out at Kankakee
Rolls along past houses, farms and fields.
Passin' trains that have no names,
Freight yards full of old black men
And the graveyards of the rusted automobiles.

CHORUS:
Good morning America how are you?
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.

Dealin' card games with the old men in the club car.
Penny a point ain't no one keepin' 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 father's magic carpets made of steel.
Mothers with their babes asleep,
Are rockin' to the gentle beat
And the rhythm of the rails is all they feel.

CHORUS

Nighttime on The City of New Orleans,
Changing cars in Memphis, Tennessee.
Half way home, we'll be there by morning
Through the Mississippi darkness
Rolling 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 disappearing railroad blues.

Good night, America, how are you?
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.

[Anonymous]

A good one! Thanks for sharing!

[spankybird]

Very nice Jon

[prewardude]

The background vocals in that song (Arlo's version) always give me the chills. Great tune.

[Anonymous]

That, by the way, has been acclaimed in many music circles as the best train song ever written.

Thanks for posting.

Oh, if you like Goodman, try A Dying Cub Fan's Last Request. Hilarious!

[Anonymous]

There is a beautiful rendition of this on a concert album by Arlo Guthrie and Pete Seeger. I've got a vinyl copy and it was supposed to be available on cassette, unfortunately no CD. The acompianment is on a concert grand. I'd have say that I give Gordon Lightfoot's Canadian Railroad Trilogy a serious nod for competition in the Best Train Song category. Don't forget that "Puffin' Billy", Captain Kangaroo's theme song is also about a locomotive!

http://www.curiousnotions.com/home/music_1.html

[Anonymous]

Back in the early sixties I used to be among those fifteen paying passengers banging along through downstate Illiois on my way home from college at Southern Illinois University , Carbondale. Ill. I used to take it from Carbondale because it allowed me to have the most time off on my holidays because I could combine travelling with a night of fitful at best sleep in my daycoach seat and arrive home when I would otherwise just be leaving C-dale. But the singer really had it nailed when he descibed Kankakee, Manteno, Homewood, Hazel Crest, Harvey, 63rd st etc. I'd just love to take that ride once again knowing I was going to see my Mom and Dad at home just once more. Odd-d

[highrailjon]

Odd-d ,very nice touch to the post! My favorite version would be by Willie Nelson.
(click on pix to enlarge)