I can say: Steve's original version, preferably with no accompaniment except his own acoustic guitar. It's the first version I ever heard, & it'll stick with me till I go where he went before.
Runner up is his Austin City Limits performance with Jethro Burns on mandolin.
If you do a You Tube search for Steve Goodman "City of New Orleans" you can find a great live performance by Steve at an affair hosted by Johnny Cash. It's a treat to see and hear "CONY" performed by the man himself.
By the way, a young Vince Gill sings back-up for Steve.
There's Arlo Guthrie's version, Steve Goodman's version, Willie Nelson's version (done with Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson and Waylon Jennings) and honestly I can't say which one I like the best.
Steve Goodman's 800 page biography is FACING THE MUSIC by Clay Eals, now in its third printing. I haven't read the book in a few years, but my recollection is that Steve hadn't ridden the "City" south of the Ohio River at the time he wrote the song. So "changing cars in Memphis, Tennessee" was probably a product of his very fertile imagination.
Steve was from Chicago, and he rode it a number of times as a college student before he began his "real job" as an entertainer and song writer; but he didn't write the song until after he and his wife Nancy had ridden the train south from Chicago to southern Illinois to visit her relatives. I understand he did ride the train all the way to New Orleans at some point after the song had been recorded by Arlo Guthrie and others, and had become famous. I doubt that Steve went to the trouble of counting "25 sacks of mail", and I don't think the train required "three conductors".
By the way, some of his original lyrics have frequently been changed by other singers, including Arlo. The original lines were "they ride their fathers' magic carpet made of steam (not steel); and mothers with their babes asleep go rockin' to the gentle beat. The rhythm of the rails is all they dream (not feel)". "Passing towns that have no name" has become "trains that have no name". John Denver even changed the melody, fudged the credits, and changed "old black men" to "old gray men". Sacrilege!
Check out some of Steve's other songs and you will see that he wasn't beyond stretching the truth a bit to make a good story. The lyrics of novelty tunes like "Lincoln Park Pirates", "Turnpike Tom", "Chicken Cordon Bleus", "Door Number Three" (written with Jimmy Buffet), "The Dying Cub Fan's Last Request", and "You Never Even Call Me By My Name" (written with John Prine), will demonstrate that one of Steve's great strengths was his ability to tell a story, even if the facts were a bit hazy.
A lot of his songs were written just for fun, but he was capable of writing tender love songs and introspective songs too. Listen to "Yellow Coat" or "Would You Like to Learn to Dance?" (songs Kris Kristofferson admires greatly). I can also recommend "I Can't Sleep" and "My Old Man".
For Steve's entire professional career, he lived under a death sentence. He was diagnosed with Leukemia at a time when treatment of that disease was in its infancy. He lived a lot longer than he or anybody else expected. Some of his songs, like "Song For David" and "Somebody Else's Troubles" reflect that, but I don't think he ever let that affect the joy he brought to his performances --- at least I never saw it on the many occasions when I went to his shows in Chicago.
Steve was a terrific songwriter, and he is sadly missed by his family, friends, and fans. But I don't believe "City of New Orleans" was ever intended to be a documentary.
Tom
P.S. Steve was a white kid from Chicago, so segregation probably wasn't a factor in his travel experience.
I guess Arlo Guthrie is the singer who gave the City of New Orleans song a big lift, but you're right--those lyrics (and the correct turns in the tune) came from Chicago's own Steve Goodman (may he rest in peace after a life cut 'way too short by leukemia).
Carl
Railroader Emeritus (practiced railroading for 46 years--and in 2010 I finally got it right!)
CAACSCOCOM--I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all. (SM)
The last time I rode the IC's City of New Orleans was in the spring of 1970, and I rode from Carbondale to Carrollton Avenue (we were a little late, leaving Memphis at nine in the evening, and losing more time all the way; I did not want to miss Southern's Crescent; anything could happen when a train is being turned on the wye before backing into the station in New Orleans). I did not have to change cars in Memphis, so when I first heard the song I thought it bore some resemblance to my experience except for the changing cars--which may be artistic license put in, as has been mentioned, to have a rhyme that scans.
Johnny
I don't know that the song says IC did it, maybe Steve Goodman wrote it because the passenger in his song wanted to change cars. It's great to hear that Arlo Guthrie's touring, but what does he have to do with City of New Orleans, or even this song about the National Limited:
Riding on the Remnant of St Louie Pennsylvania's badly battered rails 15 cars and 15 restless riders passenger slowly turning pale
and on our eastbound oddity the train pulls out of Kansas C past factories, slums and roads
being passed by trains that have no names and freight yards full of shippers claims the ghostly hulk moves onward down the road
Good morning Terra Haute how are you Don't you know me I'm your errant son I'm the train they call the Remant of St Louie I'll be gone 100 miles fore my day is done
Trading insults with the steward in the diner With yesterday's chicken ain't no use keeping score pass the alka seltzer after dinner if you don't you'll be crawling on the floor
and the sons of pullman porters and the sons of engineers wonder how their fathers bought this lousy deal
the conductor sings his song again the passengers are well restrained this train's got the disappearing service blues
Good morning Steubenville how are you Don't you know me I'm your errant son I'm the train they call the Remant of St Louie I'll be gone 100 miles fore my day is done
Nightime on the Remnant of St Louie Changing tracks in Lewistown PA Halfway home and we'll be there some morning All you gotta do is get on your knees and pray
and all the towns and people scream it's all part of a vile schemeas the train stops once again to change its crew
mothers can't keep their babies asleepthe rocking's more a crashing beat and the pounding of the rails is all you hear
Good night New York, New York where are you Don't you know me I'm your errant son I'm the train they call the Remant of St Louie I've gone 100 miles, now my day is done
Patrick Boylan
Free yacht rides, 27' sailboat, zip code 19114 Delaware River, get great Delair bridge photos from the river. Send me a private message
trackrat888 Division Point? Segragation Point? Get all the passengers on a 10 car train in one car?BTW Arlo Guthrie is doing another 18 month tour.
Division Point? Segragation Point? Get all the passengers on a 10 car train in one car?BTW Arlo Guthrie is doing another 18 month tour.
Fifteen cars, he said. "Ten cars" throws the meter off if you try to sing it that way. And he wanted a rhyme for "rolling down to the sea."
Memphis is about as far south as the City of New Orleans could go in Tennessee before it went into Mississippi. And Tennessee is notorious for having the very first law mandating segregation (note sp.) in railroad cars, passed in 1881. So not likely it was a Jim Crow requirement. Since the City of New Orleans was a day train, IIRC arriving in Memphis in the early to mid afternoon either way, it becomes somewhat clearer that 'poetic license' is behind much of the wording of the lyrics...
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