City of New Orleans

Ridin' on the City of New Orleans

I llinois 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 of Kankakee

And rolls along past houses farms and fields

Passing trains that have no name

And graveyards full of old black men

And graveyards full of rusted automobiles

Good morning America how are you say

Don't you know me I'm your native son

I'm the train they call

The City of New Orleans

And I'll be gone five hundred miles

When the day is done

Dealin' cards with an old man at the club car

Many a point ain't no one keepin' score

Pass that paper bag that holds the bottle

And feel the wheels a rumbling neath the floor

And the sons of poor men porters

And the sons of engineers

Ride their father's 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

Good morning America how are you say

Don't you know me I'm your native son

I'm the train they call

The City of New Orleans

And I'll be gone five hundred miles

When the day is done

Night time 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 songs again

The passengers will please refrain

This train has got the disappearing railroad blues

Good morning America how are you say

Don't you know me I'm your native son

I'm the train they call

The City of New Orleans

And I'll be gone five hundred miles

When the day is done