CITY OF NEW ORLEANS
Arlo Guthrie

VERSE 1:
C             G           C
Riding on The City of New Orleans, 
Am                F              C
Illinois Central, Monday morning rail
C                G                C
Fifteen cars and fifteen restless riders
Am                   G                    C
Three conductors and twenty-five sacks of mail
     Am                              Em
All along the southbound odyssey the train pulls out of Kankakee
G                                   D
Rolls along past houses, farms, and fields
Am                               Em
Passing towns that have no name, freight yards full of old Black men
        G                 G7           C
And the graveyards of the rusted automobiles

CHORUS:
F             G           C
Good mornin' America, how are you?
Am                 F               C
Don't you know me, I'm your native son?
G       C                   G           Am        D
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

VERSE 2:
C                           G              C
Dealin' card games with the old men in the club car
Am                   F              C
Penny a point, ain't no one keepin' score
C              G                  C
Pass the paper bag that holds the bottle
    Am              G                   C
And feel the wheels rumblin' 'neath the floor
        Am                              Em
And the sons of Pullman porters and the sons of engineers
           G                             D
Ride their fathers' magic carpet made of steel
Am                               Em
Mothers with their babes asleep, rockin' to the gentle beat
        G             G7                C
And the rhythm of the rails is all they feel

CHORUS:
F             G           C
Good mornin' America, how are you?
Am                 F               C
Don't you know me, I'm your native son?
G       C                   G           Am        D
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

VERSE 3:
C                G           C
Nighttime on The City of New Orleans
Am               F              C
Changing cars in Memphis, Tennessee
C                G                 C
Halfway home and we'll be there by morning
            Am                   G                   C
Through the Mississippi darkness rolling down to the sea
    Am                               Em
But all the towns and people seem to fade into a bad dream
        G                                 D
And the steel rails still ain't heard the news
       Am                                Em
The conductor sings his song again, "The passengers will please refrain"
     G                    G7               C
This train's got the disappearing railroad blues

CHORUS:
F           G           C
Good night America, how are you?
Am                 F               C
Don't you know me, I'm your native son?
G       C                   G           Am        D
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