Arlo Guthrie, City Of New Orleans (1972)
Key: :[F#] (w: Steve Goodman, 1970)
VERSE 1:
[F#] Riding on the
[C#] City of New
[F#] Orleans
[D#m] Illinois Central
[B] Monday morning
[F#] rail
[F#] Fifteen cars and
[C#] fifteen restless
[F#] riders
Three con-
[D#m]-ductors and
[C#] twenty-five sacks of
[F#] mail
PRE-CHORUS 1:
All a-
[D#m]-long the south bound odyssey
The
[Bbm] train pulls out of Kenkakee
[C#] Rolls along past houses, farms and
[G#] fields
[D#m] Passing trains that have no name
[Bbm] Freight yards full of old black men
And the
[C#] graveyards of
[C#7] rusted automob-
[F#]-iles
CHORUS:
[B] Good morning A-
[C#]-merica, how
[F#] are you?
Say,
[D#m] don't you know me,
[B] I'm your native
[F#] son
[C#7]
I'm the
[F#] train they call the
[C#] City of New
[D#m] Orleans
[D#m/C#] [G#/C]
I'll be
[E5] gone five
[E5/D#] hundred
[C#7] miles, when the day is
[F#] done
VERSE 2:
Dealing card
[F#] games with the
[C#] old men in the
[F#] club car
[D#m] Penny a point ain't
[B] no one keeping
[F#] score
[F#] Pass the paper
[C#] bag that holds the
[F#] bottle
[D#m] Feel the wheels
[C#] rumbling 'neath the
[F#] floor
PRE-CHORUS 2:
And the
[D#m] sons of Pullman porters and the
[Bbm] sons of engineers
Ride their
[C#] father's magic carpets made of
[G#] steel
[D#m] Mothers with their babes asleep
[Bbm] rocking to the gentle beat
And the
[C#] rhythm of the rails is
[C#7] all they
[F#] feel
REPEAT CHORUS:
VERSE 3:
[F#] Nightime on the
[C#] City of New
[F#] Orleans
[D#m] Changing cars in
[B] Memphis Tennes-
[F#]-see
[F#] Half way home
[C#] we'll be there by
[F#] morning
Through the
[D#m] Mississippi darkness
[C#] rolling down to the
[F#] sea
PRE-CHORUS 3:
But
[D#m] all the towns and people
Seem to
[Bbm] fade into a bad dream
And the
[C#] steel rail still ain't heard the
[G#] news
The con-
[D#m]-ductor sings his songs again
The
[Bbm] passengers will please refrain
This
[C#] train got the disappearing
[C#7] railroad
[F#] blues
REPEAT CHORUS: 