Key: :[Gb] (w: Steve Goodman, 1970)
VERSE 1:
[Gb] Riding on the
[Db] City of New
[Gb] Orleans
[Ebm] Illinois Central
[B] Monday morning
[Gb] rail
[Gb] Fifteen cars and
[Db] fifteen restless
[Gb] riders
Three con-
[Ebm]-ductors and
[Db] twenty-five sacks of
[Gb] mail
PRE-CHORUS 1:
All a-
[Ebm]-long the south bound odyssey
The
[Bbm] train pulls out of Kenkakee
[Db] Rolls along past houses, farms and
[Ab] fields
[Ebm] Passing trains that have no name
[Bbm] Freight yards full of old black men
And the
[Db] graveyards of
[Db7] rusted automob-
[Gb]-iles
CHORUS:
[B] Good morning A-
[Db]-merica, how
[Gb] are you?
Say,
[Ebm] don't you know me,
[B] I'm your native
[Gb] son
[Db7]
I'm the
[Gb] train they call the
[Db] City of New
[Ebm] Orleans
[Ebm/Db] [Ab/C]
I'll be
[E5] gone five
[E5/Eb] hundred
[Db7] miles, when the day is
[Gb] done
VERSE 2:
Dealing card
[Gb] games with the
[Db] old men in the
[Gb] club car
[Ebm] Penny a point ain't
[B] no one keeping
[Gb] score
[Gb] Pass the paper
[Db] bag that holds the
[Gb] bottle
[Ebm] Feel the wheels
[Db] rumbling 'neath the
[Gb] floor
PRE-CHORUS 2:
And the
[Ebm] sons of Pullman porters and the
[Bbm] sons of engineers
Ride their
[Db] father's magic carpets made of
[Ab] steel
[Ebm] Mothers with their babes asleep
[Bbm] rocking to the gentle beat
And the
[Db] rhythm of the rails is
[Db7] all they
[Gb] feel
REPEAT CHORUS:
VERSE 3:
[Gb] Nightime on the
[Db] City of New
[Gb] Orleans
[Ebm] Changing cars in
[B] Memphis Tennes-
[Gb]-see
[Gb] Half way home
[Db] we'll be there by
[Gb] morning
Through the
[Ebm] Mississippi darkness
[Db] rolling down to the
[Gb] sea
PRE-CHORUS 3:
But
[Ebm] all the towns and people
Seem to
[Bbm] fade into a bad dream
And the
[Db] steel rail still ain't heard the
[Ab] news
The con-
[Ebm]-ductor sings his songs again
The
[Bbm] passengers will please refrain
This
[Db] train got the disappearing
[Db7] railroad
[Gb] blues
REPEAT CHORUS: 