Key: :[A] (w: Steve Goodman, 1970)
VERSE 1:
[A] Riding on the
[E] City of New
[A] Orleans
[F#m] Illinois Central
[D] Monday morning
[A] rail
[A] Fifteen cars and
[E] fifteen restless
[A] riders
Three con-
[F#m]-ductors and
[E] twenty-five sacks of
[A] mail
PRE-CHORUS 1:
All a-
[F#m]-long the south bound odyssey
The
[Dbm] train pulls out of Kenkakee
[E] Rolls along past houses, farms and
[B] fields
[F#m] Passing trains that have no name
[Dbm] Freight yards full of old black men
And the
[E] graveyards of
[E7] rusted automob-
[A]-iles
CHORUS:
[D] Good morning A-
[E]-merica, how
[A] are you?
Say,
[F#m] don't you know me,
[D] I'm your native
[A] son
[E7]
I'm the
[A] train they call the
[E] City of New
[F#m] Orleans
[F#m/E] [B/D#]
I'll be
[G5] gone five
[G5/F#] hundred
[E7] miles, when the day is
[A] done
VERSE 2:
Dealing card
[A] games with the
[E] old men in the
[A] club car
[F#m] Penny a point ain't
[D] no one keeping
[A] score
[A] Pass the paper
[E] bag that holds the
[A] bottle
[F#m] Feel the wheels
[E] rumbling 'neath the
[A] floor
PRE-CHORUS 2:
And the
[F#m] sons of Pullman porters and the
[Dbm] sons of engineers
Ride their
[E] father's magic carpets made of
[B] steel
[F#m] Mothers with their babes asleep
[Dbm] rocking to the gentle beat
And the
[E] rhythm of the rails is
[E7] all they
[A] feel
REPEAT CHORUS:
VERSE 3:
[A] Nightime on the
[E] City of New
[A] Orleans
[F#m] Changing cars in
[D] Memphis Tennes-
[A]-see
[A] Half way home
[E] we'll be there by
[A] morning
Through the
[F#m] Mississippi darkness
[E] rolling down to the
[A] sea
PRE-CHORUS 3:
But
[F#m] all the towns and people
Seem to
[Dbm] fade into a bad dream
And the
[E] steel rail still ain't heard the
[B] news
The con-
[F#m]-ductor sings his songs again
The
[Dbm] passengers will please refrain
This
[E] train got the disappearing
[E7] railroad
[A] blues
REPEAT CHORUS: 