Key: :[E] (w: Steve Goodman, 1970)

VERSE 1:
[E] Riding on the [B] City of New [E] Orleans
[C#m] Illinois Central [A] Monday morning [E] rail
[E] Fifteen cars and [B] fifteen restless [E] riders
Three con-[C#m]-ductors and [B] twenty-five sacks of [E] mail

PRE-CHORUS 1:
All a-[C#m]-long the south bound odyssey
The [Abm] train pulls out of Kenkakee
[B] Rolls along past houses, farms and [F#] fields
[C#m] Passing trains that have no name
[Abm] Freight yards full of old black men
And the [B] graveyards of [B7] rusted automob-[E]-iles

CHORUS:
[A] Good morning A-[B]-merica, how [E] are you?
Say, [C#m] don't you know me, [A] I'm your native [E] son [B7]
I'm the [E] train they call the [B] City of New [C#m] Orleans [C#m/B] [F#/A#]
I'll be [D5] gone five [D5/C#] hundred [B7] miles, when the day is [E] done

VERSE 2:
Dealing card [E] games with the [B] old men in the [E] club car
[C#m] Penny a point ain't [A] no one keeping [E] score
[E] Pass the paper [B] bag that holds the [E] bottle
[C#m] Feel the wheels [B] rumbling 'neath the [E] floor

PRE-CHORUS 2:
And the [C#m] sons of Pullman porters and the [Abm] sons of engineers
Ride their [B] father's magic carpets made of [F#] steel
[C#m] Mothers with their babes asleep [Abm] rocking to the gentle beat
And the [B] rhythm of the rails is [B7] all they [E] feel

REPEAT CHORUS:

VERSE 3:
[E] Nightime on the [B] City of New [E] Orleans
[C#m] Changing cars in [A] Memphis Tennes-[E]-see
[E] Half way home [B] we'll be there by [E] morning
Through the [C#m] Mississippi darkness [B] rolling down to the [E] sea

PRE-CHORUS 3:
But [C#m] all the towns and people
Seem to [Abm] fade into a bad dream
And the [B] steel rail still ain't heard the [F#] news
The con-[C#m]-ductor sings his songs again
The [Abm] passengers will please refrain
This [B] train got the disappearing [B7] railroad [E] blues

REPEAT CHORUS: