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: