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: