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

PRE-CHORUS 1:
All a-[Gm]-long the south bound odyssey
The [Dm] train pulls out of Kenkakee
[F] Rolls along past houses, farms and [C] fields
[Gm] Passing trains that have no name
[Dm] Freight yards full of old black men
And the [F] graveyards of [F7] rusted automob-[A#]-iles

CHORUS:
[D#] Good morning A-[F]-merica, how [A#] are you?
Say, [Gm] don't you know me, [D#] I'm your native [A#] son [F7]
I'm the [A#] train they call the [F] City of New [Gm] Orleans [Gm/F] [C/E]
I'll be [G#5] gone five [G#5/G] hundred [F7] miles, when the day is [A#] done

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

PRE-CHORUS 2:
And the [Gm] sons of Pullman porters and the [Dm] sons of engineers
Ride their [F] father's magic carpets made of [C] steel
[Gm] Mothers with their babes asleep [Dm] rocking to the gentle beat
And the [F] rhythm of the rails is [F7] all they [A#] feel

REPEAT CHORUS:

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

PRE-CHORUS 3:
But [Gm] all the towns and people
Seem to [Dm] fade into a bad dream
And the [F] steel rail still ain't heard the [C] news
The con-[Gm]-ductor sings his songs again
The [Dm] passengers will please refrain
This [F] train got the disappearing [F7] railroad [A#] blues

REPEAT CHORUS: