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

PRE-CHORUS 1:
All a-[G#m]-long the south bound odyssey
The [Ebm] train pulls out of Kenkakee
[F#] Rolls along past houses, farms and [C#] fields
[G#m] Passing trains that have no name
[Ebm] Freight yards full of old black men
And the [F#] graveyards of [F#7] rusted automob-[B]-iles

CHORUS:
[E] Good morning A-[F#]-merica, how [B] are you?
Say, [G#m] don't you know me, [E] I'm your native [B] son [F#7]
I'm the [B] train they call the [F#] City of New [G#m] Orleans [G#m/F#] [C#/F]
I'll be [A5] gone five [A5/G#] hundred [F#7] miles, when the day is [B] done

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

PRE-CHORUS 2:
And the [G#m] sons of Pullman porters and the [Ebm] sons of engineers
Ride their [F#] father's magic carpets made of [C#] steel
[G#m] Mothers with their babes asleep [Ebm] rocking to the gentle beat
And the [F#] rhythm of the rails is [F#7] all they [B] feel

REPEAT CHORUS:

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

PRE-CHORUS 3:
But [G#m] all the towns and people
Seem to [Ebm] fade into a bad dream
And the [F#] steel rail still ain't heard the [C#] news
The con-[G#m]-ductor sings his songs again
The [Ebm] passengers will please refrain
This [F#] train got the disappearing [F#7] railroad [B] blues

REPEAT CHORUS: