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

PRE-CHORUS 1:
All a-[Bm]-long the south bound odyssey
The [Gbm] train pulls out of Kenkakee
[A] Rolls along past houses, farms and [E] fields
[Bm] Passing trains that have no name
[Gbm] Freight yards full of old black men
And the [A] graveyards of [A7] rusted automob-[D]-iles

CHORUS:
[G] Good morning A-[A]-merica, how [D] are you?
Say, [Bm] don't you know me, [G] I'm your native [D] son [A7]
I'm the [D] train they call the [A] City of New [Bm] Orleans [Bm/A] [E/G#]
I'll be [C5] gone five [C5/B] hundred [A7] miles, when the day is [D] done

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

PRE-CHORUS 2:
And the [Bm] sons of Pullman porters and the [Gbm] sons of engineers
Ride their [A] father's magic carpets made of [E] steel
[Bm] Mothers with their babes asleep [Gbm] rocking to the gentle beat
And the [A] rhythm of the rails is [A7] all they [D] feel

REPEAT CHORUS:

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

PRE-CHORUS 3:
But [Bm] all the towns and people
Seem to [Gbm] fade into a bad dream
And the [A] steel rail still ain't heard the [E] news
The con-[Bm]-ductor sings his songs again
The [Gbm] passengers will please refrain
This [A] train got the disappearing [A7] railroad [D] blues

REPEAT CHORUS: