Arlo Guthrie, City Of New Orleans (1972)
Key: :[Bb] (w: Steve Goodman, 1970)
VERSE 1:
[Bb] Riding on the
[F] City of New
[Bb] Orleans
[Gm] Illinois Central
[Eb] Monday morning
[Bb] rail
[Bb] Fifteen cars and
[F] fifteen restless
[Bb] riders
Three con-
[Gm]-ductors and
[F] twenty-five sacks of
[Bb] 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-
[Bb]-iles
CHORUS:
[Eb] Good morning A-
[F]-merica, how
[Bb] are you?
Say,
[Gm] don't you know me,
[Eb] I'm your native
[Bb] son
[F7]
I'm the
[Bb] train they call the
[F] City of New
[Gm] Orleans
[Gm/F] [C/E]
I'll be
[Ab5] gone five
[Ab5/G] hundred
[F7] miles, when the day is
[Bb] done
VERSE 2:
Dealing card
[Bb] games with the
[F] old men in the
[Bb] club car
[Gm] Penny a point ain't
[Eb] no one keeping
[Bb] score
[Bb] Pass the paper
[F] bag that holds the
[Bb] bottle
[Gm] Feel the wheels
[F] rumbling 'neath the
[Bb] 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
[Bb] feel
REPEAT CHORUS:
VERSE 3:
[Bb] Nightime on the
[F] City of New
[Bb] Orleans
[Gm] Changing cars in
[Eb] Memphis Tennes-
[Bb]-see
[Bb] Half way home
[F] we'll be there by
[Bb] morning
Through the
[Gm] Mississippi darkness
[F] rolling down to the
[Bb] 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
[Bb] blues
REPEAT CHORUS: 