City Of New Orleans

(originally by Steve Goodman)

[Intro]
  Bb    F     Gm    D#   Dm     C     F7    G7      F (?)
e | -------1-----3-----------5------------1-----3-------------- |
B | -3-----1-----3-----8-----6------5-----4-----6------10------ |
G | -3-----2-----3-----8-----7------5-----2-----4------10------ |
D | -3-----3-----5-----8-----7------5-----1-----3------10------ |
A | -1-----3-----5-----6-----5------3-----3-----5------8------- |
E | -------1-----3------------------------1-----3-------------- | 
 
Bb             F       Bb
Riding on the City of New Orleans
Gm                D#             Bb
Illinois Central Monday morning rail
Bb                F                Bb
Fifteen cars and fifteen restless riders
Gm                    F                    Bb
Three conductors and twenty-five sacks of mail.
Gm                                 Dm
All along the south bound odyssey, the train pulls out of Kenkakee
F                                 C
Rolls along past houses farms and fields
Gm                                 Dm
Passing trains that have no name, freight yards of old black men
F                 F7           Bb
And graveyards of rusted automobiles.
 
Chorus:
D#            F      Bb
Good morning America, how are you?
Gm                      D#               Bb
Say, don't you know me, I'm your native son.
Bb                         F             Gm    G7
I'm a train they call the City of New Orleans
         D#                 F                    Bb
I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done.
 
Verse:
Bb                           F                  Bb
Dealing card games with the old men in the club car
Gm                D#                 Bb
Penny a point ain't noone keeping score
Bb              F                Bb
Pass the paper bag but hold the bottle
Gm              F                    Bb
Feel the wheels rumbling 'neath the floor
Gm                                       Dm
And the sons of Pullman porters, and the sons of engineers
F                                         C
Ride their father's magic carpets made of steel
Gm                                 Dm
Mother with her babes asleep, rocking to the gentle beat
F                     F7                 Bb
And the rhythm of the rails is all they feel.
 
      ::Chorus::
Bb              F               Bb
Nightime on the City of New Orleans
Gm              D#               Bb
Changing cars in Memphis, Tennessee
Bb              F                   Bb
Half way home we'll be there by morning
Gm                               F                   Bb
through the Mississippi darkness rolling down to the sea.
Gm                           Dm
and all the towns and people seem to fade into a bad dream
F                                        C
And the steel rail still ain't heard the news
Gm                                   Dm
The conductor sings his songs again, the passagers will please refrain
F                     F7                   Bb
This train got the disappearing railroad blues.
 
Chorus:
D#            F          Bb
Good night America, How are you?
Gm                      D#               Bb
Say, don't you know me, I'm your native son.
Bb                            F             Gm   G7
I'm the train they call the City of New Orleans
        D#                 F                    Bb
I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done.