Capo 2
Riding on the city of New Orleans
Illinois central Monday morningrail
Fifteen cars and fifteen restless riders
Three conductors and twenty five sacks of mail
All along the southbound Odyssey
The train pulls out from Kankakee
Rolls along past houses farms and fields
Passing trains that have no name
Freight yards full of old black men
And the grave yards of the rusted automobiles
CHORUS:
Good morning America how are you?
Say don't you know me I'm your native son
I'm the train they call the city of New Orleans
I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done
Playing cards with the old men in the club car
Penny a point ain't no one keeping score
Pass the paper bag that holds the bottle
Feel the wheels rumbling beneath the floor
And the sons of Pullman porters
And the sons of engineers
Ride their fathers magic carpet made of steel
Mothers with their babes a sleep
А rocking to the gentle beat
The rhythm of the rail is all they feel
CHORUS:
Good morning America how are you?
Say don't you know me I'm your native son
I'm the train they call the city of New Orleans
I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done
Night-time on the city of New Orleans
Changing cars in Memphis Tennessee
Halfway home and we'll be there by morning
Through the Mississippi darkness rolling down to the sea
And all the towns and people seem
To fade into a bad dream
The steel rail still ain't heard the news
The conductor sings his song again
Passengers will please refrain
This trains got the disappearing railroad blues
CHORUS:
Good morning America how are you?
Say don't you know me I'm your native son
I'm the train they call the city of New Orleans
I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done