Arlo Guthrie – The City of New Orleans

Intro: G for 2 bars

G             D           G
Riding on the City of New Orleans
Em               C              G
Illinois Central Monday morning rail
G                D                G   
Fifteen cars and fifteen restless riders
         Em          D                    G
Three conductors and twenty-five sacks of mail
    Em                                 Bm          
All along the south bound odyssey, the train pulls out of Kenkakee
D                                 A
Rolls along past houses farms and fields
Em                                Bm      
Passing trains that have no name, freight yards full of old black men
        D             D7            G
And the graveyards of rusted automobiles………Chorus


Chorus:
C             D7          G      
Good morning America, how are you?  (night  at  3rd chorus)
     Em                 C                G    D7  D9
Say, don't you know me, I'm your native son
        G                   D           Em     Em7    A7
I'm the train they call the City of New Orleans
        Bb        C       D              D9      G  
I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done


             G              D              G
Dealing card games with the old men in the club car
Em                  C              G
Penny a point ain't no one keeping score
G              D                  G   
Pass the paper bag that holds the bottle
Em              D                   G
Feel the wheels rumbling 'neath the floor
        Em                              Bm          
And the sons of Pullman porters and the sons of engineers
           D                              A
Ride their father's magic carpets made of steel
Em                              Bm          
Mothers with their babes asleep rocking to the gentle beat
        D                      D7       G
And the rhythm of the rails is all they feel………Chorus


G               D           G
Nightime on the City of New Orleans
Em               C              G
Changing cars in Memphis Tennessee
G             D                 G
Half way home we'll be there by morning
            Em                   D                   G
through the Mississippi darkness rolling down to the sea
    Em                               Bm          
But all the towns and people seem to fade into a bad dream
        D                                A
And the steel rail still ain't heard the news
        Em                                Bm      
The conductor sings his songs again, the passengers will please refrain
      D                         D7       G
This train got the disappearing railroad blues………Chorus