Riding on the City of New Orleans Illinois Central Monday morning rail Fifteen cars and fifteen restless riders Three conductors and twenty-five sacks of mail All along the southbound odyssey The train pulls out at Kankakee Rolls along past houses, farms and fields Passin' trains that have no names Freight yards full of old black men And the graveyards of the rusted automobiles

Good morning America how are you 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

Dealin' cards with the old men in the club car Penny a point ain't no one keepin' score Won't you pass the paper bag that holds the bottle Feel the wheels rumblin' 'neath the floor And the sons of pullman porters And the sons of engineers Ride their father's magic carpets made of steam Mothers with their babes asleep Are rockin' to the gentle beat And the rhythm of the rails is all they dream

Nighttime on The City of New Orleans Changing cars in Memphis, Tennessee Half way home, 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 And the steel rails still ain't heard the news The conductor sings his song again The passengers will please refrain This train's got the disappearing railroad blues

Good night, America, how are you 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

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