Key: B
Introduction:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.