City Of New Orleans

Riding on the City of New Orleans Illinois Central, Monday morning rail Got fifteen cars and fifteen restless riders Three conductors and twenty five sacks of mail We're all out on the southbound odyssey As the train pulls out of Kankakee And rolls in past the houses, farms and fields Passing towns that have no name And freight yards full of old black men And then graveyards of rusted automobiles Singing good morning America, how are you? Yeah don't you know me, I'm your native son I'm the train they call the City of New Orleans And I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done Dealing card games with the old men in the club cars And this penny a point, there ain't no one keeping score Won't you pass the paper bag that holds the bottle? You can hear the wheels a-rumbling through the floor And the sons of Pullman porters, and the sons of engineers Ride their fathers' magic carpet made of steel And the mothers with their babes asleep There rocking to the gentle beat The rhythm of the rails is all they dream Singing good morning America, how are you? Yeah don't you know me, I'm your native son I'm the train they call the City of New Orleans And I'll be gone five hundred miles when day is done Midnight on the City of New Orleans Changing cars in Memphis, Tennessee We're halfway home, we'll be there by morning Through the Mississippi darkness, rolling to the sea In all the towns and people seem to fade into a bad dream The old steel rail, it ain't heard the news Conductor sings his song again The passengers will please refrain Well this train's got the disappearin' railroad blues Singin' goodnight America, how are you? Yeah don't you know me, I'm your native son I'm the train they call the City of New Orleans And I'll be gone a long, long time when the day is done Singin' goodnight America, how are you? Yeah don't you know me, I'm your native son I'm the train they call the City of New Orleans And I'll be gone a long, long time when day is done