I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
Riding on the city of New Orleans
Illinois Central, Monday morning rail
There are fifteen cars and fifteen restless riders
Three conductors and twenty-five sacks of mail
They're all out on the southbound odyssey
And the train pulls out of Kankakee
Rolls past the houses, farms and fields
Passin' towns that have no name
And freight yards full of old black men
And the graveyards of rusted automobiles
Singin', "Good morning America, how are ya?"
Sayin', "Don't ya know me? I'm your native son"
Yes, I'm the train they call the City of New Orleans
And I'll be gone five hundred miles when day is done
And I was dealing cards with the old men in the club car
And it's penny a point, there ain't no one keeping score
Oh, won't ya past that paper bag that holds that bottle
You can feel the wheels grumblin' through the floor
And the sons of Pullman porters, the sons of engineers
They ride their father's magic carpet made of steel
And mothers with the babes asleep
Go rockin' to the gentle beat
The rhythm of the rails is all they dream
Just a-singin', "Good morning America, how are ya?"
Sayin', "Don't ya know me? I'm your native son"
And I'm the train they call the City of New Orleans
I'll be gone five hundred when day is done
Nighttime on the City of New Orleans
Changing cars in Memphis, Tennessee
It's halfway home and we'll be there by morning
Through the Mississippi darkness rollin' to the sea
And all the towns and people
They seem to fade into a bad dream
The old steel rails, it ain't heard the news
The conductor sings his song again
Its passengers'll please refrain
This train's got the disappearing railroad blues
Just a-singin', "Goodnight America, how are ya?"
Sayin', "Don't ya know me? I'm your native son"
And I'm the train they call the City of New Orleans
I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done
Just a-singin', "Goodnight America, how are ya?"
Sayin', "Don't ya know me? I'm your native son"
Well, I'm the train they call the City of New Orleans
And I'll be gone a long, long time when day is done
Illinois Central, Monday morning rail
There are fifteen cars and fifteen restless riders
Three conductors and twenty-five sacks of mail
They're all out on the southbound odyssey
And the train pulls out of Kankakee
Rolls past the houses, farms and fields
Passin' towns that have no name
And freight yards full of old black men
And the graveyards of rusted automobiles
Singin', "Good morning America, how are ya?"
Sayin', "Don't ya know me? I'm your native son"
Yes, I'm the train they call the City of New Orleans
And I'll be gone five hundred miles when day is done
And I was dealing cards with the old men in the club car
And it's penny a point, there ain't no one keeping score
Oh, won't ya past that paper bag that holds that bottle
You can feel the wheels grumblin' through the floor
And the sons of Pullman porters, the sons of engineers
They ride their father's magic carpet made of steel
And mothers with the babes asleep
Go rockin' to the gentle beat
The rhythm of the rails is all they dream
Just a-singin', "Good morning America, how are ya?"
Sayin', "Don't ya know me? I'm your native son"
And I'm the train they call the City of New Orleans
I'll be gone five hundred when day is done
Nighttime on the City of New Orleans
Changing cars in Memphis, Tennessee
It's halfway home and we'll be there by morning
Through the Mississippi darkness rollin' to the sea
And all the towns and people
They seem to fade into a bad dream
The old steel rails, it ain't heard the news
The conductor sings his song again
Its passengers'll please refrain
This train's got the disappearing railroad blues
Just a-singin', "Goodnight America, how are ya?"
Sayin', "Don't ya know me? I'm your native son"
And I'm the train they call the City of New Orleans
I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done
Just a-singin', "Goodnight America, how are ya?"
Sayin', "Don't ya know me? I'm your native son"
Well, I'm the train they call the City of New Orleans
And I'll be gone a long, long time when day is done
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Not an Arlo Guthrie cover - This is a Steve Goodman original. He thanks Arlo Guthrie for covering this song in one of his live performances.
I salute you, the people who know good music.
I transcribed these lyrics from the album "No Big Surprise: The Steve Goodman Anthology" They differ slightly from other tenditions by Goodman and others
DREAM is correct in the original Steve Goodman version.
'and the rhythm of the rails is all they dream"
an arlo guthrie cover
Just a note--perhaps unneeded, but might as well make sure: Younger listeners may not fully understand the significance of the line "Sons of railway porters and sons of engineers": it is within living memory that all "porters" on railway sleeping cars were black (and employees of the Pullman Company, which also owned the cars), while all engineers were white. The song is a bittersweet look at a changing country and a changing transportation environment, but explicitly does recognize that passengers were no longer segregated by race. FWIW,