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City Of New Orleans Lyrics

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.

[Chorus]
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.

[Chorus]

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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8 Meanings

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Cover art for City Of New Orleans lyrics by Arlo Guthrie

I love this song. It's always felt like a good childhood memory. (Maybe that's because that is what it is for me.) But still, there's that feeling of comfortable nostalgia in the way he sings it.

Cover art for City Of New Orleans lyrics by Arlo Guthrie

Graveyards of rusty automobiles...great image.

Cover art for City Of New Orleans lyrics by Arlo Guthrie

I always felt the writer was lamenting decline of the railroads in the 60s and 70s, particularly passenger trains such as the songs namesake. During this period the railroads were a dying industry and not too many people thought they would make the great comeback they did in the 80s and continue to this day.

My Interpretation
Cover art for City Of New Orleans lyrics by Arlo Guthrie

One of my ALL time favorite lines: penny a point, ain't no one keeping score

Cover art for City Of New Orleans lyrics by Arlo Guthrie

i totally agree. my dad used to play this song all the time so it just sort of got burned into my memory. it gives me a great feeling. when i was really little i liked it just because its about a train, and he really does have a good singing voice. ive always loved it

Cover art for City Of New Orleans lyrics by Arlo Guthrie

i totally agree. my dad used to play this song all the time so it just sort of got burned into my memory. it gives me a great feeling. when i was really little i liked it just because its about a train, and he really does have a good singing voice. ive always loved it

Cover art for City Of New Orleans lyrics by Arlo Guthrie

My older cousins played this for me all the time when I was younger. When I got older I heard the line "Mothers sing their babes to sleep rocking to the gentle beat and the rhythm of the rails is all they feel." randomly one day. That was always my favorite line.

Cover art for City Of New Orleans lyrics by Arlo Guthrie

I'm old enough to remember what trains were like in the era of the "disappearin' railroad blues." I start to tear up every time I hear it.