Intro: G for 2 bars 
 
G             D           G 
Riding on the City of New Orleans 
Em               C              G 
Illinois Central Monday morning rail 
G                D                G    
Fifteen cars and fifteen restless riders 
         Em          D                    G 
Three conductors and twenty-five sacks of mail 
    Em                                 Bm           
All along the south bound odyssey, the train pulls out of Kenkakee 
D                                 A 
Rolls along past houses farms and fields 
Em                                Bm       
Passing trains that have no name, freight yards full of old black men 
        D             D7            G 
And the graveyards of rusted automobiles???Chorus 
 
 
Chorus: 
C             D7          G       
Good morning America, how are you?  (night @ 3rd chorus) 
     Em                 C                G    D7  D9 
Say, don't you know me, I'm your native son 
        G                   D           Em     Em7    A7 
I'm the train they call the City of New Orleans 
        Bb        C       D              D9      G   
I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done 
 
 
             G              D              G 
Dealing card games with the old men in the club car 
Em                  C              G 
Penny a point ain't no one keeping score 
G              D                  G    
Pass the paper bag that holds the bottle 
Em              D                   G 
Feel the wheels rumbling 'neath the floor 
        Em                              Bm           
And the sons of Pullman porters and the sons of engineers 
           D                              A 
Ride their father's magic carpets made of steel 
Em                              Bm           
Mothers with their babes asleep rocking to the gentle beat 
        D                      D7       G 
And the rhythm of the rails is all they feel???Chorus 
 
 
G               D           G 
Nightime on the City of New Orleans 
Em               C              G 
Changing cars in Memphis Tennessee 
G             D                 G 
Half way home we'll be there by morning 
            Em                   D                   G 
through the Mississippi darkness rolling down to the sea 
    Em                               Bm           
But all the towns and people seem to fade into a bad dream 
        D                                A 
And the steel rail still ain't heard the news 
        Em                                Bm       
The conductor sings his songs again, the passengers will please refrain 
      D                         D7       G 
This train got the disappearing railroad blues???Chorus