Intro: G 
  
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 Kankakee,  
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.  
    

[Refrão]
 
C             D7          G        
Good morning, America, how are you?    
   Em                 C                G    D7  D9  
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 fathers' 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. 


[Refrão]
 
C             D7          G        
Good morning, America, how are you?    
   Em                 C                G    D7  D9  
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  
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, "Passengers will please refrain ... ."  
      D                         D7           G  
This train got the disappearing railroad blues. 


[Refrão]
 
C             D7          G        
Good night, America, how are you?    
   Em                 C                G    D7  D9  
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.