Interpret:

John Denver

Album:

Aerie

Riding on the City of New Orleans 
 Illinois Central Monday morning rail 
 There's fifteen cars and fifteen restless riders 
 Three conductors and twenty five sacks of mail 
 They're out on the south-bound odyssey and the train pulls out of Kankakee 
 Rolling past houses, farms and fields 
 Passing towns that have no names and freightyards full of old black men 
 And the graveyards full of rusted automobiles 


 Singing good morning America, how are you 
 Saying don't you know me, I'm your native son 
 I'm the train they call City of New Orleans 
 I'll be gone five hundred miles when the days is done 


 I was dealing cards with the old man in the club car 
 Plenty of points there ain't no one keeping score 
 Say won't you pass the paper bag that holds the bottle 
 And feel the wheels rumbling through the floor 
 And the sons of Pullman porters and the sons of engineers 
 Ride their father's magic carpet made of steel 
 And the days were full of 
 restless and their dreams were full of memories 
 And the echos of the freight train whistles clear 


 Singing good morning America, how are you 
 Saying don't you know me, I'm your native son 
 Yes I'm the train they call City of New Orleans 
 I'll be gone five hundred miles when the days is done 


 But it's twilight on the city of New Orleans 
 Talk about a pocket full of friends 
 Halfway home, we'll be there by morning 
 With no tomorrow waiting round the bend 


 Singing goodbye America, I love you 
 Saying don't you know me, I'm your native son 
 I'm the train they call City of New Orleans 
 I'll be gone five hundred miles when the days is done 


 Singing good morning America, how are you 
 Saying don't you know me, I'm your native son 
 Yes I'm the train they call the City of New Orleans 
 I'll be gone five hundred miles when the days is done