I've been tweaking the lyrics of the song, by reading along as I listened to Arlo Guthrie's original 1967 recording. I made several corrections, if anyone's interested....
City of New Orleans [G]
[G] Riding on the [D] City of New [G] Orleans,
[Em] Illinois Central, [C] Monday morning [G] rail,
[G] Fifteen cars and [D] fifteen restless [G] riders,
Three con[Em]ductors, and [D] twenty five sacks of [G] mail.
All [Em] along the southbound odyssey,
The [Bm] train pulls out at Kankakee,
And [D] rolls along past houses, farms and [A] fields.
[Em] Passing trains that have no name,
And [Bm] freight yards full of old black men,
And [D] the graveyards of the [D7] rusted automo[G]biles.
Chorus:
[C] Good morning A[D]merica, how [G] are you?
Say [Em] don’t you know me, [C] I’m your native [G] son.
[D] I’m the [G] train they call the [D] City of New [Em] Orleans,
I’ll be [F] gone five [C] hundred [D] miles when the day is [G] done.
[G] Dealing card games with the [D] old men in the [G] club car,
[Em] Penny a point, ain’t [C] no one keeping [G] score.
[G] Pass the paper [D] bag that holds the [G] bottle,
And [Em] feel the wheels [D] rumbling ‘neath the [G] floor.
And the [Em] sons of Pullman porters,
And the [Bm] sons of engineers,
Ride their [D] fathers’ magic carpets made of [A] steel.
[Em] Mothers with their babes asleep,
Are [Bm] rocking to the gentle beat,
And the [D] rhythm of the [D7] rails is all they [G] feel.
Chorus
[C] Good morning A[D]merica, how [G] are you?
Say [Em] don’t you know me, [C] I’m your native [G] son.
[D] I’m the [G] train they call the [D] City of New [Em] Orleans,
I’ll be [F] gone five [C] hundred [D] miles when the day is [G] done.
[G] Nighttime on the [D] City of New [G] Orleans,
[Em] Changing cars in [C] Memphis, Tennes[G]see.
[G] Halfway home, and [D] we’ll be there by [G] morning,
Through the [Em] Mississippi darkness, [D] rolling down to the [G] sea.
But [Em] all the towns and people seem
To [Bm] fade into a bad dream,
The [D] steel rail still ain’t heard the [A] news.
The con[Em]ductor sings his songs again,
The [Bm] passengers will please refrain,
This [D] train got disap[D7]pearin’ railroad [G] blues.
Chorus:
[C] Goodnight A[D]merica, how [G] are you?
Say [Em] don’t you know me, [C] I’m your native [G] son.
[D] I’m the [G] train they call the [D] City of New [Em] Orleans,
I’ll be [F] gone five [C] hundred [D] miles when the day is [G] done.
