Ridin' on The City of New Orleans   Illinois Central Monday morning rail   Fifteen cars and fifteen restless riders   Two conductors and a-twenty-five sacks a' mail   All along the southbound odyssey   The train pulls out at Kankakee   And moves on along past houses, farms and fields   Passin' trains what ain't got no names   Switch yards full a' old black men   And the graveyards full of them rusted automobiles       [Chorus]   Good mornin' America, how are ya?   Well, a don'tcha know me? I'm your native son   I'm the train they call The City of New Orleans   And I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done       A-dealin' cards with an old man down in the club car   Just a penny a point ain't a-nobody keepin' score   Say won't you pass that there paper bag that's a-wrappin' the bottle   Feel them wheels rumblin' under that floor   And the sons of Pullman porters   And the sons of engineers   Ride their daddy's magical carpet made out of steel   Mamas with their babies asleepin'   Are rockin' to the gentle beat   And the rhythm of the rockin' rails is all they feel       [Chorus]   Good mornin' America, how are ya?   Well, a don'tcha know me? I'm your native son   I'm the train they call The City of New Orleans   And I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done       Night-time on The City of New Orleans   A-changin' cars a-down in Memphis, Tennessee   Well, a half way home, and a we gonna be there by mornin'   Through the Mississippi darkness   Rollin' down to that sea   Now all a' them towns and all the people seem   To fade away into a bad ol' dream   But the steel rail, well he still ain't heard that news   Conductor's a-singin' that song again   Sayin' "Passengers will please refrain   "This train done got the disappearin' railroad blues"       [Chorus]   Good night America, how are ya?   Well, a don'tcha know me? I'm your native son   I'm the train they call The City of New Orleans   And I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done       [Fade out.]   Mamas with their babies asleepin'   Are rockin' to the gentle beat   And the rhythm of the rockin' rails is all they feel       Mamas with their babies asleepin'   Are rockin' to the gentle beat   And the rhythm of the rockin' rails is all they feel       Yeah.