These used to be both FM & AM hits, but you never hear them anymore. Are they lyrically condescending towards African Americans in today's climate, or just too folky?
― andy, Wednesday, 10 November 2004 00:11 (twenty-one years ago)
I still hear City of New Orleans on the local oldies station. Arlo Guthrie's version, btw, which is still the best. I love the song.
How might it be offensive, if i may ask? I can't recall any lyrics but the chorus at the moment
― derrick (derrick), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 01:05 (twenty-one years ago)
mr. bojangles???!!!
just walk into any bar with a local singer-songwriter rocking the faker journeyman vibe. they all play it. then sometimes they do a tom waits song, after a belabored explanation of exactly who he (tom waits) is....
― duke barred, Wednesday, 10 November 2004 01:14 (twenty-one years ago)
I want to come to America and hang out in these kind of bars for a while, even if they are ridiculous.
― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 01:51 (twenty-one years ago)
The City of New Orleans
by Steve Goodman
Riding on the City of New Orleans,
Illinois Central Monday morning rail
Fifteen cars and fifteen restless riders,
Three conductors and twenty-five sacks of mail.
All along the southbound odyssey
The train pulls out at Kankakee
Rolls along past houses, farms and fields.
Passin' trains that have no names,
Freight yards full of old black men
And the graveyards of the rusted automobiles.
CHORUS:
Good morning America how are you?
Don't you know me I'm your native son,
I'm the train they call The City of New Orleans,
I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done.
Dealin' card games with the old men in the club car.
Penny a point ain't no one keepin' score.
Pass the paper bag that holds the bottle
Feel the wheels rumblin' 'neath the floor.
And the sons of pullman porters
And the sons of engineers
Ride their father's magic carpets made of steel.
Mothers with their babes asleep,
Are rockin' to the gentle beat
And the rhythm of the rails is all they feel.
CHORUS
Nighttime on The City of New Orleans,
Changing cars in Memphis, Tennessee.
Half way home, we'll be there by morning
Through the Mississippi darkness
Rolling down to the sea.
And all the towns and people seem
To fade into a bad dream
And the steel rails still ain't heard the news.
The conductor sings his song again,
The passengers will please refrain
This train's got the disappearing railroad blues.
Good night, America, how are you?
Don't you know me I'm your native son,
I'm the train they call The City of New Orleans,
I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done.
©1970, 1971 EMI U Catalogue, Inc and Turnpike Tom Music (ASCAP)
I don't think the line about old black men makes this offensive.
Goodman simply painted a picture of a bygone era. Anyway, it ought to get more airplay because it's a damn fine number.
― jim wentworth (wench), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 02:29 (twenty-one years ago)