This is a series of posts about the music I play while writing. This time we’re at City of New Orleans. This song was written by Steve Goodman in 1971 and likely the most famous version of the song was sung by Arlo Guthrie in 1972. Many other artists have covered the song including Willie Nelson in 1984. Here’s a Youtube video of my favorite version of this song:
The song is one of those simple yet timeless folk songs. Basically, just a long story of a train ride. It’s a journey through American’s heartland, history, and the fading of a dream. The age of trains brought great change to America and made much of our current nation possible, but like so many things it’s no longer what it was. Even when this song was written, trains had stopped being the major long distance transportation system, having been replaced by cars and airplanes. There is also images or slices of the lives of individual people. It’s the kind of song that brings images to mind. Listen to the lyrics and you can see the old men playing cards, the mother holding her baby, the conductors walking the train and looking out the window you see the farm fields, freight yards, city and the junk yards where cars are sent to rust.
Goodman builds these images as a skilled poet with lines like: “Dealing card games with the old men in the club car / Penny a point ain’t no one keeping score”. In just two lines we get the image of a card game played my old men to just pass the time. Cards dealt, played, but no one caring about the outcome. This is one example of Goodman’s skill of story telling.
I love the story of how Goodman got Guthrie to record the song. According to a few sources the story is that Goodman met Guthrie in a bar in Chicago and asked Guthrie to listen to the song. Guthrie agreed to listen if Goodman would buy him a beer and he’d only listen until he finished the beer. Apparently hearing once was enough and Guthrie asked to record the song and included it his 1972 album, Hobo’s Lullaby. Guthrie’s voice and piano playing turned out to be perfect for the song and landed it in the Billboard’s top 40 list – the only song Guthrie had in the top 40. Guthrie other famous song, Alice’s Restaurant, made the top 100 list. The two songs are likely the most popular of all of Guthrie’s music. Guthrie remained a popular singer, song writer and performer until 2020 when he announced his retirement from touring due to health problems.
Steve Goodman is less known, but in the 1970’s was active folk and country singer-songwriter and had a number of albums out. Goodman also recorded a version of City of New Orleans in 1971, but his recorded was eclipsed by Guthrie’s record. Sadly Goodman died in 1984 at age 36 from leukemia.
This song ends up on my writing play list because of it’s ability to tell many stories with simple lines, clear images and emotions. It reaches a level of story telling that I wish I could bring to my own writing, but always seem to miss. The rhythm, voice and feeling of the song is a nice background when I’m trying to link words together into something like a clear thought.
Andrew's View of the Week 
How well I remember that song. The video was awesome — of course, because it had trains in it and my hubby is a train aficionado. I have to show him this one!
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Whenever I see a train I think of this song.
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I love watching this video as the lyrics made it come alive. I enjoyed learning the history. Thank you Andrew for sharing this!
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What a great song, Andrew!
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I’ve got it on a few play lists.
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This is a GREAT song! I haven’t heard it in so long. Thanks for the video.
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I love this song!
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I can hear it now. Great song.
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I love this song.
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This brought back wistful memories of a family train trip when I was a kid. Thanks for posting the song – I miss those simpler times and simpler (but wonderfully evocative) music. 🙂
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I do miss those days when everything seemed so much simpler than today.
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Great idea for a column. I don’t listen to music while I write, but I’ve been pondering a change.
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I like to have my headphones on while working at the computer. It helps block out any noise in the house. I’ll actually listen to the first song or two and then it really just becomes white noise while I work.
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“Good morning America, how are ya?” Love that lyric, and it seems like the most natural question to be asking as you wake up on a moving train. Coincidence: for my brother’s birthday a mere week ago (12/31), my niece gave him a birthday greeting from… Arlo Guthrie. I wish I could post the video here because Guthrie’s still going strong, and as colorful a character as the lyrics of his songs. I didn’t ask my niece how she made it happen but I assume you can hire Guthrie to record video birthday greetings. He sang the Birthday Song to my brother and told a handful of silly jokes along the way; three minutes or so. Wonderfully appropriate gift, since my brother built his vast LP collection in the 60s and 70s. Without him I never would’ve heard of Arlo and the two songs you mentioned.
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Wow – I didn’t know you could get that. Cool! I first heard this song on the radio and now with streaming services, I have it in a few of my playlists. From what I’ve read, Guthrie had a stroke a few years ago and fully recovered but it forced him to give up touring, not doing music.
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Thank you for getting me to really listen to the words!
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The music is good, but the story in the words is what I love here.
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I’ve taken the Texas Star out of Chicago to Austin. It feels like this song and, unlike flying, is a treat for those who enjoy the journey as much as the destination.
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I love to take the train. Strangely though, I’ve done more train traveling in the UK than I have here in the US.
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I like songs that tell stories. I love several genres of music, but I truly think the best music ever came out in the 70’s and 80’s. Perhaps because I was born in the 60’s and those were the years when my own musical sense was developing. This was a great song and I enjoyed learning the history behind it. Thank you. 🙂
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Most of my musical tastes date back to then too. This song is just one of the great ones from that time.
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Well on its way to becoming an anthem.
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It is.
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Beautiful song, very nostalgic
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I’ve always liked it.
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