ATF: Arrivals and Departures

This weekly series will include as many of my all-time favorite (ATF) tunes as I can get my grubby little hands on (so to speak).  Now, each one included in each edition will have some connection with the other—albeit only as a figment of my imagination, but they will not be numbered.  For I just cannot bring myself to rate some higher than others.  So, this will not be a countdown, but if you are enjoying them as much as I do, it won’t matter.  Besides, with no countdown, this could go on forever and ever!  Oh, and despite the fact that there is absolutely no way that your musical tastes can be as exquisite as mine, I welcome any suggestions you might dare to make.  For I am, after all, quite magnanimous by nature.

Link: [Arlo Guthrie]

The City of New Orleans

Arlo Guthrie

Ridin’ on

The City of New Orleans

Illinois Central

Monday mornin’ rail

Fifteen cars

And fifteen restless riders

Three conductors

And twenty-five sacks of mail

All along the southbound odyssey

The train pulls out of Kankakee

And rolls along past houses

Farms and fields

Passin’ trains that have no name

Freight yards full of old black men

And the graveyards of the rusted automobile

Good mornin’

America

How are ya

Say

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 fathers’ magic carpets

Made of steel

Mothers with their babes asleep

Rockin’ to the gentle beat

And the rhythm of the rails

Is all they feel

Good mornin’

America

How are ya

Say

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

Night time

On the City of New Orleans

Changin’ cars

In Memphis Tennessee

Halfway home

We’ll be there by mornin’

Through the Mississippi darkness

Rollin’ down to the sea

But all the towns and people seem

To fade into a bad dream

And the steel rail

Still ain’t heard the news

The conductor sings his songs again

The passengers will please refrain

This train’s got the disappearin’

Railroad blues

Good night

America

How are ya

Say

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

Link: [The Animals]

The House of the Rising Sun

The Animals

There is

A house

In New Orleans

They call

The Risin’

Sun

And it's been

The ruin

Of many a poor boy

And God

I know

I'm one

My mother

Was a tailor

Sewed

My new blue jeans

My father was

A gamblin' man

Down

In

New Orleans

Now

The only thing

A gambler needs

Is a suitcase

And a trunk

And the only time

He'll be satisfied

Is when

He's on

A drunk

Oh Mother

Tell your children

Not to do

What I

Have done

Spend your lives

In sin

And misery

In the House

Of the Risin’

Sun

Well

I’ve got one foot

On the platform

The other foot

On the train

I'm goin’ back

To New Orleans

To wear

That ball and chain

Well

There is

A house

In New Orleans

They call

The Risin’

Sun

And it’s been

The ruin

Of many a poor boy

And God

I know

I'm one

Lyrics From: [eLyrics.net]

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