Notes from Old America : Arlo Guthrie - City of New Orleans

This song is an anthem from Old America.  I listened to this as a teenager, and you (Old Farts) know how old I am.  This is from a time when politics was not Uber Alles, and when  Americans could have civil conversations even if they were in opposite parties.

ASM836 has been posting about how he went  on a road trip and found that Old America is sill here.  This song sings to that, even if Arlo was a Commie Bastard - and son of a Commie Bastard - but he endorsed Ron Paul (!).  Because back then we were always America First, even back in the 1970s.  I think that this proves my point, that we shouldn't hate Americans because they are in the other political party.

Arlo Guthrie, City Of New Orleans (Songwriter: Steve Goodman):

City Of New Orleans (Songwriter: Steve Goodman)

Riding on the City of New Orleans
Illinois Central, Monday morning rail;
There are fifteen cars and fifteen restless riders,
Three conductors, twenty five sacks of mail.
They're all out on a southbound odyssey
The train rolls out of Kankakee
Rolling past the houses, farms and fields,
Passing trains that have no names
Freight yards full of old black men,
And the graveyards of the rusted automobiles.

Singing, "Good morning, America, how are you?
Say, don't you 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 day is done."

I was dealing cards with the old men in the club car,
It's a penny a point, there ain't no-one keeping score.
Won't you pass the paper bag that holds that bottle,
You can feel the wheels a-rumbling through the floor.
And the sons of Pullman porters and the sons of engineers
Ride their fathers' magic carpet made of steam;
Mothers with their babes asleep, rocking to the gentle beat,
The rhythm of the rails is all they dream.

Singing, "Good morning, America, how are you?
Say, don't you 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 day is done."

Nighttime on the City of New Orleans,
Changing cars in Memphis, Tennessee.
It's halfway home, and we'll be there by morning,
Through the Mississippi darkness rolling down to the sea.
But all the towns and people seem to fade into a bad dream,
The old steel rail it ain't heard the news,
The conductor sings his song again, it's, "Passengers will please refrain..."
This train's got the disappearing railroad blues.

Singing, "Good night, America, how are you?
Say, don't you 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 day is done."

Singing, "Good night, America, how are you?
Say, don't you know me? I'm your native son.
I'm the train they call the City of New Orleans.
And I'll be gone a long, long time when the day is done."

As with all great songs about America, this is bitter sweet.  This was once the artery that pumped blood between America's different regions.  Now - in the 1970s - it was dying as a passenger system.

But people remembered what it was.  Here's the Highwaymen who did this almost as well as Arlo.  Waylon makes this almost what it was. Sure, Willie carries this, but watch Waylon.

 

America is not gone.  Art tells us what it was, and is, and can be.  

That's what ASM826 is telling us. America is here.  Just look around.