Something for the weekend. City of New Orleans (1972) sung by Arlo Guthrie. My Bride is a passenger rail enthusiast, and since my son joined the firm we have begun taking train trips around the country. City of New Orleans by the late Steve Goodman is one of the great American railroad songs. Written in 1971 it is both a celebration and a lament of passenger trains in the US, the song being written at the time Amtrak was formed. Most observers thought that passenger rail was on its way out and that Amtrak was destined to be a short lived entity. Such proved not to be the case, although Amtrak has lost money every year. Economically passenger rail in the US has not made economic sense from the second half of the last century to the present, but when dealing with railroads economics have never been the be all and end all, for ill and good.
Two points about the song. Kankakee is 35 miles from my house, and when my son was going to law school at SIU, we frequently made use of the Kankakee station to have him board the Amtrak train going to Carbondale. The phrase magic carpets made of steel is striking and illustrates how advanced technology can seem like magic.
Bonus:
Remember it well. The train passed by my apartment when I lived in Champaign. Played on the local radio station regularly.
Here’s another, lesser known Arlo Guthrie train song that I have grown to like:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHSlCDuEOF8
Such a great song and so much better than the song he is most famous for: “Alice’s Restaurant,” which supported and encouraged the anti-military feelings in the country after Vietnam.
Judy Collins was one of the best female singers of her genre and of her time. She was also the one time girlfriend of Stephen Stills and is the namesake of the CSN classic Suite Judy Blue Eyes.