#96 – City Of New Orleans
#96 – City Of New Orleans
-by Stacy Garwood-
Jimmy Buffett was an amazing song writer and performer, and I think that made him appreciate other songwriters and performers. One of those who was a great friend of his, and who Jimmy credits for teaching him so much, was the late Steve Goodman. One of Goodman’s biggest hits of his career was a little tune he penned called City Of New Orleans, and several times in Jimmy’s career, he honored Steve by playing this song and even put a live version of it on an album.
“Singing, ‘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, And I’ll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done…”
Steve Goodman was a good friend to Jimmy Buffett. They met in Jimmy’s early years, after Jimmy had dipped his toes into the music industry playing small clubs in New Orleans, and had moved his music work up to Nashville, learning and growing as an artist, and was branching out by playing clubs in the Midwest.
Steve was a remarkable human, and even though he was younger than Jimmy, he knew Chicago. He was a Chicago native and had been playing the club circuit in the greater Chicago area for several years. He sort of took Jimmy under his wings, so to speak, and showed him the city he loved, introduced him to the baseball team he loved, and also helped Jimmy find his ways playing shows in Chicago. In interviews, I have heard Jimmy give Steve the highest praise both as a human, as a songwriter and as a performer.
Steve Goodman seems like a man that music just poured out of, with ease and charm, although I believe he described the song Banana Republics, as coming out like pulling a tooth. Jimmy put that one on an album and many people will think it was written by Jimmy, but it was absolutely penned by Steve in a period that saw him playing music in the Caribbean, part of Jimmy’s influence on Steve’s career.
But this song was all America in places that Steve was quite familiar with. In 1970, Steve married the love of his life, Nancy, and early in their marriage, they took a trip to see her grandfather. They left Chicago traveling on the Illinois Central line, a train called The City Of New Orleans, which started in Chicago, traveled through America’s heartland, stopping over in the iconic music city of Memphis, Tennessee, before reaching the completion of the line in New Orleans, Louisianna. While Steve’s wife dozed, Steve jotted some names and locations, lyrics and lines down.
And both the melody and the lyrics are absolutely a piece of art.
To understand the birth and path of the City of New Orleans, we first need to take a little trip into railroad history. The Panama Limited had previously been known as the Chicago and New Orleans Limited, but in 1911, the Illinois Central renamed the route in honor of the Panama Canal, which would be opened later that same year, and they were trying to capitalize on getting people to travel to New Orleans, where they could then get on a steam ship and travel to the wonder that connected the great oceans from east to west through a series of locks built with modern technology. That train was a luxury train that traveled from Chicago, through St Louis and Memphis and into New Orleans with luxury dining and Pullman cars for sleeping on this overnight route to the Big Easy. From looking at old timetables, it left Chicago in the evening and arrived in New Orleans at around breakfast time, with passengers spending two nights on the train with full Pullman porter services.
The City of New Orleans line was first introduced in 1947 by the Illinois Central railroad as a day-time companion to their overnight route the Panama Limited. It started in Chicago and ended in New Orleans, with the stops in St Louis, before continuing south through Memphis and finally arriving in New Orleans. It was considered a daytime route because it left Chicago at around 7:00 am, with passengers spending one full night on the train, and arriving in New Orleans at just after midnight. I can only imagine the crowds disembarking from the train at midnight and flowing into the thriving energy of New Orleans. It was promoted as more of a middle-class train service, and tried to capture a vacation crowd that could not afford the luxury of the Panama Limited line.
In 1971, Amtrak took over passenger service from the Illinois Central and decided only have one route going south to New Orleans from Chicago, and they opted to keep the day time departure of the The City of New Orleans route but decided to use the name the Panama Limited, keeping their service connected to the line with the longer history and luxury Pullman Car service and memories. From 1971 to 1981, the City of New Orleans name disappeared from train timetables. Although, in 1981, thanks to this popular folk song, Amtrak renamed this south bound train service the City of New Orleans, with the idea of connecting people’s interest to train travel with a hint of popular music and nostalgic American imagery. Amtrak still runs this line from Chicago to New Orleans under the iconic name the City of New Orleans.
I am not sure where Steve Goodman and his new wife were traveling to when inspiration struck him, but it was clearly before Amtrak took over from the Illinois Central in 1971 and it was on the day-time departure from Chicago, the middle class route The City of New Orleans.
When the newly wed couple returned to Chicago, Steve Goodman sat down and wrote one of America’s most iconic songs. And I do not say that lightly. I would bet that no matter what your age or history or your preferred musical backgrounds and genre’s, most people will recognize the song City of New Orleans.
In 1971, Steve Goodman recorded this song on his second album, the self-titled Steve Goodman, which was produced by Norbert Putnam, (who also produced a couple of Jimmy Buffett’s later album) and Kris Kristofferson. Norbert Putnam played bass on this record and Kris Kristofferson is credited with background vocals. I am learning such deep appreciation for the web of connections within the music industry. It was under Buddah Records and this album also includes another iconic country and western favorite, You Never Even Call Me By My Name, which was cowritten by Goodman and the great John Prine.
One of the iconic places both Jimmy and Steve played at in Chicago was a club called The Quiet Knight. It was a very well known and popular place in the music industry in the Windy City, and it drew a large crowd, both fans of music and musicians themselves.
Arlo Guthrie enters picture when he was at the Quiet Knight in Chicago, although I am not sure if he was performing or just there for the music. Goodman recognized him and asked him to listen to some of his songs. As the story goes, Guthrie agreed to only listen to some songs as long as Goodman bought him a beer and he would only listen until he had finished drinking that beer. Apparently, he liked what he heard in City of New Orleans, because he decided to record that song, putting it on his 1972 album Hobo’s Lullaby, become one of Arlo Guthrie’s great hit songs, taking it to #4 on the Billboard Easy Listening chart and #18 on Billboards Hot 100 chart. Guthrie did change a few of the songs lines slightly and also throws a “the” onto the title, calling it The City Of New Orleans on his album, which is about the only place you will find it called that. Arlo Guthrie’s version of The City Of New Orleans was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2017, which is quite an honor for Guthrie, the song itself, and the artist who write this song full of beauty, history and americana.
In 1984, Steve Goodman died of complications of his lifelong battle with leukemia, he was only 36 years old. The same year, Willie Nelson covered this song, and took it to #1 on the Billboard Hot Country chart and #30 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart. This version brought new media attention to Steve Goodman’s life and catalogue of music, and in 1985 it won the Grammy Award for Best Country Song. Another great honor for Steve Goodman and his song about a train.
For my entire life, since I am a couple years younger than this song, the imagery and melody of this song has been part of my story, as I believe it must be to so many other people as well. And while I have touched just a bit on the potential meaning, I think the song deserves a deeper dive. And as mentioned above, the melody and lyrics are art. Here is some of that art…
“Riding on the City of New Orleans, Illinois Central, Monday morning train, fifteen cars and fifteen restless riders, three conductors and twenty-five sacks of mail…’”
Not only this train line, but train lines everywhere across America connected this country, and they did haul mail, as well as medicine and goods and people ready to get to their next destination.
“All along the southbound odyssey, the train pulls out from Kankakee, Heading over highways, farms and fields, passing trains that have no names, Freight yards full of old black men, And the graveyards of the rusted automobiles…”
I myself grew up along a train line, although it was not this one. I grew up in northern Montana along another icon railway, James J Hill’s Great Northern Railway with the train line that stretched from Chicago, a great gateway in many directions, to Seattle in the Pacific Northwest. It cut across prairies and vast mountains before arriving at the sea. The Amtrak line still carries a name to honor him and his railroad, The Empire Builder, and my very first train rides on this was on a kindergarten field trip, of only fifty-some miles, from Glasgow to Wolf Point, and later from Glasgow to Seattle, one of many trips I took on the train with family to visit relatives in Seattle. I have watched many farms and fields out the windows of that train, which probably helped me connect with the lyrics of this song so easily.
“Dealing cards with the old men in the club car, A penny a point, ain’t no one keeping score, Won’t you pass the paper bag that holds the bottle, And feel the wheels rumblin’ through the floor…”
As an adult, I have traveled to and through Chicago many times on the train, my longest journey being almost three full days to Savannah, Georgia. I love to travel by train, and I love to watch the people on the trains, wondering where they are from or where they are going, as well as wondering who lives in these towns along the way and how they received such interesting names. Train travel is a beautiful way to see the countryside and our fellow travels, as Steve Goodman writes so soulfully into his lyrics. There certainly has been card playing and bottle sharing that I have witnessed on my share of train trips.
“And the sons of Pullman porters and the sons of engineers, Ride their father’s magic carpet made of steel, Mothers with their babes asleep are rockin’ to the gentle beat, And the rhythm of the rails is all they feel…”
Some of the imagery here ties to the generational pull of the railroad, not just as a way to travel, but as a form of employment, passed from parents to children, over and over again. In this case it is passenger trains, but it also ties to the freight trains and lines that ship merchandise and building supplies all over the country, from coast to coast, or “from sea to shining sea”, to borrow from the poem America the Beautiful by Katharine Lee Bates. This concept of uniting the nation also borrows some imagery from This Land Is Your Land, from the song written and made famous by Woody Guthrie, whose son Arlo plays a huge role in the story of the song the City of New Orleans.
Well, it’s nighttime on the City of New Orleans, Changing cars in Memphis, Tennessee, halfway home, we’ll be there my morning, Through the Mississippi darkness, rolling to the sea…
The song closes out the day, fading into the darkness. And it mentions one of the stops along the route, the iconic music city of Memphis, where so much music has been made, before moving toward its final destination in the morning light.
“And all the towns and the people seem to feed into this bad dream, And the steel rails, they ain’t heard the news, Conductor sings the song again, passengers will please refrain, ‘Cause the train’s got the disappearing railroad blues…”
I can’t be sure, but my instinct tells me that this verse might have been written in response to the news that the Illinois Central line was ending its more than one hundred years of passenger service and turning that service over to Amtrak, which would bring big change to the City of New Orleans and Panama Unlimited lines.
Another beautiful thing I did not realize about the lyrics, “passengers will please refrain” ties to the conductor’s announcement for passengers to refrain from flushing toilets while the train was stopped at stations.
“And it’s ‘Good Morning America, how are you? I 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 the day is done, I’m the train they call the City of New Orleans, And I’ll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done, yeah…”
Wraps up the lyrics and imagery of this beautiful song, starting with Good Morning and ending in all with Good Night, before repeating it all the next day, just like the train as done for decades and decades. The history of the song is as interesting as the song itself, at least if you ask me.
City of New Orleans has been covered many, many times over, with its most well-known covers being by Arlo Guthrie and Willie Nelson, who put it on the map of music and then cemented it’s place there ever more, but also include artists like John Denver, Jerry Reed, Johnny Cash, Judy Collins and even David Hasselhoff. It was covered by Canadian artist Roch Voisine in English and French and New Orleans Jazz artist Allen Toussaint often performed City of New Orleans in concert, especially at Jazz Fest in New Orleans.
Another person who is known to have performed City of New Orleans at Jazz Fest in New Orleans is Jimmy Buffett, longtime friend and fan of Steve Goodman and his music. He performed it at Jazz Fest in May of 2006, in honor of New Orleans and her citizens in the wake of Hurricane Katrina which had devastated the city he loved so much in the fall of 2005.
Jimmy is first noted to have covered a live version of City of New Orleans in 2001 at the Tweeter Center in Tinley Park, Illinois, his usual stomping grounds when he played in the Chicago area. But his most iconic live version of this song comes from the fall of 2005, when he played two shows at Wrigley Field, a place that Steve Goodman introduced him to in the early seventies, when they were both finding their way in the music industry. They would go to Cubs games in the afternoons and play the clubs at night. Steve Goodman was always a lifelong dedicated Chicago Cubs fan, but his love of the team encouraged Jimmy Buffett to become a dedicated and die-hard fan as well.
One place that Jimmy dreamed of playing was in Wrigley Field and that dream came true over Labor Day weekend in 2005, when he had two amazing shows, which thankfully were recorded and saved for fans to enjoy over and over again. This is one double live album that I played until I was close to wearing the grooves right out of my CD. It also spawned a collectable DVD of the live two-night event, another treasure of mine. The version of the song that I am sharing today was recorded at these two shows and placed on his Live At Wrigley Field album, subtitled “the Labor Day shows”, from the A Salty Piece Of Land Tour.
Chicago and the Cubs and Wrigley Field had a special place in Jimmy’s heart, right along with his friend Steve Goodman, but another place that had a piece of Jimmy’s heart was the city of New Orleans. And his beloved New Orleans had been and was still under devastating conditions related to the storm and flood damage from Hurricane Katrina, which had occurred the month before. I imagine that Jimmy had always planned on playing City Of New Orleans in his live shows at Wrigley Field, to honor his friend Steve Goodman, the show long in the making before Hurricane Katrina devastated many places in the Gulf Coast, including New Orleans.
However, considering the connection between Chicago and New Orleans in Jimmy’s career, as well as the iconic train line that his friend had written about, which physically connected the cities of Chicago and New Orleans, and the more liminal connection at that moment, between a dream live concern in Chicago and the devastation of New Orleans by Katrina, it was absolutely perfect and fitting that Jimmy included this song in his shows that weekend.
In the introduction to the song, Jimmy mentions Steve, both as a friend and the writer of this song, and at the end, he mentions New Orleans, and the train line The City of New Orleans, which was currently out of service due to the storms’ devastation to its final “port of call” along the line. It almost seems fate-like how it all was woven together. And Jimmy was able to do all of these things and share it not only with the people who were lucky enough to attend those shows, or listen live on RadioMargaritaville.com, but also with a whole world of fans (like me) with the release of Live At Wrigley Field in 2006, both as a DVD and companion CD album.
The City Of New Orleans combines several things I love, including two of my favorite cities in the United States, Chicago and New Orleans, travel by train, and this version of the song includes a few other favorites of mine, including the great Jimmy Buffett, the great Steve Goodman, Wrigley Field and the Chicago Cubs and travel by train on the rails made of steel that connect this great country together.
No doubt thanks in large part to this song, but also to my love of both Chicago and New Orleans, as well as my general love of travel by train, I plan to take that rail journey on the City of New Orleans, south to the sea and then take it back north again.
So, thank you to Steve Goodman for writing this beautiful song, thank you to the Illinois Central for its iconic lines and names that inspired Steve to write the song, thanks to Amtrak for keeping the history and route alive, thanks to Arlo Guthrie and Willie Nelson who had a huge part in carrying this song to the world and thanks to Jimmy for his beautiful and heartfelt rendition of a song that tied to his love of two special American cities, to his love for his dear and talented friend, and thanks to the actual song that weaves it all together.
Stacy
Please enjoy City Of New Orleans. I have included the link below. Enjoy!
The link is from Jimmy’s official YouTube channel, which I have no personal affiliation with.
Here is a link to a video of Jimmy and Mac performing the song acoustic at Wrigley Field, sitting in the bleachers.
It’s from a personal account, RobertJReece, which I have no personal affiliation with. This video has been up for years, so hopefully the channel will not mind my including it this post.
Other links that might be of interest:
The “City of New Orleans” (Train): Map, History, Timetable (american-rails.com)
“Panama Limited” (Train): IC’s Flagship Streamliner (american-rails.com)
City of New Orleans Train Chicago, Memphis, New Orleans | Amtrak
Story behind the Song ‘City of New Orleans’ (kxrb.com)
City of New Orleans – New Orleans, Louisiana (songfacts.com)
Watch: Jimmy Buffett talks about why he loves New Orleans | Entertainment/Life | nola.com
