All the towns and people seem to fade into a bad dream. Many, many years ago Steve Goodman wrote and recorded these lyrics to the song, “The City of New Orleans” (mp3 clip). Goodman then convinced Arlo Guthrie to record it, by buying him a beer, and Arlo’s version became his biggest hit and the most popular version (mp3 from goldenfiddle.com).

Rise and stand real still and cover your heart with your hand when you hear “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.”

Nighttime on The City of New Orleans,
Changing cars in Memphis, Tennessee.
Half way home, we’ll be there by morning
Through the Mississippi darkness
Rolling down to the sea.
And all the towns and people seem
To fade into a bad dream
And the steel rails still ain’t heard the news.
The conductor sings his song again,
The passengers will please refrain
This train’s got the disappearing railroad blues.

Good night, 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,
I’ll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done.

From 1947 to 1971, the “City of New Orleans” train ran the 500 miles or so from Chicago to New Orleans, in 19 hours. It travelled through the Illinois countryside until it reached the “Mississipi darkness rolling down to the the sea …“. It still runs today under the management of Amtrak. (Linked at basil’s blog lunch and WizBang’s Carnival of Trackbacks.)