Steve Goodman 's "City Of New Orleans" 1970 American Train Folk Song & Its "Freight Yards Full Of Old Black Men" Line

Jan Hammer, Mar 16, 2012

"City of New Orleans" is a folk song written by Steve Goodman (and first recorded for Goodman's self-titled 1971 album), describing a train ride from Chicago to New Orleans via the Illinois Central Railroad in bittersweet and nostalgic terms. Goodman got the idea while traveling on the eponymous train for a visit to his wife's family. He performed the song for Arlo Guthrie in the Quiet Knight, a bar in Chicago, and Guthrie agreed to add it to his repertoire. The song was a hit for Guthrie on his 1972 album Hobo's Lullaby, and is now more closely associated with him, although Goodman performed it until his death in 1984....

Steve Goodman won a posthumous Grammy Award for Best Country Song at the 27th Grammy Awards in 1985 for Willie Nelson's version, which was included on his 1984 album of the same name. It reached #1 on both the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart in the United States and the RPM Country Tracks chart in Canada."...

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Edited by Azizi Powell

This is Part I of a two part pancocojams series about the 1970 American folk song "City Of New Orleans" that was written by Steve Goodman and popularized by Arlo Guthrie, Willie Nelson, and others.

This post showcases a video of a performance of this song by its composer Steve Goodman, joined by his friend American country music singer John Prine. The lyrics to that song are also included in this pancocojams post along with information about that train.

In addition, this pancocojams post presents some comments about the song "City Of New Orleans" from a Mudcat folk music discussion thread. Special attention is given to the song's line "freight yards full of old black men" and that song's reference to Pullman porters.

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2023/07/african-americans-and-american-folk.html  for Part II of this series. That post showcases a YouTube sound file of Arlo Guthrie singing "City Of New Orleans". That post also includes selected comments from a sub-thread of that YouTube sound file. In that sub-thread an African American woman shares her childhood memories of her sister singing that song and making up a country dance while she sang it. Many of the comments in that sub-thread (including some that aren't quoted in this compilation) question why that woman mentioned race in her comment.

The content of this post is presented for historical, folkloric, socio-cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to Steve Goodman for his musical legacy. Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publisher of this video on YouTube. 
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Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/09/2019-article-excerpt-african-american.html for a closely related 2019 pancocojams post entitled "2019 Article Excerpt -"African American Influence on Country Music Can’t Be Understated, or Overstated" (with selected comments)".

Also, click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2023/07/youtube-film-documenting-life-of-black.html for the closely related pancocojams post entitled "YouTube Film Documenting The Life Of Black Musician/Composer DeFord Bailey, The First Country Music Performer To Have His Music Recorded In Nashville, Tennessee".
-snip-
This post is also part of an ongoing pancocojams series about songs in different American music genres that mention trains.

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS (TRAIN)
from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_New_Orleans_(train)
"The City of New Orleans is a long-distance passenger train operated by Amtrak on an overnight schedule between Chicago and New Orleans. The train is a successor to the Illinois Central Railroad's Panama Limited.

The original City of New Orleans began in 1947 as part of the Illinois Central Railroad, and was the longest daylight passenger run in the United States. The daylight train under that name ran through 1971, when it was moved to an overnight schedule as the Panama Limited. The present name was brought back in 1981, still on an overnight schedule. The train is the subject of the bittersweet 1971 song "City of New Orleans", written by Steve Goodman.

The train operates along a route that has been served in one form or another for over a century. The Panama Limited originally ran from 1911 to 1971, though the IC ran Chicago-New Orleans trains since the turn of the century. Additional corridor service is provided between Chicago and Carbondale, Illinois–the northern leg of the route–by the Illini and Saluki.

During fiscal year 2018, the train carried 237,781 passengers, a decrease of 6.9% from FY2017. In FY2016, the train had a total revenue of $18,706,915, a 3.7% decrease from FY2015.

HISTORY

Illinois Central

The Illinois Central Railroad introduced the original City of New Orleans on April 27, 1947. It was a daytime, all-coach companion to the overnight Panama Limited, which had been all-Pullman for most of its run. EMD E7 diesel locomotives pulled new lightweight Pullman Company coaches. The 921-mile (1,482 km) route, which the City of New Orleans covered in 15 hours 55 minutes, was the longest daytime schedule in the United States.[3][4] The City of New Orleans exchanged St. Louis—New Orleans through cars at Carbondale, Illinois and Louisville—New Orleans cars at Fulton, Kentucky. The average speed of the new train was nearly 60 mph (97 km/h) with a maximum of 100 mph (160 km/h); a result of the largely flat route of the Illinois Central along the Mississippi River.[5][6] By October 25, 1959, the timetable had lengthened to 16 hours 30 minutes.[7] The train remained popular throughout the 1960s and gained ex-Missouri Pacific Railroad dome coaches in 1967.[5]

Amtrak

When Amtrak assumed operation of U.S. passenger train service on May 1, 1971, it dropped the Panama Limited in favor of retaining the City of New Orleans on the traditional daytime schedule. Inauspiciously, the City of New Orleans was involved in Amtrak's first fatal derailment on June 10, near Salem, Illinois. Because this train made no connections with other trains at either New Orleans or Chicago, Amtrak moved the train to an overnight schedule on November 14, 1971, and renamed it the Panama Limited.[8]

In February 1981, Amtrak restored the City of New Orleans name while retaining the overnight schedule; Amtrak hoped to capitalize on the popularity of the song written by Steve Goodman and recorded in 1972 by Arlo Guthrie.[9] A Kansas City section, the River Cities, began operation on April 29, 1984. It separated from the City of New Orleans at Centralia, Illinois (later Carbondale) and ran to Kansas City via St. Louis. This section ended on November 4, 1994.[10] The northbound City of New Orleans began stopping at Gilman, Illinois, on October 26, 1986. Gilman had last seen service in 1971; the Illini stopped there as well. Service to Cairo, Illinois, south of Carbondale, ended on October 25, 1987.[11]

Amtrak operated the City of New Orleans reliably through the 1980s and into the 1990s; in 1992, the City of New Orleans had the highest on-time performance rate of all Amtrak services at 87%.[12] Nevertheless, on-board service had declined; Trains magazine editor J. David Ingles called the train "Amtrak's least-glamorous long-distance train".[13] On March 3, 1994, new Superliner cars replaced the single-level cars. Real dining service returned; by the early 1990s an Amfleet dinette had doubled with the lounge car.[14]

On September 10, 1995, the train was rerouted between Memphis and Jackson due to the Illinois Central's desire to abandon the original route (the Grenada District) in favor of the newer and flatter Yazoo District. Five towns in the Mississippi Delta lost service–Batesville, Grenada; Winona; Durant and Canton.[

On March 15, 1999, the City of New Orleans collided with a flatbed semi-trailer near Bourbonnais. Of the 217 people aboard the train, eleven people were killed in the Bourbonnais train accident. The fourth car, where the fatalities occurred, was engulfed in flames following the collision at the crossing.[16]

Because of damage in Mississippi and Louisiana due to Hurricane Katrina, Amtrak was forced in late August 2005 to truncate the City of New Orleans at Memphis, Tennessee. Service was first restored as far south as Hammond, Louisiana, and on October 8, 2005, Amtrak resumed service to New Orleans.[17] In December 2005 Arlo Guthrie, who helped popularize the song "City of New Orleans", led a fundraiser aboard the City of New Orleans and at several stops along the train's route to help in the hurricane recovery efforts.[18][19]

The train began stopping at Marks, Mississippi on April 4, 2018 following the completion of a new station.[20]

Starting October 1, 2019, traditional dining car services were removed and replaced with a reduced menu of 'Flexible Dining' options.[21]

From October 1, 2020, to May 31, 2021, daily service was reduced to three trains per week due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[22]"...
-snip-
I added italics to highlight these sentences.

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LYRICS - CITY OF NEW ORLEANS
(composed by Steve Goodman)
 

[Verse 1]

Riding on the City of New Orleans
Illinois Central, Monday morning rail
Fifteen cars and fifteen restless riders
Three conductors and twenty-five sacks of mail
All along the southbound odyssey
The train pulls out at Kankakee
And rolls along past houses, farms and fields
Passing trains that have no name
And freight yards full of old black men
And the graveyards of the rusted automobiles

[Chorus]

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
I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done

[Verse 2]

Dealing card games with the old men in the club car
Penny a point, ain't no one keeping score
Pass the paper bag that holds the bottle
Feel the wheels rumbling 'neath the floor
And the sons of pullman porters
And the sons of engineers
Ride their fathers' magic carpets made of steel
And mothers with their babes asleep
Are rockin' to the gentle beat
And the rhythm of the rails is all they feel

[Chorus]

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
I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done

[Verse 3]

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
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 got the disappearing railroad blues

[Chorus]

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
I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done

https://genius.com/Steve-goodman-city-of-new-orleans-lyrics
-snip-
Click https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Goodman for more information about White American folk and country composer/singer Steve Goodman (July 25, 1948 – September 20, 1984).

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SELECTED COMMENTS ABOUT THE "FREIGHT YARDS FULL OF OLD BLACK MEN" LINE AND THE REFERENCES TO PULLMAN PORTERS IN THE FOLK SONG "CITY OF NEW ORLEANS"

From https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=156699

Numbers are added for referencing purposes only.

[Pancocojams Editor's Note: This compilation is a portion of that mudcat folk music discussion thread. That discussion thread is still open for additional comments as of July 21, 2023.]

1. Subject: Origins: City of New Orleans
From: GUEST,BobJovi
Date: 13 Mar 15 - 11:29 AM

"Can someone help me out? I am once again singing "City of New Orleans" with my students. I am not singing it the way I learned it as "freight yards full of old black men". Instead, I am substituting "grey" for black, as the many versions that I have heard use that version--I thought I had misheard black years ago.

I went back recently and saw that Steve Goodman used the word "black", and thought he must have meant stained with coal dust or something of the like. Then I started looking into the history of the Pullman Porters, and learned that it was this profession that was responsible for the creation of a black middle class--at least according to Wikipedia.

I sometimes think about how homogenous we are becoming as a nation. Societally, we have turned John Henry into a white person, and I worry that we are currently in the process of doing as much with Martin Luther King. Am I doing a discredit to the intent of Steve Goodman's song by changing one word?"

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2. Subject: RE: Origins: City of New Orleans
From: Greg F.
Date: 13 Mar 15 - 12:02 PM

"Yes. Sing it the way it was written."

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3. Subject: RE: Origins: City of New Orleans
From: pdq
Date: 13 Mar 15 - 12:34 PM

"I suspect it was John Denver who changed it to "old gray men".

 That seems to be the way it is usually sung in the PC World."
-snip-
Mudcat Editor note: "Not in this John Denver version (click), but he does uses "grey" and other altered lyrics in this 1971 version on the Aerie album. -Joe Offer-

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4. Subject: RE: Origins: City of New Orleans
From: Dennis the Elder
Date: 13 Mar 15 - 02:55 PM

"The song was copywrited in 1970 by John Goodmen with the phrase "Old Black Man" and Willie Nelsons version contains this phrase and I am convinced that Arlo Guthries hit in 1972 also contained this phrase. I also believe that no harm was meant by the phrase just an observation as what was seen."

**

5.  Subject: RE: Origins: City of New Orleans
From: GUEST,Ray
Date: 13 Mar 15 - 05:18 PM

"The three versions I'm familiar with are -

1) that by Steve Goodman, who wrote it, and uses the phrase "old black men"

2) the version by John Denver (the first version I heard) where black is substituted with grey, and

3) probably the most popular version by Arlo Guthrie which also refers to "black" men.

When someone else sings it, you can usually tell wh they nicked it from as the Arlo Guthrie version uses the wrong tune for the phrase "gone 500 miles"."

**
6. Subject: RE: Origins: City of New Orleans
From: Joe_F
Date: 13 Mar 15 - 05:28 PM

"FWIW, The Country Gentlemen, on their 1973 LP (VMS 73123), made it "gray". There were some other repellent touches on that side of the disc, and I have made a note to skip it.

As BobJovi points out, that is one of two casual mentions of the taboo subject of Race in the song, the other being the Pullman porters. They are part of its charm, for which I have coined the word "illicitude". We also get the paper bag that cheats the club car of its monopoly prices on drinks, the scandalously petty public gambling, and the conductor's mildly naughty song.

I doubt if the poor old men in the freight yards would appreciate being bleached."

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7. Subject: RE: Origins: City of New Orleans
From: Jerome Clark
Date: 13 Mar 15 - 07:47 PM

"The Country Gentlemen's version was learned from John Denver, who also rewrote the last verse in a ham-handed direction. The Gents, who ought to have known better, copied Denver lame-ass word for lame-ass word.

I was acquainted with Steve Goodman when he was playing the folk clubs in Chicago before anybody knew "City of New Orleans" beyond the audiences that sat in front of him when he sang it. He sang "old black men." Anybody who thinks that's racist is an idiot."

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8. Subject: RE: Origins: City of New Orleans
From: GUEST,Phil
Date: 14 Mar 15 - 03:32 AM

"Sing it like ain't nobody listenin'. The usage of "black" at all was fairly recent and short-lived.

If the "old black men" are in the "freight yard" they probably aren't porters but coalers, switchmen and other yard labourers.

Guthrie and others moved away from the death of the steam engine theme (passing trains with no names) that underpinned the Goodman version. It's harder to understand just what is dying out (...their father's magic carpet made of steam.) After all the 'road itself is still going strong as part of the CN line.

One of the Illinois Central's first lawyers was Abe Lincoln and 115 years ago they had an Engineer by name of Casey had a few songs wrote about him too."

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9. Subject: RE: Origins: City of New Orleans
From: Joe_F
Date: 14 Mar 15 - 05:11 PM

"Phil: There is no reason to suppose that the old black men were porters; the porters are mentioned independently ("the sons of Pullman porters"). It is not mentioned explicitly that they were all black; I think we are expected to know that."

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10. Subject: RE: Origins: City of New Orleans
From: GUEST,Phil
Date: 15 Mar 15 - 04:15 PM

Joe: Goodman's eponymous (Buddah, BDS 5096, Goodman) and Denver's Aerie (RCA, LSP-4607, Goodman-Denver) both came out in 1971. Guthrie's Hobo's Lullaby (Reprise, MS 2060, Goodman) officially released in 1972 so which got heard first depended a lot on location and preferences. Goodman was first recorded-published.

[...]

Not sure how much there was to it but in 'Narlins proper the gripe was just about carpetbagging Amtrak dropping the name for "Panama Limited." Mercy, that's at hat, not a train."

**
11. Subject: RE: Origins: City of New Orleans
From: GUEST,Stim
Date: 16 Mar 15 - 04:25 PM

"Phil,

Don't be dismissive of "The Panama Limited", it was one of America's premier luxury trains, which is why AMTRAK kept the name (though, regretably, not the level of service) after it took over the operation of passenger trains in 1971. The Panama was all first class, which meant it was an all-sleeper Pullman train, beginning 1911. It was one of the last three all-sleeper trains running in the 60s, tho I am not sure if it was still an all-sleeper at the time of the takeover.

"The City of New Orleans", by contrast, was an all-coach day train, and was, It was a very popular train, in no small part because it made the trip from Chi to NOLA in just a bit shy of 15hrs. If there were sons of Pullman porters on it, they were likely deadheading, because the City of New Orleans never ran sleeping cars(because it ran is full course during daylight hours).

As a point of information, the Pullman Porters would never have been working in Freight Yards, first, because they were on-board services, second, because they worked in passenger service, not freight.

As for the old, black, men: immediately after the Civil War, rail beds were generally built using convict leasing programs(guess what color the convicts tended to be), and for many years, track maintenance crews and and rail shop workers tended to be black. This changed as the much less labor intensive diesel locomotives replaced steam. The City of New Orleans began running in 1947, and was always diesel train--so by the time of the song, the freight yards wouldn't have been filled with any old men, black or not--

And that, to coin a phrase, is the name of that tune..."

**

12. Subject: RE: Origins: City of New Orleans
From: GUEST,Ken
Date: 04 Jun 22 - 10:55 PM

"It is easy to tell who the over privileged,Middle to Upper class "white" folk are. Have only seen the heart of America from the interstate or from an airliner at 30,000ft.

The reference to the Old Black Men are just that. They were not railway workers but those that live in the rundown parts of every city and town in every part of the country. Change the words to make it less Offensive? Give me a break!

The sons of Pullman Porters and Engineers refers to the long history of workers that followed in their fathers and grandfathers footsteps. Rail men, Coal miners, Farmers, loggers, etc.

Having grown up in the south side of Detroit(about 8 blocks from Cobo Hall) as a white kid in the All Black part of the city, I can speak first hand on the racism that still flows heavily still."

**

13. Subject: RE: Origins: City of New Orleans
From: leeneia
Date: 07 Jun 22 - 10:59 AM

"I don't think so, Ken. The line is "freight yards full of old black men," and I'm sure it refers to employees. Freight yards are no place for families."

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14. Subject: RE: Origins: City of New Orleans
From: GUEST,gopherit
Date: 08 Jun 22 - 11:21 AM

"I sing/play this song often with my clawhammer banjo. I have no trouble re-writing words to any folk song, often adding entire verses or changing key words. For instance I change the words on the last line of Virgil Caine to make no doubt that it becomes a firm anti-war song {"War is hell and the Devil can't be beat."}. So here with CONO I use "old gray men" because I remember the bums I saw in the 50s along the railroad tracks who were indeed "old gray men" and of course old black men turn gray too with age. Many songs I pretty much exactly copy a version I like. I see folk songs by their very nature being more fluid than other genres and as such is one reason why I prefer it above all others. So many traditional songs are just fragments of longer versions lost to history and sometimes what survived has disconnects embedded in the story line/lyrics. Folk music is large enough to handle all these versions and opposing opinions. Live and let live!"

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15. Subject: RE: Origins: City of New Orleans
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 08 Jun 22 - 04:13 PM

Ken: It is easy to tell who the over privileged,Middle to Upper class "white" folk are....

Critical Race Theory point of order: Where does a nice, upper-middle class, Jewish boy from the northside of Chicago fit on your social bell curve? Someone like... apropos absolutely nothing at all... Steve Goodman?

You'll be wrong less often if you just assume half the planet is smarter and nicer than you anyway.

PS: It's a popular song lyric... not security camera footage."
-snip-
Pancocojams Editor's note: This is how this comment was written in that discussion thread.

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16. Subject: RE: Origins: City of New Orleans
From: Joe Offer
Date: 08 Jun 22 - 04:58 PM

"I was born in Detroit but grew up in Racine, Wisconsin. We drove back and forth through Chicago to visit family in Detroit, and I was fascinated by the railroad yards and industry that went on for miles south of Chicago. It was mostly freight, but once in a while you'd see a sleek Illinois Central passenger train heading south. I also liked catching sight of a South Shore Line train headed to South Bend. And yes, men would hang out in or near railroad yards and jump a ride on freight train when they wanted to. The men were young and old, black and white. I've known a few...and I'm the father of one.

I had never noticed that some people change the "black" to "grey," but now I've found that John Denver used "black" on one recording and "grey" on another.

Steve Goodman was just a month older than me and we grew up not far from each other. I've always thought his songs told the story of my life. I never met him, but my brother knew him fairly well.

-Joe-

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17. Subject: RE: Origins: City of New Orleans
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 08 Jun 22 - 05:41 PM

"Anybody who thinks that "black" is a word to avoid and thinks that's a way of not being racist must have a very strange way of thinking.

Not that there's anything wrong with grey in this song. All of us go greyhaired. Before it turns white."

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18. Subject: RE: Origins: City of New Orleans
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Jan 23 - 01:06 AM

"Old post, but don't white wash history. You do no one a favor.

The song is about who made the railroad possible,conductors engineers, etc, an institution, that was fading into memory.

But was, is the heart and soul of America being forgotten, much like those old black men in passing behind the train as it travels on.

It's not racist,just stating an observation of the era, old black men in rail yards.

Southern railroads eagerly hire black workers after the Civil War because they could pay them less than white workers.

Blacks were responsible for the Lion's share of the southern rail built and since they had experience laying rail, rail maintenance crew's were black.

In a heavly railed train yard you would have seen blacks fixing rail, switches.

Old black men, more of a reference to worn out heavy manual labor, price payed, of the men who worked the rail, that built what was there, they were riding on.

It is meant to strike a chord. It got a rise out of you.

Surprised?

You can easily find pictures of the era of all black crew's on hand carts used to transverse long distance, carrying men, rail supplies.

He includes them just as they were. Ranking them all together as equal to the cause.

That said the railroad was one of the few industries that afforded Blacks a middle class lifestyle as a Porter.

Po[r]ters were black and a decent job.

 Yes it's a haunting song with references to what America was."

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19. Subject: RE: Origins: City of New Orleans
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 02 May 23 - 01:19 AM

"RE: AFL/CIO & American civil rights history. Rosa Parks was '56. By the time Steve Goodman put pen to paper in 1970 the many and universally 'whites only' American railroad union memberships had voted to integrate. With the notable exception of the lone 'blacks only' union, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (aka 'Pullmans') who chose instead to disband and merge with the previously integrated Brotherhood Railway Carmen of America (BRCA) when Amtrak reorganized itself and killed off The City of New Orleans route, among others.

And yes, you are reading your colour charts correctly. It had really sucked to be brown, yellow, red, indeterminate or purple polka dotted and wanting to work on the railroad for a living.

By 1970 American freight yards were sterile, lifeless, robotic, remote-controlled no-man-lands. The laid off/out-of-work black porters, of which there were many, would be at the union hall, or beer joint, downtown.

Steve Goodman wrote a popular song… not American history."

**
20. Subject: RE: Origins: City of New Orleans
From: cnd
Date: 02 May 23 - 07:52 AM

"Phil, you make some good points, but isn't City of New Orleans a nostalgic, backwards-looking song towards the past of what was, not the present times of its songwriting? I think in particular of the line:

But all the towns and people seem to fade into a bad dream / And the steel rail still ain't heard the news ... / This train has got the disappearin' railroad blues"
-snip-
Italics were used in this original comment.

**
21. Subject: RE: Origins: City of New Orleans
From: meself
Date: 02 May 23 - 12:01 PM

"I always took it as a song very much of 'the present times of its songwriting', but regretting the 'disappearin' of an aspect of American life. The song reflected my own experiences riding on Canadian passenger trains at the time, so, as I say, I didn't take it as about the past. In fact, I'm not even sure I grasped the 'disappearin' part when the song was new; Steve Goodman was more prescient than I was."

**

22. Subject: RE: Origins: City of New Orleans
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 02 May 23 - 01:34 PM

"CND: Was responding to that last guest post above and when Steve Goodman, train rider, fit in. In that context, the more one dials it back the more Jim Crow the 20th century and the unions will be. That's the history.

Goodman the songwriter could write whatever he thought he could get away with. His old black men were imagined. And listeners are free to imagine and argue anything they please. That's the fun.

**
23. "Subject: RE: Origins: City of New Orleans
From: meself
Date: 02 May 23 - 01:53 PM

Okay, I realize I inserted myself into a consideration of the 'railyards full of old Black men' image specifically - no opinion on that, other than that I always assumed it was a realistic detail of "the present times of its songwriting", but I never rode on the City of New Orleans, so don't know."

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