Talk:City of New Orleans (song)

Non baseball concert
What is a non-baseball concert? I assume it means that there was no game but a concert, this is not clear from the article. 67.173.131.28 20:42, 30 November 2007 (UTC)

"The conductor sings his song again, The passengers will please refrain ...."
This is a quotation of a notorious and ribald railroad song, attributed to a young William O. Douglas and Thurman Arnold (see the Wikipedia entry on WILLIAM O. DOUGLAS), which would date it circa 1927 -- although there is substantial evidence that it predated Douglas, sung to the tune of Dvorak's Humoresque. The lyrics (of a particularly "railroad" version) are found in: http://home.mindspring.com/~railroadstories/scrapbook/other/humoresque.htm

The first two verses go:

The passengers will please refrain

From flushing toilets while the train

Is standing in the station.

I love you.

We encourage constipation

While the train is in the station.

Moonlight always makes me

Think of you.

Sussmanbern (talk) 12:56, 13 February 2009 (UTC)


 * It's not necessarily quoting from the song you mention, unless the signs to which they allude are mythical. —Tamfang (talk) 04:51, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

Johnny Cash
What happened to the detail (album name etc) in the covers section on Johnny Cash's version? It's the second most well known version in the US. -128.61.83.190 (talk) 21:01, 25 July 2010 (UTC)

1971 version by John Denver
Discogs mentions a version on the Album Aerie (RCA APRS-5960-5S) from 1971 (Song: A4) and also mentions John Denver as co-writer in the credits

http://www.discogs.com/John-Denver-Aerie/release/560253 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.149.140.2 (talk) 09:48, 30 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Information on discogs.com is alterable by users, just like Wikipedia, which means information there might not be 100% reliable. I have never seen Denver credited as a co-author, though he did alter the lyrics for the version he recorded. ---  RepublicanJacobite  The'FortyFive'  12:30, 30 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Denver did change some of Goodman's lyrics (against Goodman's wishes) and claimed writer credit of that version. Denver did not write the song, however. The controversary is covered in Clay Eals's biography Steve Goodman: Facing the Music.Shsilver (talk) 14:31, 30 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Interesting. I was not aware of that.  Thanks! ---  RepublicanJacobite  The'FortyFive'  14:45, 30 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Apparently, it is something Denver did on more than one occasion to various songwriters.Shsilver (talk) 15:04, 30 August 2010 (UTC)

Which train?
The Wikipedia article on the Panama Limited states that it was the PL and not the CoNO that the composer rode. Kdammers (talk) 01:41, 12 August 2012 (UTC)
 * That makes no sense. --- The Old Jacobite The '45  03:09, 12 August 2012 (UTC)
 * Sure it does. Both trains ran on the IC from Chicago to NO.  CoNO is more euphonious.Kdammers (talk) 11:24, 12 August 2012 (UTC)

Cutlass Ciera commercial
Would it be appropriate to mention this song was used (with some of the lines changed) for several years to advertise this car? Here's a few youtubes of some commercials. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzy-dKfUpO4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LJ-gMWlmpQ

76.226.218.147 (talk) 19:43, 16 September 2012 (UTC)

Different versions have different melody and lyrics
Would it be worth mentioning that covers of the song have different melodies and lyrics from Goodman's original version? There seems to be two melodies for the chorus. The original goes something like "singing, good morning a-^^mer-ica how are you" where ^^ indicates higher notes and emphasis, while in many subsequent covers (including Guthrie's) the chorus goes something like "^^good ^^morn-ing america how are you". Denver's cover follows the original. Most of the other covers follow Guthrie's cover. Also, the lyrics vary widely. In Denver's cover, he changed "passing trains that have no name / freight yards full of old black men" to "passing towns that have no name / freight yards full of old gray men". — Preceding unsigned comment added by SLSolomon (talk • contribs) 22:20, 29 October 2012 (UTC)


 * And Guthrie changed "magic carpet made of steam ... and the rhythm of the rails is all they dream" to the much less poetic "steel / feel". Phooey! —Tamfang (talk) 03:51, 30 October 2012 (UTC)


 * Having recently rediscovered this song and having heard Goodman's version for the first time I was going to post this question but I see someone else did so 2 1/2 years ago but nothing has been done about it. While lyric changes can be attributed to many things (Denver might have bowed to political correctness for example in not singling out "old black men" in his version). But the melody changes are substantial. This is particularly apparent in the chorus which has a more epic feel and heads into flat-note territory with the "I'll be gone 500 miles" line in many of the noted cover versions. Guthrie, Nelson and Johnny Cash all do it this way (I haven't heard Denver's version). Yet Goodman stuck to his original arrangement as late as a 1982 appearance that can be found on YouTube. I think it's definitely worth discussing. Unfortunately I don't know enough about technicalities to add anything in a way that isn't "IP-delete bait" or original research. The differences are such, though, that I feel the addition of sound file excerpts of the different versions (at least Goodman's plus one of the others) would be fully justified under fair use. 68.146.52.234 (talk) 22:56, 16 March 2015 (UTC)

Blackberry Blossom
The chord scheme in 'city of new orleans' is similar (with the exception of the blue notes at the end of the chorus) to the old standard 'Blackberry Blossom'. Old bluegrass musicians have mentioned that the lyrics to 'city of new orleans' was originally supposed to be set to blackberry blossoms. Any truth/proof of this? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.185.2.74 (talk) 14:13, 17 April 2014 (UTC)

Translation of Dutch title
There is no English translation given for the Dutch title "′t Is weer voorbij, die mooie zomer" by the Dutch singer Gerard Cox. If you use the Google translator it comes out as "It's Gone by, Those Beautiful Summer". Aren't there any Dutch speakers who can give a better translation? __209.179.36.222 (talk) 16:16, 28 January 2015 (UTC)

Pronunciation of "New Orleans"
Has the song been recorded/sung with the local or native pronunciation of "New Orleans"? According to one New York Times article, "many locals say New-ahl-e-yuns, not New Or-lenz, N'aw-lins, or New Or-leenz. Still, you'll probably fit in fine with the easier-to-pronounce New Or-lenz; the key things to avoid are placing the emphasis on "new" rather than "Or" and using a long "e" sound in "leans." http://www.nytimes.com/fodors/top/features/travel/destinations/unitedstates/louisiana/neworleans/fdrs_feat_110_10.html?n=Top%2FFeatures%2FTravel%2FDestinations%2FUnited+States%2FLouisiana%2FNew+Orleans

In all the commericially successful versions of the song, "City of New Orleans" seems to be sung with the long-e pronunciation of "Orleans".Theaternearyou (talk) 19:29, 30 August 2015 (UTC)

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Citation for Dutch version
I'm an extremely infrequent Wikipedia contributor/editor and don't have time to review the rules and syntax for citations, so for now I just wanted to point out that Gerard Cox's version of City of New Orleans is referenced in the English Wikipedia article on Gerard Cox -- an invalid circular or internal citation? -- and that YouTube has a video of Cox's Dutch version, referencing its date and supplying its lyrics, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23ORU2CZ5K4. Maybe a more knowledgeable and accomplished user can replace the "citation needed" tag using the YouTube link.

PCMartinSeattle (talk) 19:02, 16 February 2018 (UTC)

Where did the foreign versions go?
A year or two ago, there was a list of foreign language versions here. Some time after that, they got deleted, apparetly. What was the rationale behind that? Was that at all discussed? People do know that country songs get localised all the time, right? Seriously, what? wwwwolf (barks/growls) 03:05, 12 December 2018 (UTC):


 * Apparently deleted as unreferenced. Because deleting stuff as "unreferenced" is easier than being a diligent Wikipedian and finding sources these days. wwwwolf (barks/growls) 03:11, 12 December 2018 (UTC)


 * No, seriously, I'm very curious. Is there a project consensus that translations are absolutely not wanted? wwwwolf (barks/growls) 00:41, 1 June 2019 (UTC)
 * No, there's no such consensus. Whoever removed the unreferenced material was wrong to do so; they should have instead added a cleanup tag requesting citations, or found the citations themselves.  I have just added a bunch of material to the article on foreign-language covers, not knowing that the article previously had a section on these.  I'll work at reintegrating the old material.  A lot of this will still be unreferenced; though it is pretty trivial to find sources for these, it is unfortunately rather time-consuming to properly format and add the citations. —Psychonaut (talk) 09:37, 4 January 2021 (UTC)

David Hasselholf cover
I don't think it might be notable enough but David Hasselholf did a cover of "City of New Orleans" in his album Sing America. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aj3hyNspyDM --Sd-100 (talk) 18:35, 22 August 2020 (UTC)

Separating English versions from other language versions
Given that most of the foreign language versions are actually different songs set to the same melody, is there any support for separating them into their own section? I propose a first section on the various covers of Goodman's song by English speaking artists (titled "English language covers"), with separate listings for the hit recordings by Guthrie and Nelson, with the others all covered in a single "Other English versions" section. This would be followed by an "In other languages" section, with separate listings for the most notable ones and an "Other non-English releases" section. This would basically be a reshuffling of the current sections, while moving them down a level due to the new language grouping headings, and sorting the existing notes section into two based on (and placed according to) language. --User:Khajidha (talk) (contributions) 14:25, 9 March 2022 (UTC)