Song

"City of New Orleans written by Steve Goodman" by Ryhan Otmane
"The City of New Orleans" was written in 1970 by a man named Steve Goodman. Goodman took a  Illinois central train, and there he observed many things, especially impoverished citizens struggling. While he was on the train,  Steve wrote the song on an old sketch pad. When Goodman returned home he was shocked to hear that the train was to be discontinued, in an attempt to save the train Steve then used the song to help try to convince the city that the train was still necessary. The song was then first preformed in 1972, by Arlo Guthrie a famous American folk singer.

       The meaning of the song was to show the backbone of America, the farmers and  hard workers Goodman observed while on the train ride. Depicting many different scenes throughout his lyrics goodman paints a good o'l American portrait of the middle class. Whether it be the freight yards full of old black man or the many farms and fields Goodman commemorates the people who kept the country alive.

        Many literary devices can be found throughout the song as well. Metaphors and all iterations are the most common. For example the train is not really the city of New Orleans but it is a metaphor that compares the train to the hard working City of New Orleans. There is also a great use of personification in the chorus, "Good morning America how are you. " It is very common to see an abundant group of literary devices in music, it adds to the rhythmic value.
The entire rhythm of a song changes when music is actually added to the lyrics, that is why so many song writers change their lyrics after they hear it a couple times. This song, just by the lyrics originally looks like a old fashioned folk song, and it is. Yet when you hear the song it contains a bluesy feel, that really changes the entire atmosphere of the song. The beat is very down low and that is not consistent of most folk songs. This song has also been performed by many different artists, this shows the versatility of the lyrics and their applicability to many different tunes. Whether it was sung by Arlo Guthrie, Steve Goodman, or Willy Nelson, the "City of New Orleans" has always been a great song.

in conclusion, this song is and always will be a very important part of musical history, it was around this time (1970) that the complexion of music began to change. For folk music was. On its way out, and "The City of New Orleans" was one of its last showings. This song combined a blues like aspect on a folk song, the lyrics weren't fake or made up, they were just things that Goodman had witnessed, due to this the song was very down to earth and popular for its time. In the end, "The City of New Orleans" is a very interesting song that holds more than one good story.