'CITY OF NEW ORLEANS'

Steve Goodman

One of my early 'country' heroes was Arlo Guthrie and after Alice's Restaurant the movie I adored everything he did and bought several albums. It wasn't until much later I found that one of my favourite songs on the album I first bought was written by someone else and found again through my later Americana hero John Prine, and that man was the author of 'The City of New Orleans', Steve Goodman.



I loved Arlo version of this song and it wasn't until recently I recalled that it was his version I had first heard when but a mere teenager. Arlo says that one night about 1970 after he played at the Quiet Knight bar in Chicago, Steve Goodman approached and asked if he could play a song for him. Guthrie was tired and it was late but he grudgingly agreed, telling Goodman to buy him a beer and he would listen to Goodman play for as long as it took to drink the beer. Goodman played City of New Orleans. 
Arlo now says "That was the best beer of my life."