Ridin' on the City of New Orleans...

Illinois Central, Monday Morning Rail...

God, I love the Arlo Guthrie recording of that song. It was part of Mo's bedtime CD for so many years I should HATE it.

Dad used to play guitar and sing to me and my brother at bedtime. The 'Wreck of the Old 97' keyed us up, and he didn't seem to get the clue there, but we enjoyed it and it gave us many childhood memories that instruct us on how an exasperated father should act when he's the cause of his own aggravation...

I burned (from CDs I actually own) a bedtime CD for Mo way back, when we were first learning she needed routine. This lasted until she was too heavy to carry to bed after being rocked to sleep. The CD had four tracks:

'City of New Orleans,' a Steve Goodman classic but recorded by Arlo Guthrie;
'Shackles & Chains,' a Jimmie Davis tune Arlo recorded on the same CD; 'When The Ship Comes In,' a Dylan bit, again as done by Guthrie, and 'The Hobo's Lullaby,' a Goebel Reeves song. Guthrie again. From the same CD.

For years, Mo went to sleep to these four tunes, all as recorded by Arlo Guthrie one of my early Bad Influences.

Arlo does 'When The Ship Comes In' as a ballad, and when I play the original Dylan or the Pogues reinterpretation (very bright), my daughters don't believe it's the same song.

And then, Dad has to wonder how he ended up with a political radical son singing the Hobo's Lullaby:

I know the police cause you trouble,
They cause trouble everywhere,
But when you die and go to Heaven,
You'll find no policeman there.

My friend, who's a cop, thought this was a terrible thing to sing to children. But if they don't let bad guys into Heaven, what the hell use does God have for cops?

All this from meditating on the plight of New Orleans and the Mississippi 'Guff Coast,' to quote the governor of Faulkner's home state.