the disappearing railroad blues

17


In the first week of November, Woodward moved the flower pot and traveled to the underground garage. 


------------------------- [excerpt, All The President's Men, by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward - Copyright 1974.  Simon & Schuster Paperbacks.] ----------------


Two weeks earlier, the President had fired special Watergate prosecutor Archibald Cox, who had subpoenaed nine presidential tape recordings.  Attorney General Eliot Richardson and William Ruckelshaus, his deputy, had resigned. 


In the shattered inner circle of the White House, the President's aides were saying that the special prosecutor had been fired because the President feared that Cox was going to prosecute him. 


Then, with Cox gone, the President bowed to public opinion and a court order and surrendered seven of the tapes.  Two had never existed, his lawyers said.




Deep Throat's message was short and simple:  one or more of the tapes contained deliberate erasures.


----------------------------- [end, excerpt]


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Riding on the City Of New Orleans


Illinois Central, Monday morning rail


Fifteen cars and fifteen restless riders


Three conductors; twenty-five sacks of mail


All along the southbound odyssey - the train pulls out of 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 automobile




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




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
Rocking to the gentle beat
And the rhythm of the rails is all they feel


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




Night time on the City of New Orleans
Changing cars in Memphis, Tennessee
Halfway 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




Good night, America, how are ya?
Said, 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


----------------------------
{On Google, type in:


city of new orleans, arlo guthrie


and Play.
This is the  1972 hit version of this Steve Goodman-authored song.} 





Carl Bernstein; Bob Woodward
Washington Post reporters





Robert Redford (Woodward) and Dustin Hoffman (portraying Bernstein) in 1976 film version of the book, All The President's Men







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