When he wrote this, he achieved immortality. Way to go Steve.

I met Steve Goodman on a TRAIN!! He had just written it a year or so earlier. Steve and I were campaigning for Ed Muskie for President in 1971, and there's this short chubby character with a guitar singing this terrific song. He gave me a personal concert!! I was so very sad to hear he died so young. And so sad I didn't take more time and talk to Steve. Awesome fellow. SUCH A GREAT SONG

One of the Best Guitar Solo's for this Song- and I love how both Artists- Steve and Arlo when performing the song- give shout-outs to each other. Showing the love and appreciation.. But this is my favorite performance by Steve Goodman.. May he be forever remembered for this Masterpiece! And R.I.P- Still listening in 2024-and Beyond!

As an old man from the sixties, we really need to get back to Folk Music. A guitar, A piano, 3 tuned voices, back by symphonies like the 60s. Songs that make you feel good, not upset or mad. Like the Seekers or Arlo, or Joan Baez.

Man the kid can sure pick that guitar that sounds like there’s 100 people playing it one of the greatest songs ever written

I loved Arlo's version of this incredible song but there is something special to hear it from the person who wrote the song.

Listening for the first time......2024!

Even famous successful songwriters listen to this song in amazement. Steve found some magic here.

Probably the best American folks song ever written.

More people should know the name Steve Goodman.

I been playing music for a long time... But never learned bout Steve til a month ago

I miss you my old friend ❤. Just now found this video. Miss you even more. RIP. Jeannie sends love also. Silvia

I feel a Steve Goodman marathon coming on tonight!

In His Brief time, Steve Goodman forever changed the face of American Folk Music ... His Brilliance on the guitar is often over looked ... He was a Master Entertainer, Who always delivered the Goods, and brought His Audiences to Their feet. I was privileged to listen to Him Live, and the Experience stays with, Me Decades later. Thanks Steve, for Your irrepressible Spirit, Your Wonderful Humour, and Your Genuine Humility. Our world is a better place for having experienced Youand P.S. Thanks for the Greatest Train Song ever written!!!!

I've lost track of how many times I heard Stevie sing this. Alot. Some think this is INE of the best folk songs ever written, including myself. It sure as hell is THE best train song ever written. Leukemia Sucks, Sail on Stevie.

Man that guitar playing is solid.

“A friend of mine named Steve Goodman wrote that song. And he told me it was the perfect country and western song.”

During the Super Bowl Half Time Show, I had to show everyone there this video as what real music is! Just a man with a guitar and his voice. Love this music.

RIP Steve We need more of yoyr music

I hope that one day my Grandchild will ask, Papa, what was it like to be alive when there was music like this. My answer, magical little one, just magical.

Some songs don't need padded production - Goodman singing his song with verve and heart is the best rendition I've ever heard, It moves the soul.

"Little Stevie" Goodman was the shining voice in our congregational choir in the late Fifties. You could sense he was destined to be known.

How could anyone not like this song and Steve's incredible one man band performance. I was lucky enough to see him several times live. The first time in a high school auditorium. Also twice with John Prine.. He was a true showman and a brilliant songwriter. Miss him.

How wonderful to hear this sung by Steve Goodman himself.

Steve is once again reunited with his Chicago early days buddy John Prine. Steve helped John get his start when he brought Kris Kristofferson over to see him play on a late Sunday night . Now they’re all entertaining in the big Arena in the sky. God Speed and thanks for all great songs .

Hope John and Steve find each other in heaven. The best humans ever and so grateful to have their songs. Maybe dead but not gone.

"Through the Mississippi darkness rollin' on down to the sea." One of the greatest lines of poetry in the English language.

Awesome!!! The way how Goodman plays his guitar is so incredible. What a fantastic singer/songwriter and guitar player he was.

People frequently listen to Steve Goodman without realizing what a great guitarist he was.

R.I.P. Steve. Thank you for this gem of a tune. Rest in peace.

I tear up watching this, crying for the talent gone from this world... I so loved this man's music & humor. At least I got to see him once in concert, with the Roches.

One of the greatest railroad songs ever!!! RIP Steve Goodman.

A national treasure without doubt.

Steve...the Cubbies did it !! World Champs...remembering you, the ultimate Cubs fan !

Thanks Steve for writing a great song. I just love it, guitar too. Happy song forever.

I knew the song is an iconic song but Mr. Goodman plays a mean guitar too

It's absolutely incredible this guy was a a mazing song rip my friend

One of my all time favorites. Sorry, Arlo, this is the version I listen to repeatedly.

I was lucky enough to know him. When the last thing someone says to you is "I love you" because he knows he's dying and he wants to comfort YOU, that's pretty special. Steve was all you see in this video; all that, and much more.

I’ve known the song for years. Never knew who wrote it. Absolutely fantastic. Just wonderful.

In 1978 I went to see Steve Martins' Wild & Crazy Guy tour in Dallas. Steve Goodman came out as the unannounced warm up act. I had seen a few shows on PBS with Goodman, and was very pleasantly surprised to see Him. I felt like I was the only one there who knew who he was. Everyone was there to see crazy Steve Martin, not some unknown singer, and yet within a few songs His incredible charismatic stage presence had them in the palm of His hand. It was very impressive, and He did a very entertaining 30 min set. I'll never forget it, He made such a impact in His too short life. A few years later Steve Martin came on the Johnny Carson show and mentioned that He was doing a fund raising show to benefit Goodmans' wife and kids. I didn't know He was sick, or that He died. It was a shocking blow to hear. You feel so robbed when someone could have had a long career is abruptly gone. So sad. At least His music remains.

Last September I, and my oldest friend, just had to take the train from Memphis to New Orleans just because of this song. It was a favourite when I ran a folk club in London back in the late 70.

A restless classic with the spare beauty of American life. Perfection.

Oh my! I always thought Arlo wrote this song but now I’m so very happy to find out about Steve Goodman. He is, indeed a good man. I was 25 and in DC when the video was taken, just sorry I didn’t see him performing live. I hope he’s still around. Well done!

He was such a positive force in this world. Gone after only 36 years. Thank you for posting this.

Such a great talent! Gone way too soon. RIP, Steve!

His songs are so memorable and full of beautiful real life pictures and he had such an overwhelming likeability.

In '76 I was a grad student at the U. of Illinois (Champaign-Urbana), had students from Kankeekee. What a time and place to be young. Wonderful song (and with Goodman's original lyrics).

The late John Prince once called Steve Goodman’s, "The City of New Orleans"... "the best damn train song ever written," and I would emphatically agree. The astonishing thing is that the singer/songwriter from Chicago was just 22 when he composed it and featured it on his first solo LP when it was released 50 years ago this spring. While another buddy, Arlo Guthrie, enjoyed a significant cover of it two years after Steve came out with the original, there is an unmistakable fidelity here, which makes Goodman's version even better. According to legend, Steve scribbled the lyrics on a sketch pad after his wife fell asleep on the Illinois Central train, where they were going to visit his spouse's grandmother. Goodman wrote about what he saw looking out the windows of the train and playing cards in the club car. After he returned home, the young songwriter heard that the train was scheduled to be decommissioned due to a lack of passengers. He was encouraged to use this song to save the train, so he retouched the lyrics and released it on his much-admired debut album. Sadly, Steve Goodman, who battled cancer on and off for much of his short life, died of leukemia 12 years after he recorded this unqualified masterpiece.

One of the few real treasures in American Music - great songwriting!!

I have known this song for many years, in the version played by John Denver. I have only recently heard Steve Goodman sing his song. What a virtuoso performance and what a great guitarist. For me, now, there is no other version worth listening to. What a loss this man was.

Move over, Arlo. THE best version on the planet. R.I.P., Steve.

RIP Stevie. And thank you for introducing America to John Prine. You would have been one of the greatest songwriters of all time if God hadn't called you home too soon.

I'm always amazed at how amazing of a guitar player he was. Something to aspire to.

"Between Hank Williams pain songs, and Steve Goodmans train songs".... Thank you for sharing this.

I used to see him play at the Flick Coffee House in Miami (Coral Gables) and later Bubbas in the Coconut Grove. When he played "City of New Orleans" he brought the house down. He once came over to my table and sat down and was very kind on a night when I was very down. One of the great ones; loved, but even then, probably under appreciated. He left behind a beautiful and funny body of work

Steve, the cubs are trying to win it all this year!

and the sons of Pullman porters...I lived right across the street from the Pullman shops,went to Pullman school,OH, and my grandfather worked at the pullman shops...gone now

He was such a great guitarist as well as a great songwriter

He's such a sweet soul. Oh lord. What an amazing person.

WHOA never realized he could play like that! Sounds like a dozen guitars 🎉

In addition to being a once in a generation song writer, he had some wicked guitar skills. Not a powerful voice but he sang with real soul. Seemed like a genuine, good natured guy too.

Art is an act of expressing feelings, thoughts, and observations. My heart is about to explode!

Great song writer & singer. Lost too soon.😮‍💨😮‍💨😮‍💨

What an amazing musician ! Beautiful guitar playing !

What an honor to watch/hear this man..

i was honored to hear him play here in Philadelphia in a very small venue Will always be a great memory

Love this. Steve seemed genuinely taken aback by the scale of the applause! This is the best ever version. As a minus point, listening to this I realised that I was not even an adequate guitarist!

A Genius at work! RIP Steve Goodman ❤

wow, what a voice

Holy shit. I've had a long relationship with Steve Goodman's songs. A maybe longer relationship with Arlo Guthrie and Willie Nelson, but hearing Steve's original take has been a revelation. Thanks for posting this.

How often do we hear a great song song by the artist who wrote it or the artist that had the hit and have it sung the exact same way each time it's performed? Not so with Steve Goodman. He keeps experiencing the song and it changes with his mood or simply the moment. The incessant pulsing of the guitar puts you on the train and the story is heard as it travels over the tracks. I will steal a comment made about someone else: Steve Goodman did not write this song or the lyrics. He went to that ethereal place in the universe where perfect music exists, captured it and brought to our world. Thank you Steve.

Great Song it will be around for hundreds of years or more .. Man can he play that guitar .. it is part of him ... Just amazing

Wow- what guitar work! It sounds like he's play8ing 3 parts at once, and all at high tempo. Amazing.

C 'est joe Fassin qui me l'a fait connaître cette superbe chanson. Merci pour ce grand bonheur..bises de france

I used to take this train from Chicago down to Champaign for school at U. of Illinois....several crazy things happened on that train!! (This was a million years ago.)

First time I have heard composer Steve G perform his own version of this timeless classic. All I can say is Wonderful - and better late than never!

Powerful. and wonderful.

Wow ! Fantastic.

I am 69 and only discovered Steve Goodman last week!

RIP my brother. I really love this song, especially by you!

That we can watch Steve perform this.....

Why is this the best version I've ever heard? Oh!

I love this song and it is great to hear Steve perform it!!

Moved North from NYC in the late 80s. Last thing I did before moving away was drop by the 'Finyl Vinyl' record shop at the corner of 1st St and 2nd Avenue looking for a copy of Steve's album 'Somebody Else's Troubles' because it had 'The Dutchman' on it and I could never remember all the words when I sang it. They didn't have it...but each time I dropped back into town to visit friends or clean up old business, I stopped back there to check. Still no joy.... On the very last trip I ever made to the Big Apple, I breezed by that shop on my way out of town. The owner remembered me even after all those years. 'You must be blessed, my friend,' he said. 'A clean copy of that record came in yesterday, and I put it aside for you. I knew you'd be back eventually.' Steve would have smiled, I'm sure.

Stevey is one out of a million. I'll remeber him from yesterday, and I'll remeber him 20 years from now. Just lile Arlo used to be, this is a guy we all love!

Used to see him at the Quiet Knight and Wrigley Field❤

This always takes my breath away. Steve was such a good vocalist and an incomparable guitarist. I've been playing this song for more than 20 years and I still get amazed by the shit Steve does. I can't come close.

Immortality Indeed! A true genius! I only wish Phil Ochs had live longer too. Both geniuses!

oh.. wow after these years I hear the original for the first time today!

It's hard to say how great this is --word's are beyond me -- I've listened to this most of my life--and never imagined --something to say after so many years--Steve Goodman thank you so very much----such a supreme talent and expression,,,I know I'm a day late and a dollar short but there it is---THANK YOU----

One of the all-time best singer/songwriters and pickers of all time. Sadly, way too many people never got to discover him. Glad to say the soundtrack of my life has plenty of him in it. Thank you, sir.

God bless Steve Goodman. We love and miss him.

I knew Steve in High School, Maine Township H.S. East, class of 1965. We had several classes together. He was a real and decent guy. During the class council elections he was always in high demand for his musical skills for before class hallway skits and during class assembles. His musical ability was apparent then and obviously recognized soon after by many in the entertainment industry. I was shocked when I heard of his death many years ago. Like many of that era, he died too soon. However, his music lives on...so be it.

Johnny Cash said it was the "Best damn train song ever written." Man, could Goodman play the guitar. I heard him live in '75 at the University of Missouri, and he played it about like this.

This is one of The Great songs of the Land Thanks Steve

The first time I ever heard this song, it was a cover done by LoneStar. I loved it the first time I heard it; such a beautiful evocative song!

Troubadour's are so needed this newly born year of 2022. Story tellers, philosophers may be the last hope .

My friend and the kindest man I ever knew.

I truly believe that this is the best train song ever written!