Steve Goodman - City Of New Orleans Recorded Live: 4/18/1976 - Capitol Theatre - Passaic, NJ More Steve Goodman at Music Vault: Subscribe to Music Vault on RU-vid: goo.gl/DUzpUF
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!!!!
Great to hear Steve Goodman once again so obviously havin' such a great time doing his song. I'd forgotten just how good he was playing guitar. I started playing just because of hearing him so many times.
Always great to hear live. Even with his best known tunes like this he could never it the same way twice. My wife slept through a Kris Kristofferson set so she could be awake to hear Steve.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Yeah, that's a great image. America isn't cities, it's the landscape and the Mississippi is at the heart of that landscape. I say this as a Scotsman who has never been to America, but even the integral force of that mighty, ancient river is known to me.
My mom liked the Cubbies to even though we lived in Iowa City. She and dad would go down to Arizona for spring training. I don't think she ever saw him win, mom died of cancer 2. I miss them both
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.
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
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.
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.
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!
Yeah you wrote it. A classic. You were a gifted songwriter, and as for your talent on the guitar.. nobody comes close. Rest easy Mister Goodman. Jam with Mister Prime. Play on..
1000 times Thank You for posting these!!! This tune, The Dutchman, Banana Republics,... All the others !!! Absolute treasures. Amazing sound. God Bless You.
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!
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.
Yeah, that’s a good version. First heard his original on ACL in the 70’s, my introduction to Steve and a life long love for him and his unique musical voice. Saw him in Seattle a few years before his passing, with John. Love how they would open for each other, alternating each stop on the tour. 🥹. 👍🤪🏳️🌈
Saw him once in Boulder at Tulagi's with Mimi Farina. They did a dynamite duet of Daniel by Elton John. Still in my memory more than 40 years later. I wish there was a recording of it. Sad that Steve and Mimi are both gone now.
This is a very good version, but the best I ever heard , vocally and instrumentally, is a blistering solo rendition on the Easter Tapes CD, a recording of a recital Steve gave on Easter Day ‘ 76 on a Chicago radio station. This was released in 1996, after the tapes were retrieved and restored .
Did Goodman ever play a song that wasn't in the key of G I've seen him live 3 times live where he broke the g string once he changed the string live at Park West during mamma don't allow and wrote a string changing verse as he did it Jetro Burns and Need Check. Carried til he finished the song no lie I've got the live recorded cassette AMAZING
Thank you for confirming this. I saw him change a string in the middle of a song as well in concert. He was the warm up for Steve Martin at the Nebraska State Fair in about 1979 or so. The concert was in the round and the stage rotated around. It was amazing to see him change it without missing a beat.
I wonder if the person who captured these videos had any idea what they would mean to all of us who loved Steve Goodman... who had to depend upon our memories to recall him this way.
Sounds like he's got 8 fingers picking. Amazing. Having recently begun learning and knowing how difficult it is for me...Wow. Would have to be in the top 5 all time. RIP
