When I was a child my fam’ly would travel
Down to western Kentucky, where my parents were born.
There’s a backwards old town that’s often remembered
So many times that my mem’ries are worn.
And daddy, won’t you take me back to Muhlenberg County,
Down by the Green River where Paradise lay.
Well, I’m sorry my son, but you’re too late in asking,
Mr. Peabody’s coal train has hauled it away.
Well sometimes we’d travel right down the Green River
To the abandoned old prison down by Adrie Hill.
Where the air smelled like snakes and we’d shoot with our pistols
But empty pop bottles was all we would kill.
And daddy, won’t you take me back to Muhlenberg County,
Down by the Green River where Paradise lay.
Well, I’m sorry my son, but you’re too late in asking,
Mr. Peabody’s coal train has hauled it away.
The coal company came with the world’s largest shovel,
And they tortured the timber and stripped all the land.
And they dug for their coal till the land was forsaken,
They wrote it all down as the progress of man.
And daddy, won’t you take me back to Muhlenberg County,
Down by the Green River where Paradise lay.
Well, I’m sorry my son, but you’re too late in asking,
Mr. Peabody’s coal train has hauled it away.
When I die let my ashes float down the Green River,
Let my soul roll on up to the Rochester Dam.
I’ll be halfway to heaven with Paradise waiting
Just five miles away from wherever I am.
And daddy, won’t you take me back to Muhlenberg County,
Down by the Green River where Paradise lay.
Well, I’m sorry my son, but you’re too late in asking,
Mr. Peabody’s coal train has hauled it away.
1972 – John Prine – Performed by John Denver – Album: Rocky Mountain High