Paradise

When I was a child my family would travel

Back to western Kentucky

Where my parents were born

To a backward old town that I often remember

So many times that my memories are worn

Then sometimes we'd travel on down the green river

To the abandoned old prison down by Adrian's Hill

Where the air smelled like snakes and we'd shoot with our pistols

But empty pop bottles is all we would kill

Daddy, won't you take me back to Muhlenburg County?

Down by the green river where paradise lay

I'm sorry, my son, but you're too late in askin'

Mister Peabody's coal train done hauled it away

Well the coal companies came with the world's largest shovel

They tortured the timber and stripped all the land

They dug for the coal till the land was forsaken

Then wrote it all down to the progress of man

Oh, Daddy, won't you take me back to Muhlenburg County?

Down by the green river where paradise lay

I'm sorry, my son, but you're too late in askin'

Mister Peabody's coal train done hauled it away

When I die, let my ashes float down the green river

Let me soul roll on up to the Rochester Dam

I'll be halfway to Heaven with paradise waitin'

Five miles away from wherever I am

Oh, Daddy, won't you take me back to Muhlenburg County?

Down by the green river where paradise lay

I'm sorry, my son, but you're too late in askin'

Mister Peabody's coal train done hauled it away

I'm sorry, my son, but you're too late in askin'

Mister Peabody's coal train hauled it away