John Prine - Paradise lyrics

When I was a child my family would travel
Down to Western Kentucky where
My parents were born
And there's a backwards old
Town that's often remembered
So many times that my memories 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
Mister 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 Airdrie Hill
Where the air smelled like snakes
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
Mister Peabody's coal train has
Hauled it away

Then the coal company came with
The world's largest shovel
And they tortured the timber and
Stripped all the land
Well, they dug for their coal
Till the land was forsaken
Then 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
Mister 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 waitin'
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
Mister Peabody's coal train has
Hauled it away