Johnny Cash - Paradise lyrics

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 remembered
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 was all we would kill

Daddy won't you take me
Back to Muhlenberg County
Down by the green river where paradise lay?
I'm sorry, my son
But you're too late in asking
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 Muhlenberg County
Down by the green river where paradise lay?
I'm sorry, my son
But you're too late in asking
Mister Peabody's coal train done
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
Five miles away from wherever I am

Oh, daddy won't you take me
Back to Muhlenberg County
Down by the green river where paradise lay?
I'm sorry, my son
But you're too late in asking
Mister Peabody's coal train done
Hauled it away

I'm sorry, my son
But you're too late in asking
Mister Peabody's coal train hauled it away