John Prine - Paradise Lyrics

When I was a child
My family would travel
down to Western Kentucky
Where my parents were born
and theres a backwards old town
Thats often remembered
So many times,
that my memories are worn

(Chorus)
And daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenburg County
down by the Green River
where Paradise lays.
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 Avery hill
Where the air smelled like snakes
We'd shoot with our pistols
but empty pop bottles
was all we would kill

(chorus)
(music break)

And the coal company came
with the worlds largest shovel
and they tortured the timber
and stripped all the land
well they dug for their coal
'til the land was forsaken
and they wrote it all down
as the progress of man

(chorus)

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 heven
With Paradise waiting
just 5 miles away
from wherever I am

(chorus)