When I was a child
My family 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 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
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
Hey
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
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