Tom: D 

     D                 G            D
When I was a child my fam'ly would travel
                                   A7            D
down to Western Kentucky, where my parents were born
                                        G        D
and there's a backwards old town that's often remembered
                       A7           D
so many times that my mem'ries are worn (Chorus)
     D                               G          D
And daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County
                               A        D
down by the Green River where Paradise lay
                                     G          D
Well, I'm sorry, my son, but you're too late in asking
                                A7          D
Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away
      D                           G              D
Well sometimes we'd travel right down the Green River
                                 A         D
to the abandoned old prison down by Adrie Hill
           D                                 G
where the air smelled like snakes and we'd shoot with our
                                             D
                                            rifles
                          A7            D
but empty pop bottles was all we would kill

                                             (to chorus)
          D                          G                D
Then the coal company came with the world's largest shovel
          D                        A               D
and they tortured the timber and stripped all the land
            D                           G          
Well, they dug for their coal till the land was forgotten
                                    A7          D
then they wrote it all down as the progress of man

                                             (to chorus)
        D                       G              D
When I die, let my ashes float down the Green River
                               A         D
let my soul roll on up to the Rochester Dam
         D                      G        D
I'll be halfway to Heaven with Paradise waiting
                             A7      D
just five miles away from wherever I am

                                             (to chorus)