Intro: G5 G5 C5 G5 When I was a child my family would travel D5 G5 Down to Western Kentucky where my parents were born C5 G5 And there's a backwards old town that's often remembered D5 G5 So many times that my memories are worn Chorus: G5 C5 G5 And daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County D5 G5 Down by the green river where paradise lay? C5 G5 Well, I'm sorry my son, but you're too late in asking D5 G5 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 Adrie Hill Where the air smelled like snakes and we'd shoot with our pistols But empty pop bottles was all we would kill Chorus 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 Chorus (Muted Strings) 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 Chorus