D                     G            D 
When I was a child my family would travel  
                                  A            D 
Down to Western Kentucky where my parents were born 
              D                         G       D 
And there's a backwards old town that's often remembered 
D                     A            D 
So many times that my memories are worn 


D                                   G          D 
And daddy won't you take me back to Muelenberg County 
     D                        A        D  
Down by the Green River where Paradise lay 
          D                        G           D 
Well, I'm sorry my son, but you're too late in asking 
       D                        A         D 
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 Avery 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 
 
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 
 
Chorus