Tom: D5 

     D5                 G5            D5
When I was a child my fam'ly would travel
                                   A5            D5
down to Western Kentucky, where my parents were born
                                        G5        D5
and there's a backwards old town that's often remembered
                       A5           D5
so many times that my mem'ries are worn (Chorus)
     D5                               G5          D5
And daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County
                               A5        D5
down by the Green River where Paradise lay
                                     G5          D5
Well, I'm sorry, my son, but you're too late in asking
                                A5          D5
Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away
      D5                           G5              D5
Well sometimes we'd travel right down the Green River
                                 A5         D5
to the abandoned old prison down by Adrie Hill
           D5                                 G5
where the air smelled like snakes and we'd shoot with our
                                             D5
                                            rifles
                          A5            D5
but empty pop bottles was all we would kill

                                             (to chorus)
          D5                          G5                D5
Then the coal company came with the world's largest shovel
          D5                        A5               D5
and they tortured the timber and stripped all the land
            D5                           G5          
Well, they dug for their coal till the land was forgotten
                                    A5          D5
then they wrote it all down as the progress of man

                                             (to chorus)
        D5                       G5              D5
When I die, let my ashes float down the Green River
                               A5         D5
let my soul roll on up to the Rochester Dam
         D5                      G5        D5
I'll be halfway to Heaven with Paradise waiting
                             A5      D5
just five miles away from wherever I am

                                             (to chorus)