D5                     G5            D5 
When I was a child my family would travel  
                                  A5            D5 
Down to Western Kentucky where my parents were born 
              D5                         G5       D5 
And there's a backwards old town that's often remembered 
D5                     A5            D5 
So many times that my memories are worn 


D5                                   G5          D5 
And daddy won't you take me back to Muelenberg County 
     D5                        A5        D5  
Down by the Green River where Paradise lay 
          D5                        G5           D5 
Well, I'm sorry my son, but you're too late in asking 
       D5                        A5         D5 
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