Paradise Lyrics - German Afternoons - John Prine

When I was a child my family would travel 

Down to Western Kentucky where my parents were born 

And there's a backwards old town that's often remembered 

So many times that my memories are worn 

"And daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County 

Down by the green river where paradise lay?" 

"Well, I'm sorry my son, but you're too late in asking 

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 

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"And daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County 

Down by the green river where paradise lay?" 

"Well, I'm sorry my son, but you're too late in asking 

Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away" 

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 

"And daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County 

Down by the green river where paradise lay?" 

"Well, I'm sorry my son, but you're too late in asking 

Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away" 

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 

Photos 

"And daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County 

Down by the green river where paradise lay?" 

"Well, I'm sorry my son, but you're too late in asking 

Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away"