When I was a boy, my family would travel
Down to western Kentucky where my parents were born
To a lost little town there that's all but remembered
So many times that my memories are worn.

[Chorus]
And, "Daddy, won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County?
Down by the Green River where Paradise lay?"
He said, "I'm sorry my son, but you're too late in asking
Mr. 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 Aidrie Hill
Where the air smelled like snakes and we'd shoot our pistols
Oh, but empty pop bottles is all we would kill.

[Chorus]

Well, the coal company came with the, world's largest shovel,
They tortured the timber and stripped all the land
Lord, they dug for their coal till the ground was forsaken
And 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 waitin'
Just 5 miles away from wherever I am

Copyright: BMG Rights Management, Royalty Network, Songtrust Ave, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Spirit Music Group, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Writer(s): John Prine