When I was a child my family would travel Down to Western Kentucky where my parents were born There's a backwards old town that's often remembered So many times that my mem'ries 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 dear, but you're too late in askin' Mr. Peabody's coal train has hauled it away" The coal company came with the world's largest shovel They tortured the timber and stripped all the land They dug for their coal 'til the land was forsaken And 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 dear, but you're too late in askin' Mr. 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' I'm five miles away from wherever I am And, Daddy, won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County Down by the Green River where Paradise lay? "Well, I'm sorry, my dear, but you're too late in askin' Mr. 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'