[Verse 1]
When I was a child my family would travel
Back to Western Kentucky where my parents were born
To a backward old town that I often remembered
So many times that my memories are worn

[Verse 2]
Then sometimes we'd travel on down the Green River
To the abandoned old prison down by Adrian's Hill
Where the air smelled like snakes and we'd shoot with our pistols
But empty pop bottles was all we would kill

[Chorus]
Daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County
Down by the green river where paradise lay?
I'm sorry, my son, but you're too late in asking
Mister Peabody's coal train done hauled it away

[Verse 3]
Well, the coal companies came with the world's largest shovel
They tortured the timber and stripped all the land
They dug for the coal till the land was forsaken
Then wrote it all down to the progress of man

[Chorus]
Oh, daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County
Down by the green river where paradise lay?
I'm sorry, my son, but you're too late in asking
Mister Peabody's coal train done hauled it away
[Verse 4]
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
Five miles away from wherever I am

[Chorus]
Oh, daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County
Down by the green river where paradise lay?
I'm sorry, my son, but you're too late in asking
Mister Peabody's coal train done hauled it away

[Outro]
I'm sorry, my son, but you're too late in asking
Mister Peabody's coal train hauled it away