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 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
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 Adrie Hill
Where the air smelled like snakes and we'd shoot with our pistols
But empty pop bottles was all we would kill

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
Mr. Peabody's coal train has hauled it away

Hey!

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
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'
Just 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 son, but you're too late in asking
Mr. Peabody's coal train has hauled it away