D                G            D
When I was a child my family would travel
         D                        A            D
Down to Western Kentucky where my parents were born
               D                        G       D 
And there's a backwards old town that's often remembered
D                     A            D
So many times that my memories are worn.

[Chorus]
     D                              G            D
And daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County
     D                         A        D
Down by the Green River where Paradise lay
           D                       G            D
Well, I'm sorry my son, but you're too late in asking
         D                       A          D
Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away

[Verse 2]
      D                            G            D
Well sometimes we'd travel right down the Green River
         D                       A         D
To the abandoned old prison down by Adrie Hill
           D                                G              D
Where the air smelled like snakes and we'd shoot with our pistols
     D                     A            D
But empty pop bottles was all we would kill.

[Chorus]
     D                              G            D
And daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County
     D                         A        D
Down by the Green River where Paradise lay
           D                       G            D
Well, I'm sorry my son, but you're too late in asking
         D                       A          D
Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away

[Verse 3]
          D                           G               D
Then the coal company came with the world's largest shovel
          D                         A              D
And they tortured the timber and stripped all the land
            D                           G           D
Well, they dug for their coal 'til the land was forsaken
           D                         A          D
Then they wrote it all down as the progress of man.

[Chorus]
     D                              G            D
And daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County
     D                         A        D
Down by the Green River where Paradise lay
           D                       G            D
Well, I'm sorry my son, but you're too late in asking
         D                       A          D
Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away

[Verse 4]
        D                      G               D
When I die let my ashes float down the Green River
        D                      A         D
Let my soul roll on up to the Rochester dam
          D                    G         D
I'll be halfway to Heaven with Paradise waiting
      D                    A         D
Just five miles away from wherever I am.

[Chorus]
     D                              G            D
And daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County
     D                         A        D
Down by the Green River where Paradise lay
           D                       G            D
Well, I'm sorry my son, but you're too late in asking
         D                       A          D
Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away