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

   D                             G         D
- Dad won't you take me back to Mulenburg County,
                                A       D
Down by the Green River where paradise lays.
                                        G           D
He said, "I'm sorry my son, but you're too late in askin'.
                             A         D
Mr Peabody's coal-train has hauled it away." -

      D                            G             D
Well sometimes we're travel right down to Green River
                                 A         D
To the abandoned old prison down by Avery Hill.
                                         G              D
Where the air smelled like snakes, we'd shoot with our pistols
                           A            D
But empty pop bottles are all we would kill.

          D                          G               D
Then the coal company came with the worlds largest shovel,
                             A                D
They torchered the timber, stripped all the land.
                          G           D
Dug for the coal til the land was forsaken.
                        A           D
Wrote it all down as a progrss for man.

        D                      G              D
When I die let my ashes float down the Green River,
                                A         D
Let my soul roll on up to the Rodchester Dam.
                                      G       D
And I'll be half way to Heaven with paradise waitin'
                                A      D
Just five miles away from whereever I am.