Paradise Chords by John Prine

[Start]

[Chorus]
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         
And there's a backwards old town that's often remembered
                      A            D   
So many times that my memories are worn
                                    G          D     
And daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County
                              A        D  
Down by the Green River where paradise lay
                                 G           D     
Well I'm sorry my son but you're too late in asking
                                A         D   
Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away


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


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


[Solo]
G D A D G D A D
■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■


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


[Chorus]
                                    G          D     
And daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County
                              A        D  
Down by the Green River where paradise lay
                                 G           D     
Well I'm sorry my son but you're too late in asking
       D                                      
Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away
                              G              D    
When I die let my ashes float down the Green River
                              A         D  
Let my soul roll on up to the Rochester dam
                               G        D      
I'll be halfway to Heaven with paradise waitin'
     D                                 
Just five miles away from wherever I am
                                    G          D     
And daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County
     D                                    
Down by the green river where paradise lay
                          G                  D     
Well I'm sorry my son but you're too late in asking
                                A              D
Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away ■


[End]