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Credits
PERFORMING ARTISTS
John Prine
Lead Vocals
Keith Sykes
Background Vocals
Marty Stuart
Background Vocals
Rachel Peer Prine
Background Vocals
COMPOSITION & LYRICS
John Prine
Songwriter
Lyrics
Y'all know the story behind it (yeah)
Haha, you say that like you got it memorized
Ain't said it that many times
When I was a child my family would travel
Down to Western Kentucky where my parents were born
And 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
Mister 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
Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away
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 'til 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
Mister 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
Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away
Thank you, thank you
Bravo!
Writer(s): John Prine
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