When I was a child my family would travel Down to Western Kentucky where my parents were born To a backwards old town I often remembered So many times that my memories are worn Than sometimes we'd travel on down the Green River To the abandoned old prison down by Adrian Hill Where the air smelled like snakes and we'd shoot with our pistols But empty pop bottles was all that we?d kill Daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County Down by the green river where paradise lay?" I'm sorry my son but you're too late in asking Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away" Well the coal company came with the world's largest shovel They stripped all the timber and tortured the land They dug for the coal till the land was forsaken Then they wrote it all down as the progress of man Daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County Down by the green river where paradise lay?" 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' Five miles away from wherever I am Daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County Down by the green river where paradise lay?" I'm sorry my son but you're too late in asking Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away" I'm sorry my son but you're too late in asking Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away"