When I was a child,
my family would travel down to western Kentucky
where my parents were born.
There's a backwoods old town
there 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 lays
I'm sorry my son,
but you're too late in askin'
Mr. Peabody's coal train
has hauled it away
Sometimes we'd float on
down the Green River
By the old abandoned prison
down by Adria Hill
Where the air smelled like snakes
and we'd shoot with our pistols
But empty pop bottles
was all we would kill
Then 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
Mr. Peabody's coal trans
ported away
Then the coal company came with
the world's largest shovel
They tortured the timber
and stripped all the land
They dug for the coal
till the land was forsaken
And wrote it all down to
the progress of man
And 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
Mr. Peabody's coal train has
hauled it away
When I die, let my ashes flow on
down the Green River
Let my soul roll on up to
the Rochester Dales
I'll be halfway to heaven
with paradise waiting
Just five miles away from wherever I am
Then daddy, won't you take me back
to Muhlenberg County
Down by the green river
where paradise lays
I'm sorry, my son,
but you're too late in asking
Mr. Peabody's cold train has hauled it away
Mr. Peabody's cold train is haunted away
Mr. Peabody's cold train
is haunted away