[Verse 1] When I was a child, the family would travel Down to western Kentucky where my parents were born There's a backwards old town that's often remembered So many times that my mem'ries are worn [Chorus] And, daddy, won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County Down by the Green River where Paradise lays? Well, I'm sorry, my son, but you're too late in asking Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away [Verse 2] 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 [Chorus] And, daddy, won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County Down by the Green River where Paradise lays? Well, I'm sorry, my son, but you're too late in asking Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away [Verse 3] The coal company came with the world's largest shovel And they tortured the timber and stripped all the land And they dug for their coal 'til the land was forsaken They wrote it all down as the progress of man [Chorus] And, daddy, won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County Down by the Green River where Paradise lays? Well, I'm sorry, my son, but you're too late in asking Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away And, daddy, won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County Down by the Green River where Paradise lays? Well, I'm sorry, my son, but you're too late in asking Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away