Paradise
beginner
Paradise
Waltzes
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Chord Chart
A
GG
GG
CC
GG
GG
GG
DD
GG
GG
GG
CC
GG
GG
GG
DD
GG
Chords used:
C
D
G
Lyrics
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 Airdrie Hill
Where the air smelled like snakes and we'd shoot with our pistols
But empty pop bottles was all we would kill.
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 till the land was forsaken
Then they wrote it all down as the progress of man.
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.Demo Videos
About This Song
Paradise is John Prine's melancholic ballad about his childhood home in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, and its destruction by strip mining. Made famous in bluegrass circles by The Seldom Scene and numerous other bluegrass artists, it's become a jam session standard despite its somber subject matter. This song is a waltz—the 3/4 time signature gives it that distinctive sway.