Paradise :: John Prine

Oh friends, what a joyous event occurred yesterday! I arrived home from work and my roommate told me some neighbors down the street had left a box of old records out in their front yard with a "FREE" sign on them. I went down to check them out and found a wealth of awesome old albums. I made two trips to the free records box, ending up with some Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon, Sweet Honey in the Rock, Randy Newman, The Doobie Brothers, John Prine, half a dozen Arlo Guthrie albums, and a whole host of other good stuff. We have yet to acquire a record player (my parents' old one is broken, or I would have stolen it years ago), but are working diligently on that project! In honor of this fantastic find, I am posting, "Paradise," my favorite song by John Prine, from his 1971 self-titled album. So sit back, grab some lemonade, open a window and pretend you're hearing the sweet crackling of vinyl n the turntable as you listen to this song.


Paradise



Paradise by John Prine
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.

Chorus:
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.

Repeat Chorus:

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.

Repeat Chorus:

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.