My acoustic guitar cover of "Paradise" by John Prine.
rock
singer
songwriter
acoustic
folk
blues
country
gospel
electric
Story behind the song
John Prine's 1st self titled album in 1971contained this song about the disappearence of a Kentucky town, Paradise, at the hands of the Peabody coal company and the Tennesee Valley Authority. When asked about being an environmentalist he explained he wrote this song for his father about something he would understand to let him know he was a songwriter.
Lyrics
When I was a child my 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 memories are worn.
And Daddy won't you take me back to Mulemberg County.
Down by the Green River where paradise lay.
I'm sorry my son, but you're too late in askin'
Mr. Peabody's coal train has hauled it away.
Well sometimes we'd travel right down the Green River
to an abandoned old prison down by Ebrie Hill.
Where the air smelled like snakes we'd shoot with our pistols,
but empty pop bottles was all we would kill.
(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 wrote it all down as the progress of man.
(Chorus)
When I die let my ashes flow down the reen 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.
(Chorus)