Who knows this Johnny Cash song?

[Stalker]

I don“t know a lot of the text since I heard it last year (or was it
97?) on Johnny“s concert. He performed the song together with his son.
The refrain of the text had something like "Oh daddy please take me to
???-canyon".
I know this is pretty vague, but perhaps someone can help me.

Thanks,
Stalker

[mh...@aol.com]

In article <36B50536...@joice.net>,

The line goes "Daddy, won't you take me back to Muehlenberg (sp) County..."
The song was written by John Prine and is called "Paradise." John Cash
recorded the song in 1980 for use in the movie "The Pride of Jesse Hallum,"
and then again in 1982 for the album "The Adventures of Johnny Cash." I have
heard it done in concert by John Cash solo, by him and John Carter Cash, and
by John Prine. Prine dedicated the song to his father; it is based on a real
town in Kentucky which was wiped out when the TVA came through needing coal
to power its various projects. Mark

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[Erin Wilson]

Thanks to Mark (who ID'd the song) i was able to find a John Prine site with lyrics
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/1985/lyrics/ga.htm

(Good work Mark!!!)

erin

---

Paradise
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.

Repeat Chorus:

---

Stalker wrote:
>
> I don“t know a lot of the text since I heard it last year (or was it
> 97?) on Johnny“s concert. He performed the song together with his son.
> The refrain of the text had something like "Oh daddy please take me to
> ???-canyon".
> I know this is pretty vague, but perhaps someone can help me.
>

> Thanks,
> Stalker