"Paradise" by John Prine is a song, among so many that he wrote with poignant and striking lyrics, that has stuck with me. My friends Taylor and Michael and I must have sung it, a capella, from one end of Guatemala to the other on a backpacking venture some 30 odd years ago and the tune is lodged deep in my heart. “Paradise” was in my repertoire as I tried to sing the always night-owl daughter to sleep when she was a wee girl and I probably made too many people listen to it when I could wrestle control of the tape deck at the Hardback Cafe back in the early '90s.
Prine wrote it for his father, who was indeed from Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, the “Place” of Paradise addressed in the song. One of the things that I love about it is that It is a protest song, about the fecklessness of the Peabody Coal Mining Company and the ravages it wrought upon the town of Paradise. Still, there is a haunting story of beauty and country life told in it as well, despite the boom and bust capitalism that never paid the workers what they were worth nor cared one whit about their health and safety. “Paradise” being a protest song I’d be remiss if I did not add here that Mitch McConnell has played no small part in holding up legislation that would work to repair damage done and alleviate the suffering in Paradise. Gone now five years and a month, Rest In Peace Mr. Prine, you managed the words we could never imagine.
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 Airdrie Hill
Where the air smelled like snakes and 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 they wrote it all down as the progress of man.
[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.
