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Paradise ~ by the late, great John Prine- no CBG content.

Paradise ~ by the late, great John Prine. Played on a cool old beater of a six string that I re-glued, repaired and made into a tenor guitar. With Iowa Saxophone Inster Mental.

"Paradise" by John Prine

When [D]I was a child my [G] family would [D]travel
Down to Western Kentucky where my [A] parents were [D]born
And there's a backwards old town that's [G] often re[D]membered
So many times that my [A] memories are [D] worn.

And daddy won't you take me back to [G] Muhlenberg [D] County?
Down by the Green River where [A] Paradise [D] lay.
Well, I'm sorry my son, but you're [G] too late in [D] asking.
Mister Peabody's coal train has [A] hauled it [D] 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. [Chorus]
----
If you want to do this with a slide on an open tuned guitar like a GDG,
make the D open, the G at the 5th fret and the A at the 7th fret.

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Comment by Uncle John on April 9, 2020 at 10:27am: Thanks, A and A. Prine's videos on youtube are plentiful and good.

Comment by AGP # on April 9, 2020 at 10:25am: The Old Tenor Beater does have a voice all of its own 'UJ', cool tribute to John Prine :-)

Obviously he was much more widely known and appreciated in the US than in Australia, I can never remember hearing of him during my time of listening to all types of music over the years, But!, the words and melody of Paradise I have definitely heard somewhere in the past, and will now search out more of his Music, just had a look on Mr Google about any Australian connections with John Prine, and found that he had previously toured here in the past, and was in fact scheduled to Tour and perform in the Land Down Under on 14th,16th & 17th April 2020. ;-(

Comment by A.D.EKER on April 9, 2020 at 9:24am: Boy o Boy is that Tenor ringing, like a little more bass meself yup that coal & peabody song i know and done that one to,your ringing it out like a cry UJ as iffen the hole of the united states got to cry whit you! RIP JP, sorry for the loss UJ this way his work will live on !