Paradise Chords

KeyD CapoNone TuningStandard Difficulty Plays851

Paradise by John Prine is a beginner-friendly guitar song played in the key of D. It uses the chords D, G and A. Use the transpose and diagram tools on this page to change the key, see each shape, or simplify the chords.

Transpose
D
Text
16
Speed
  			D                     G            D  
When I was a child my family would travel   
                                  A            D  
Down to Western Kentucky where my parents were born.  
              D                         G       D  
There's a backwards old town that's often remembered  
D                     A            D  
So many times that my memories are worn.  

D                                   G          D  
And, Daddy, won't you take me back to Muelenberg County  
     D                        A        D   
Down by the Green River where Paradise lay? 
          D                        G           D  
Well, I'm sorry, my son, but you're too late in asking.  
       D                        A         D  
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 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.  
They dug for their coal till the land was forsaken  
And 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 waiting,  
Just five miles away from wherever I am.  
  
(Chorus)  

    	

Chord diagrams

Guitar tuner

--
Start the tuner and play a string

Reference tones

Standard tuning, lowest to highest. Click a string to play it; the string the mic hears is highlighted.

Click Start tuner and allow microphone access. The needle centers and turns green when a string is in tune (within 5 cents).
No microphone? You can still tap any string above to hear its exact reference pitch.

Metronome

100 BPM Andante