Paradise (John Prine song)

"Paradise" is a song written and recorded by American singer-songwriter John Prine for his 1971 self-titled debut album.

"Paradise" is about the devastating impact of surface mining for coal, whereby the top layers of soil are blasted off with dynamite or dug away with steam shovels to reach a coal seam below, in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, the home county of Prine's parents.

[4] In the final verse of "Paradise", Prine asks: "When I die, let my ashes float down the Green River/Let my soul roll on up to the Rochester Dam".

[5] John Fogerty, one of many artists who have covered "Paradise," told Acoustic Guitar in 2009 that the song was "a touchstone for people like us who decry the way corporations get to run roughshod over what may be desired by the little guy, but he’s powerless to stop it or stand in the way.

"[6] The most commercially successful version of the song was by released by Lynn Anderson in 1976, peaking at #26 on the Billboard country chart.

"The world's largest shovel" as Prine describes it in the song, the Bucyrus Erie 3850-B was used for excavation at Paradise and ultimately buried there.