Paducah Kentucky sits at the confluence of the Tennessee
and Ohio rivers.
After the 1937 floods the city built a 15” flood wall
to protect the city from the recurring floods.
When I arrived in Kentucky the walls were painted a chalky
white at the edge of town.
In the last ten years the city has rolled up its sleeves
and hired a painter to paint these walls with historic murals.
And in the last three years the city has built a Great
Music Hall at the end of Kentucky Ave.
adjacent to the Ohio River, a strong man could throw
a rock from the balcony of the Great Hall.
Last night from deepest parts of the Tennessee and Ohio
rivers there came a vocal sound so low and sweet, it moved,
it rolled out of the river and into the Great Hall.
Leon Redbone sat in a black suit with a white hat, black
shades and a mustache that reminds you of the folks that
worked along the Ohio River in the forties. His voice
is mellow and deep, his guitar sounds gave our hearts a rhythm to tap our
feet to,
“My Blue Heaven” and the “Sheik of Araby”.
He kept us in a humorous cool laid back mood until the
lights went up and the crews swept over the stage.
Darkness, then applause and the stage turned a deep red
and more applause.
As John Prine picked up his guitar he did not disappoint
us.
He raised holy hell in Paducah and the partisan crowd
loved it.
He said that the president (I assume Bush) had requested
this next song and I am so kind to post those lyrics here.
Your Flag Decal Won't Get You into Heaven Anymore
Written by John Prine.
While digesting Reader's Digest
In the back of a dirty book store,
A plastic flag, with gum on the back,
Fell out on the floor.
Well, I picked it up and I ran outside
Slapped on my window shield,
And if I could see old Betsy Ross
I tell her how good I feel.
Chorus:
But your flag decal won't get you
Into Heaven any more.
They're already overcrowded
From your dirty little war.
Now Jesus don't like killin'
No matter what the reason's for,
And your flag decal won't get you
Into Heaven any more.
Well, I went to the bank this morning
And the cashier he said to me,
";If you join the Christmas club
We'll give you ten of them flags for free.";
Well, I didn't mess around a bit
I took her up on what he said.
And I stuck them stickers all over my car
And one on my wife's forehead.
Repeat Chorus:
Well, I got my window shield so filled
With flags I couldn't see.
So, I ran the car upside a curb
And right into a tree.
By the time they got a doctor down
I was already dead.
And I'll never understand why the man
Standing in the Pearly Gates said...
But your flag decal won't get you
Into Heaven any more.
We're already overcrowded
From your dirty little war.
Now Jesus don't like killin'
No matter what the reason's for,
And your flag decal won't get you
Into Heaven any more.
**
He sang for about an hour and a half, moving our hearts
and minds, painting pictures of our lives;
as he walked off the staged after his final song a thunderous
roar and applause asked him to come back out and perform some more.
He sang us a song that Western Kentucky so dearly loves.
Today thanks to him and folks like him Western Kentucky
does reclaim the land and restores it back the way it was.
Paradise is not far from Paducah; you can still see the
Paradise Steam Plant and the
Big Coal Shovel from the Western Kentucky Parkway as
you get close to crossing
the Green River on your way to Elizabethtown. It
is a constant reminder of what coal did to Kentucky.
I give my thanks to John Prine.
As the golden leaves swirl in the wind this morning I
thank Laurel for buying me Bob Dylan’s new book
Chronicles Volume One and for taking me to see John Prine
and Leon Redbone.
It is a nice mind blower to read and see people who have
influenced my life in a very great way.
Paradise
Written by John Prine.
When I was a child, my family would travel,
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.
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 askin'."
"Mr. 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 Aidrie Hill.
Where the air smelled like snakes: we'd shoot with our
pistols,
But empty pop bottles was all we would kill.
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 askin'."
"Mr. Peabody's coal train has hauled it away."
Instrumental break.
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.
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 askin'."
"Mr. Peabody's coal train has hauled it away."
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.
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 askin'."
"Mr. Peabody's coal train has hauled it away."
Words & Graphics by Tomas