Paradise notes
"I wrote it for my father, mainly so he would know I
was a songwriter. Paradise was a real place in Kentucky, and while I was away in
the Army in Germany, my father sent me a newspaper article telling how the coal
company had bought the place out. It was a real Disney-looking town. It sat on a
river, had two stores, and there was one black man in town, Bubba Short, who
looked like Uncle Remus and hung out with my Granddaddy Hamm, my mom's dad, all
day, fishing for catfish.
Then the bulldozers came in and wiped it all off the
map.
When I recorded the song, I brought a tape of the record to
my dad; I had to borrow a reel-to-reel machine to play it for him. When the song
came on, he went into the next room and sat in the dark while it was on. I asked
him why, and he said he wanted to pretend it was on the jukebox." ~John
Prine