When You're Twenty-One
Composer(s): Claude King
Performer(s): Claude King



As I look around me at unfamiliar faces 
My mind goes back to my boyhood days
And the lust and the crazy far off places
Oh the simple country boy to a life of disgrace

I was raised on a farm way down in Louisiana 
Down where the sweet magnolias grow
Just me and Mud and mama and papa 
Little blue eyed Judy who lived down the road

I got Judy in trouble in the early days of summer
Oh she and mama cried and begged me not to go
Later on someone told me Mud and Judy got married
And they had a little girl with hair shining gold

I drank and I gambled and I knew many women 
I lived too fast for a boy just 21
And then one night I shot a man in Reno 
The very first time I had ever fired a gun

Mud came to see me last Sunday morning
He said Judy and the baby were waiting outside
His eyes filled with tears when I asked about mama
He said mama's heart's been broken 
She just laid down and died

I hear a cell door open, soon it will be over 
I'll have to pay for the wrongs I have done
To Mud and Judy and mama and papa
And I'll hope you'll remember this when you're 21
And I'll hope you'll remember this when you're 21