When You're 21 Lyrics - 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 far to go 

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