Well, I’d estimate about 4% of my songs, and probably 60% of the ones I wrote in my teens, were, in some direct or indirect way, inspired by my decades long crush on my friend Julia. Most of them never saw the light of day. A few did.

I call this song Julia Taylor’s Blues
It’s just yesterday’s news
About a dark haired beauty
I never had a chance to lose

I loved her my whole life from afar
In school, in church, in bars
While I was waiting my turn
Some Hartsville boy stole her heart

Looking back I guess I played it wrong
Waited a bit too long
Let her drift too far away
Then one Christmas Eve she was gone

She was long gone
So I wrote this song

Chorus:
Talking about Julia Taylor’s Blues
Feels a lot like paying dues
To some club where I don’t belong
How can a broken heart last this longI got home December 23rd
Tommy said have you heard
Julia’s got a diamond ring
Brother I know this must hurt

I saw her the next day at Dee Dee’s
At a Christmas party
I just said I wish you well
Those empty words still haunt me

If I’d only told her how I felt
Maybe that would have helped
She’d have run away with me
At least that’s what I tell myself

Lie to myself
She’s with somebody else

Chorus:
Talking about Julia Taylor’s Blues
Feels a lot like paying dues
To some club where I don’t belong
How can a broken heart last this long

Bridge:
Fact is that I never had a chance
Some folks sit while others dance
All this time I’ve been stuck in my tracks
While Julia never looks back

Chorus:
Talking about Julia Taylor’s Blues
Feels a lot like paying dues
To some club where I don’t belong
How can a broken heart last this long

© Kent Newsome and Ronnie Jeffrey