You Don't Mess Around With Jim

Artists : Jim Croce : You Don't Mess Around With Jim

Uptown got its hustlers
The Bowery got its bums
42nd Street got big Jim Walker
He a pool-shootin' son of a gun
Yeah, he big and dumb as a man can come
But he stronger than a country hoss
And when the bad folks all get together at night
You know they all call big Jim "Boss"
Just because

And they say

Chorus
You don't tug on Superman's cape
You don't spit into the wind
You don't pull the mask off that old lone ranger
And you don't mess around with Jim

Well, outta South Alabama come a country boy
He said, I'm lookin' for a man named Jim
I am a pool-shootin' boy
My name is Willie McCoy
But down at home they call me "Slim"
Yeah I'm lookin' for the king of 42nd Street
He drivin' a drop-top Cadillac
Last week he took all my money
And it may sound funny
But I come to get my money back
And everybody, say Jack
Don't you know

Chorus
You don't tug on Superman's cape
You don't spit into the wind
You don't pull the mask off that old lone ranger
And you don't mess around with Jim

Well, a hush fell over the pool room
As Jimmy come boppin' in offa the street
And when the cuttin' were done
The only part that wasn't bloody
Was the soles of the big man's feet
Yeah he were cut in 'bout a hundred places
And he was shot in a couple more
And you better believe
They sung a different kind of story
When big Jim hit the floor
Now they say

Chorus
You don't tug on Superman's cape
You don't spit into the wind
You don't pull the mask off that old lone ranger
And you don't mess around with Slim

Spoken
Yeah, big Jim got his hat
Find out where it's at
And it's not hustlin' people strange to you
Even if you do got a two-piece custom-made pool cue

Chorus
Yeah, you don't tug on Superman's cape
You don't spit into the wind
You don't pull the mask off the old lone ranger
And you don't mess around with Slim