You Don't Mess Around With Jim Lyrics

Uptown got it's hustlers
The bowery got it's bums
42nd street got Big Jim Walker
He's a pool-shootin' son of a gun

Yeah, he big and dumb as a man can come
But he's stronger than a country horse
And when the bad folks all get together at night
You know they all call Big Jim boss
Just because

And they say
"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 came a country boy
He said, "I'm lookin' for a man named Jim"
I am a pool-shootin' boy, my name Willie McCoy
But down 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've come to get my money back

And everybody say, "Jack, don't you know?
And 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
Jimmy come boppin' in off 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 in 'bout a hundred places
And he were 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
"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"

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

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

Jim Croce - Jim Croce - 50th Anniversary Collection

Sep 1992

1. Spin, Spin, Spin
2. Vespers
3. Big Wheel
4. Cigarettes, Whiskey & Wild, Wild Women
5. (And) I Remember Her
6. Cotton Mouth River
7. More Than That Tomorrow
8. The Migrant Worker
9. Child Of Midnight
10. Stone Walls
11. King's Song
12. Mississippi Lady
13. Which Way Are You Goin'
14. Rapid Roy (The Stock Car Boy)
15. You Don't Mess Around With Jim
16. Tomorrow's Gonna Be A Brighter Day
17. New York's Not My Home
18. Hard Time Losin' Man
19. Photographs And Memories
20. Walkin' Back To Georgia
21. Operator (That's Not The Way It Feels)
22. Time In A Bottle
23. Box #10
24. A Long Time Ago
25. Hey Tomorrow
26. Chain Gang Medley: Chain Gang/He Don't Love/Searchin'
27. Old Man River
28. Careful Man
29. These Dreams
30. It Doesn't Have To Be That Way
31. Dreamin' Again
32. Alabama Rain
33. A Good Time Man Like Me Ain't Got No Business (Singin' The Blues)
34. Next Time, This Time
35. Bad, Bad Leroy Brown
36. One Less Set Of Footsteps
37. Roller Derby Queen
38. Speedball Tucker
39. I'll Have To Say I Love You In A Song
40. I Got A Name
41. Recently
42. Five Short Minutes
43. Thursday
44. The Hard Way Every Time
45. Age
46. Workin' At The Car Wash Blues
47. Lover's Cross
48. Salon And Saloon
49. Top Hat Bar And Grille