Go back to previous page
Forum URL: http://www.eyrie-productions.com/Forum/dcboard.cgi
Forum Name: Undocumented Features General
Topic ID: 2136
#0, sotd, 2012.02.08
Posted by Gryphon on Feb-08-12 at 06:52 PM
[The Uncanny X-Band covers this sometimes. When they do, they omit "south" and change "Alabama" to "West Virginia", though for metrical reasons Willie McCoy's name is not changed. It makes Sam do the aw-shucks face anyway, so, mission accomplished. --G.]


Uptown got its hustlers
The Bowery got its bums
Forty-Second Street got Big Jim Walker
He a pool-shootin' son of a gun
Yeah he big and dumb and 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 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 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 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

That 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 Jim

Well a hush fell over the pool room
When Jim he 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 'bout a hundred places
And he were shot in a couple more
And you better believe they sung a different kinda story
When Big Jim hit the floor, uh-huh

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 the old Lone Ranger
And you don't mess around with Slim

Yeah, Big Jim got his hat
Found out where it's at
And 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
"You Don't Mess Around with Jim"
You Don't Mess Around with Jim (1972)