Lyrics You Don't Mess Around with Jim (50th Anniversary Edition) - Jim Croce

Uptown got its hustlers
The bowery got its 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 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"
Ah-dohp-n-do, da-dop, di-di-n-di-di-di

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 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, hoo, 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"
Ah-dohp-n-do, da-dop, di-di-n-di-di-di

Well, a hush fell over the pool room
As Jimmy come boppin' in off the street
And when the cuttin' was done
The only part that wasn't bloody
Was the soles of the big man's feet, ooh
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
Oh, oh-oh-oh

And they sing, "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"
Mm, mm-mm, mm, mm-mm-mm

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

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
Mm, mm-mm, mm, mm-mm-mm
Mm, mm-mm, mm
Mm, mm-mm, mm, mm-mm-mm-mm, mm-mm