Jim Croce
You Don’t Mess Around with Jim
Uptown got it's hustlers
Boweries got it's bums
42nd street got big Jim Walker
He's a pool shootin' son of a gun
Ya, he's big and dumb as a man can come
But is stronger than a country hoss
And when 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 out of south Alabama come a country boy
He said, "Looking for a man named Jim
I am a pool shootin' boy, my name is Will Macoy
But down home they call me Slim
And I'm looking for the king of 42nd street
He's driving a drop top Cadillac
Because he took all my money, and it might sound funny
But I've come to get my money back"
And everybody say "Jack, don't you know?
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' 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
And he was cut in 'bout a hundred places
And he was shot in a couple more
And you better believe the song a different kind story
When big Jim hit the floor
Now you see
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
Ya, big Jim got his
Find out where it's at
And it's not hustling people strange to you
Even if you do got a two piece costume made pool cue
If 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