You Dont Mess Around With Jim

Jim Croce

[Verse]
E
Uptown got its hustlers
 

The bowery got its bums
 
42nd Street got Big Jim Walker
 
He's a pool-shootin' son of a gun
         A
Yeah, he big and dumb as a man can come
       E
But he stronger than a country hoss
             B
And when the bad folks all get together at night
              A                E
You know they all call big Jim "Boss", just because
 
And they say
 
 
{ CHORUS }
          A                 E
You don't tug on Superman's cape

          A             E
You don't spit into the wind
          A
You don't pull the mask off the old Lone Ranger
        B                      E
And you don't mess around with Jim
 
 
[Verse]
           E
Well outta south Alabama came a country boy
 
He say 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
         A
Yeah I'm lookin' for the king of 42nd Street
             E
He drivin' a drop top Cadillac
         B
After he took all my money
 
And it may sound funny
      A                    E
But I came to get my money back
 
And everybody say Jack don't you know
 
 
{ CHORUS }
              A                 E
And you don't tug on Superman's cape
          A             E
You don't spit into the wind
          A
You don't pull the mask off the old Lone Ranger
        B                      E
And you don't mess around with Jim
 
 
[Verse]
       E
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
        E
Was the soles of the big man's feet
             A
Yeah he were cut in in bout a hundred places
            E
And he were shot in a couple more
        B
And you better believe
 
They sung a different kind of story
     A               E
When big Jim hit the floor now they say
 
 
{ CHORUS }
          A                 E
You don't tug on Superman's cape
          A             E
You don't spit into the wind
          A
You don't pull the mask off the old Lone Ranger
        B                      E
And you don't mess around with Slim
 
 
[Interlude]
         E
(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 }
               A                 E
Yeah you don't tug on Superman's cape
          A             E
You don't spit into the wind
          A
You don't pull the mask off the old Lone Ranger
        B                      E
And you don't mess around with Slim
X