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(E)Up town got its hus tlers,
the Bow ’ry got its bums.
For ty sec ond Street got big Jim Walk er; he a pool shoot in’ son of a gun
Yeah, (E7)he big and dumb as a man can come but he (A)strong er than a (D)coun try hoss.
And when the (B7)bad folks all get to (A7)geth er at night, you know they (B7)all call big Jim “Boss”
just be cause.
And they say, “You don’t (A7)tug on Su per man’s (E)cape, you don’t (A7)spit in to the (E7)wind, you don’t (A7)pull the mask off the old Lone Rang er, and you (B7)don’t mess a round with Jim.”
Well, out a (E)south Al a bam a come a coun try boy.
He said, “I’m look in’ for a man named Jim.
I am a pool shoot in’ boy, my name is Wil lie Mc Coy, but down home they call me “Slim.”
Yeah, (E7)I’m look in’ for the (D)king of For ty (A7)sec ond Street, he (D)driv in’ a drop top (D)Cad il lac.
(D)Last week he took all my mon ey and it (A7)may sound fun ny but I (B7)come to get my mon ey back.” And ev ’ry bod y (E)say, “Jack, don’t you (E7)know that you don’t
Well, a hush fell o ver the pool room, Jim my come bop pin’ in off the street.
And when the cut tin’ were done the on ly part that was n’t blood y was the soles of the big man’s feet.
Yeah, (E7)he were (A)cut in ’bout a (D)hun dred plac es, and he were (A7)shot in a (D)cou ple more.
And you (B7)bet ter be lieve they sung a (A7)dif f’rent kind of sto ry when a (B7)big Jim hit the floor, oh.
Now they say you don’t (A7)tug on Su per man’s (E)cape, you don’t (A7)spit in to the (E7)wind, you don’t (A7)pull the mask off the old Lone Rang ger and you (B7)don’t mess a round with “Slim.”
This page shows “You Don't Mess Around With Jim” by Jim Croce in our color-coded kid songbook view — every note is colored by pitch (red C, orange D, yellow E, green F, blue G, purple A, pink B) and the lyrics sit directly under each note, so children can sing along while they play. The song is in the key of E at 145 BPM, a medium-difficulty arrangement — try slowing the tempo down using the BPM control.
This arrangement is a great workout for your left hand — that octave bass pattern at 145 BPM demands steady, relaxed wrist motion, so if you tense up you'll fatigue fast. Start hands-separate at around 100 BPM and build speed only once your left hand can lock into the groove without looking down. Your right hand cycles through six chords, mostly in the E–A–B7 family, but watch the shifts to D and the dominant sevenths — A to A7 and E to E7 are just one-finger changes, so anticipate them rather than reacting late. The trickiest transition is B7 to D because it reshapes your whole hand; loop that two-chord change until it feels automatic. Syncopation drives this song's energy, so lean on the off-beats in your right hand while keeping your left-hand octaves metronomically even — that push-pull tension is what makes it feel like rock. Once you've got this down, you'll have real confidence handling quick chord changes over a driving bass at tempo, which transfers to dozens of other up-tempo rock tunes.