Bad, Bad Leroy Brown - Jim Croce cover

Well, the South side of Chicago is the baddest part of town

And if you go down there you better just beware

Of a man named Leroy Brown.

Now Leroy more than trouble, you see he stand 'bout six foot four

All the downtown ladies call him "Treetop Lover"

All the men just call him "Sir".

  And it's bad, bad Leroy Brown

  The baddest man in the whole damned town

  Badder than old King Kong

  And meaner than a junkyard dog.

Now Leroy he a gambler and he like his fancy clothes

And he like to wave his diamond rings

In front of everybody's nose.

He got a custom Continental, he got an Eldorado too

He got a thirty-two gun in his pocket for fun

He got a razor in his shoe.

Well Friday 'bout a week ago Leroy shootin' dice

And at the edge of the bar sat a girl named a Doris

And ooh that girl looked nice.

Well, he cast his eyes upon her and the trouble soon began

And Leroy Brown he learned a lesson

'Bout messin' with the wife of a jealous man.

Well, the two men took to fighting and when they pulled them from the floor

Leroy looked like a jigsaw puzzle

With a couple of pieces gone.

Yeah, he was badder than old King Kong

Meaner than a junkyard dog.

      Jim Croce's musical career was really coming together in 1973 when he died in a plane crash at age 30. This song is based on a true story but ornate. Jim's wife, Ingrid Croce, told the story this way.

      "Jim Croce joined the US National Guard in 1966, hoping it would keep him from getting sent to Vietnam. He married Ingrid that year and hoped to continue his education and launch his music career. Unfortunately, Jim was sent for training less than two weeks after their wedding. As Ingrid explained, Jim had no interest in being a soldier and had the distinction of having to repeat basic training. But he did meet a guy who inspired one of his most famous songs. "Leroy Brown is a guy that he actually met," said Ingrid. "When he was in the service - The National Guard - this guy had gone AWOL. He was a guy that Jim kind of related to, he liked to sing with him. This guy had gone AWOL but he came back to get his pay check, and he got caught. Jim just thought he was such a funny guy that he thought he'd include his name in the song, and it just worked. There really was a Leroy Brown, and sometimes having a name helps you to build a song around it."