Set in the hardscrabble section of Chicago, this song tells the story of Leroy Brown, the “baddest man in the whole damn town.” He’s big and dangerous, loved by the ladies and feared by the men. But one day he picks a battle he can’t win, making a move on the wife of a guy who leaves him looking like a jigsaw puzzle with a some missing pieces.
The story is based on truth, but embellished. Jim’s wife, Ingrid Croce, told Songfacts the story.
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 then 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 paycheck, 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.”
When Jim Croce would introduce this song, he said there were two people he encountered in the military who inspired this song: a sergeant at Fort Jackson and a private at Fort Dix. The actual Leroy was the sergeant, but it was the private who went AWOL and returned for his paycheck.
Croce was a peaceful guy, but two of his biggest hits end in violence. In his first single, “You Don’t Mess Around With Jim,” the title character gets it even worse than Leroy, getting “cut in in about a 100 places and shot in a couple more.”
On the {C} South side of Chicago is the [A7} baddest part of town – And if you {E} go down there you better {F} just beware of a {G} man named Leroy Brown
Now Leroy wanted 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. Meaner than a junkyard dog.
Now Leroy he a gambler, and he like his fancy clothes, and he like to wave his diamond rings under everybody’s nose.
He got a custom Continental. He got an Eldorado too. He had a thirty two gun in his pocket for fun, and a razor in his shoe
And it’s bad, bad Leroy Brown: The baddest man in the whole damned town. Badder than old King Kong. Meaner than a junkyard dog.
Now Friday ’bout a week ago, Leroy shootin’ dice – And at the edge of the bar sat a girl named Doris, and oo that girl looked nice.
Well he cast his eyes upon her, and the trouble soon began. See Leroy Brown was messing around with the wife of a jealous man.
And it’s bad, bad Leroy Brown: The baddest man in the whole damned town. Badder than old King Kong. Meaner than a junkyard dog.
Well the two men took to fighting, and when they pulled them off the floor, Leroy looked like a jigsaw puzzle with a couple of pieces gone
And it’s bad, bad Leroy Brown: The baddest man in the whole damned town. Badder than old King Kong. Meaner than a junkyard dog.
And it’s bad, bad Leroy Brown: The baddest man in the whole damned town. Badder than old King Kong. Meaner than a junkyard dog.
Badder than old King Kong. Meaner than a junkyard dog.
