Jim Croce: ‘Bad Bad Leroy Brown’

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 told us, Jim had no interest in being a soldier and had the distinction of having to repeat basic training. Ingrid explains how Jim got the idea for this song: “Leroy Brown is a guy that he actually met.

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.

(Source)

Lyrics for Bad, Bad, Leroy Brown

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

Got a .32 gun in his pocket for fun

He got 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

And meaner than a junkyard dog

Well, Friday ’bout a week ago

Leroy shootin’ dice

And at the edge of the bar

Sat a girl named Doris and ooh, that girl looked nice

Well, he cast his eyes upon her

And the trouble soon began

‘Cause Leroy Brown learned a lesson

‘Bout messin’ 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

And meaner than a junkyard dog

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

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

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

Yeah, badder than old King Kong

And meaner than a junkyard dog

Wanna hear some other songs of his, here’s a longer concert clip…

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