Crocodile Man

Mama raised me on riddles and trances

Fatback, channel-cat, lily-white lies

All wrapped up in a jimmy-crack fancy

Never knew Papa and I never asked why

People said Papa wasn't no-account anyway

People said Papa was a rollin' stone

I turned twenty on the Waccamaw throughway

Headed upriver in the dark alone

I been sleepin' with a stranger in a no-name town

Thanksgiving dinner at the Top Hat lounge

Christmas eve at the Fantasy Tan

Lord have mercy on the crocodile man

Lord have mercy on the crocodile man

I hooked up with a carny little outta Memphis

Slavin' in a sideshow, pennies in a jar

Beetle-eyed jokers and hicktown princes

Rhinestone rubies and rubber cigars

I wrastled me a gator up in Omaha city

Done me another down in New Orleans

Tangled with the barker, run off with the kitty

Crawled the Mississippi and I got away clean

I been sleepin' with a stranger in a no-name town

Thanksgiving dinner at the Top Hat lounge

Christmas eve at the Fantasy Tan

Lord have mercy on the crocodile man

Lord have mercy on the crocodile man

Underneath the levee in a cat-tail thicket

Down in the shadows of a shady grove

There's a thatched roof risin' from a poke fence picket

And a white smoke billows from a coal-black stove

Inside the house is a hall of mirrors

Inside the mirror is the temple of sin

Inside the temple is the face of Mama

And Mama, she knows where I been

My mama knows exactly where this bad boy been

I been sleepin' with a stranger in a no-name town

Thanksgiving dinner at the Top Hat lounge

Christmas eve at the Fantasy Tan

Lord have mercy on the crocodile man

Lord have mercy

Yeah, lord have mercy

Lord have mercy on the crocodile man

Sleepin' with a stranger in a no-name town

Thanksgiving dinner at the Top Hat lounge

Christmas eve at the Fantasy Tan

Lord have mercy on the crocodile man

Oh, Lord have mercy

Lord have mercy

Yeah, Lord have mercy on the crocodile man