"Crocodile Man" lyrics

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