'Meaner Than a Junkyard Dog': Jim Croce's Unforgettable Characters

‘200 Greatest 70s Rock Songs’ Book Excerpt

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In July 1973, Jim Croce’s biggest hit, “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown,” reached №1 on the charts. It followed other great singles by the singer-songwriter like “You Don’t Mess Around with Jim” and “Operator (That’s Not the Way It Feels).” Croce’s ability to create both hilarious character sketches and touching ballads made him unique.

The talented musician whose potential seemed unlimited was killed in a plane crash in September 1973 after a concert in Natchitoches, LA. The bigger-than-life characters in songs like “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown” and “You Don’t Mess Around with Jim” were inspired by people Croce met visiting pool rooms and bars in South and West Philadelphia while selling air time for a local radio station.

Croce’s widow Ingrid said in Songfacts that Croce met the real Big Jim Walker, that pool-shootin’ son of a gun, at a Philadelphia pool hall. “He would sit there and watch the pool games and see what people were doing. And he ended up with a guy named Jim Walker, he was one of the guys who used to play pool there.

“And that’s really the story behind it: he used to hang out at these bars, or any of those little shops down on South Street and down in West Philly where it really was quite unacceptable for him to be trying to sell air time. But it was one of those things where he was hoping someday he could actually bring his music to the radio, so he thought it might be a good way to get going as a salesman.

“I think that often in Jim’s songs, there’s a composite situation. But when he sat down to write, usually the song would come out altogether.”

"Bad, Bad Leroy Brown (Live)" by Jim Croce

That ability to meld his experiences with people he met helped Croce create another iconic character. In 1966, Croce joined the National Guard with the hope, Ingrid said, that he would not be drafted and sent overseas. It was in the Guard that Croce met Bad, Bad Leroy Brown.

“I met him at Fort Dix, NJ,” Croce said in Super Seventies. “We were in lineman [telephone] school together. He stayed there about a week, and one evening he turned around and said he was really fed up and tired.

“He went AWOL and then came back at the end of the month to get his paycheck. They put handcuffs on him and took him away. Just to listen to him talk and see how ‘bad’ he was, I knew someday I was gonna write a song about him.”

One of the song’s most memorable lyrics is his description of Leroy Brown: “Meaner than a junkyard dog.” Again, this came from a slice of Croce’s life.

“I spent about a year and a half driving those $29 cars,” said Croce, “so I drove around a lot looking for a universal joint for a ’57 Chevy panel truck or a transmission for a ’51 Dodge. I got to know many junkyards well, and they all have those dogs in them. They all have either an axle tied around their necks or an old lawnmower to keep ’em at least slowed down a bit, so you have a decent chance of getting away from them.”

Frank Mastropolo is the author of 200 Greatest 70s Rock Songs and 200 Greatest 60s Rock Songs.