Mama she raised me on riddles and trances
Fatback, channel-cat, lily-white lies
Rocked my cradle in a jimmy-crack fancy
Never knew papa and i never asked why
Well, now, people say papa wasn't no-account anyway
People say papa was a rollin' stone
Well i turned twenty on the waccamaw throughway
Hitching up river in the dark alone
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
Well 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
Wrassled me a gator up in omaha city
Did me another down in new orleans
Tangled with the barker, run off with a kitty
Crawled the mississippi and i got away clean
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
Hidden in the shadow of a shady grove
There's a thatched roof risin' from a poke fence picket
White smoke billows from a kettle-black stove
Inside the house is the hall of mirrors
Inside the mirror is the temple of sin
And inside the temple is the face of mama
And mama she know just where i been
Yeah, my mama know exactly where her bad boy been
Sleepin' with a stranger in a no-name town
Thanksgiving dinner at the top hat lounge
Christmas eve at the fantasy tan
Oh lord have mercy on the crocodile man
Lord have mercy on the crocodile man
Lord have mercy on the crocodile man
Lord have mercy on the crocodile man