Jim Croce is a very interesting folk guitarrist to tackle, he was my favorite when I started playing guitar. I figured if I play this guys stuff I paly anythig
oh well...almost.
My advice to you is, play "New York is not my home " By the same author as an exercise it has a very similar descending line but with a tough hand stretch in the key of A. Once you get this song down go back to Time in a bottle all your difficulties will vanish and will set you up for other similar songs with those tangling bass melodic lines
BossMan