Known covers:
Secret World. Astrid Seriese. October, 1994 (re-released in 2003). Brigadoon
The Dark Gift of Time. Christine Collister. 1998. Fledg'ling Records
Saving All My Love For You (a tribute to Tom Waits). Claudia Bettinaglio. January, 2001. Taxim Records (Germany)
Wrecked. The Tim Malloys. 2002. Fabulous Records
Pornoshow - Laura Fedele Interpreta Tom Waits. Laura Fedele. May, 2003.Auditorium, AUD 00902 (in Italian)
Demo 2005. Brudevalsen. April 4, 2005. Self-released
Murmurmur. We Versus The Shark. December 1, 2008. Hello Sir Records

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ Dirt In The Ground:
- Tom Waits (1994): "Dirt in the Ground". umm, That Ralph Carney played all the saxes on that. I think he has kind of an Allen Tonian sound he got on that, with the horn section. I just play a very simple piano, um, ya know. I tried to sing in my high, my Prince voice...ha. I can only do that once or twice and then it's gone. If I try to sing like that on the road every night, forget about it. So when you're in the studio, you're taking better care of your voice, umm, you can do things like that. On the road, my throat becomes ravaged by the weather and from just little sleep and bad food. So, and the song is based on something that was a, Teddy Edwards used to say to me all the time. Ya know, we're all going to be dirt in the ground. So hey, he used to tell girls that in hotel lobbies. He'd try to get them to come up to his room. He'd say "Listen darling, we're all gonna be dirt in the ground." So I always thought that would be a good song title." (Source: Bone Machine Operator's Manual. November 30, 1994)
- Tom Waits (1994): "That's what (jazz tenor sax great) Teddy Edwards said to me. That's his line. That's what he used to tell girls in the lobby of the hotel. Trying to get 'em to come up to his room. Well, listen, darlin', we're all just goin' be dirt in the ground. So that kind of explains itself. There were some verses that we left out. It was getting too long. One of them was Mata Hari was a traitor, they sentenced her to death/ The priest was at her side and asked her if she would confess/ She said, 'step aside, Father, it's the firing squad again/ And you're blockin' my view of these fine lookin' men/ And we're all gonna be dirt in the ground ... That's what people say that were present, that just before the firing squad opened up she opened up her blouse a little bit, and then she winked, and then they took her down. Ralph Carney played the horns, and he gave it those low Ellington kind of voicings --- bass clarinet, tenor and the alto together." (Source: Bone Machine press kit, Rip Rense. Late 1992)
- Tom Waits (1992): "You know, you get here, even though on the compass it says north and south and east and west, you know that you're only really headed in one direction and that's from here to the grave and the only way it can be measured is with time. We're all going to the same place. Some of us are taking different routes and some of us are leaving earlier and arriving later but we 're all going to the same place. Seems like a legitimate topic to uncover once you get to a certain point. I don't mean it to be morbid. I'm not morbid. I think if you talk about it then it disarms it and makes it seem more easier to handle. Someday we're all going to be in a little box, it's gonna be real dark, and they put the lid on, put you down six feet and that's where we'll spend the rest of what there is of time." (Source: "Telerama Interview" (French promo CD). Date: September 9, 1992)

⁽²⁾ Quill n.: 1. The hollow stemlike main shaft of a feather. Also called calamus 2. Any of the larger wing or tail feathers of a bird (Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Houghton Mifflin - Third Edition)

⁽³⁾ Heaven is full: Notice the same phrase being used in Earth Died Screaming, 1992: "Well, hell doesn't want you and heaven is full."

⁽⁴⁾ Cain slew Abel:
- Genesis 4: 1-16. 'Abel and Cain' The Mahometan tradition of the death of Abel is this: Cain was born with a twin sister who was named Aclima, and Abel with a twin sister named Jumella. Adam wished Cain to marry Abel's twin sister, and Abel to marry Cain's. Cain would not consent to this arrangement, and Adam proposed to refer the question to God by means of a sacrifice. God rejected Cain's sacrifice to signify his disapproval of his marriage with Aclima, his twin sister, and Cain slew his brother in a fit of jealousy. (Source: The Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer).
- Also mentioned in Walk Away, 1995: "Dot King was whittled from the bone of Cain"