Known covers:
The Piano Has Been Drinking. The Piano Has been Drinking. April, 1990 Chlodwig (BMG Germany). Performed in German/ Kölsch

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ Sight for sore eyes: 1. Informal. One whom it is a relief or joy to see (Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Houghton Mifflin - Third Edition) 2. n. [early 19C+] a welcome appearance, often used as an affectionate greeting, you're a sight for sore eyes

⁽²⁾ Notice the extensive use of variations on tired cliches in the first verse: "Sight for sore eyes" and "Long time, no see" are both overused cliches. "Workin' hard, hardly workin'" comes from an extremely overused cliche "Are you working hard or hardly working?". "Water under the bridge" is another cliche and "It's bought and paid for" is another redundant cliche. (Source: Email from Leroy Larson to Tom Waits Library. October, 2005)

⁽³⁾ Palooka, paluka, palooker n.: 1. Any stupid or mediocre person, esp. if big or strong; An oafish hoodlum (Source: Dictionary Of American Slang, Wentworth/ Flexner). 2. A large and stupid person. [coined by Jack Conway (d.1928) of Variety magazine, and given wide currency by Ham Fisher's comic strip 'Joe Palooka' (launched 1930)] (Source: "Cassell's Dictionary Of Slang". Jonathon Green. Cassel & Co., 1998. ISBN: 0-304-35167-9)

"The word has two main senses. One refers to an unsuccessful boxer, especially one who is both large and stupid, the other to any large and stupid or clumsy person, an oaf or lout. Many older people first came across the word as the name of the boxer in Ham Fisher's famous comic strip. This first appeared in 1928; it featured the eponymous Joe Palooka as a slow-witted and inarticulate boxer, even though "his heart was pure and his ideals high". But Ham Fisher didn't invent the word: it had been around for several years as a slang term and is first recorded in print in 1925. The boxing associations seem to have been particularly strong, to judge from the magazine The Ring, which in November 1926 glossed the word to mean "A tenth rater, a boxer without ability, a nobody" and which implied it had been known for some time. It's often said that palooka was the invention of Jack Conway, a former baseball player who became the editor of Variety magazine; he is credited by some with creating a whole group of slang terms that include pushover and baloney. Whether he actually invented palooka, or popularised it, we have no way of knowing, nor do we have any idea what it was based on. Some of Joe Palooka's adventures were made into films, and Palookaville came to be a slang term for a hick town full of gentle losers." (Source: World Wide Words is copyright © Michael Quinion, 1996-2004. All rights reserved)

⁽⁴⁾ Dimagio: Joseph Paul DiMaggio (misspelled in the tracklisting). Born: Martinez,Ca. November 25 1914 - Died: 1999. American base ball legend. He played from 1936 til 1951 for the NY Yankees. With this team he won the American Baseball League Championships 10 times and the World Series 9 times. Had a shortlived affair with Marylin Monroe

⁽⁵⁾ Drysdale: Don Drysdale. American sports announcer. Born: July 23 1936. Ex-pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers

⁽⁶⁾ Mantle, Mickey
- Mickey Charles Mantle. Born: Spavinaw, Ok, October 20 1931 - Died: Dallas, Tx, August 13 1995. A famous American baseball player in the 1950's (successor of Joe DiMaggio with the New York Yankees). He was a friend of Whitey Ford. In 1969 he resigned from professional baseball.
- Also mentioned in Jitterbug Boy (Small Change, 1976): "I taught Mickey Mantle everything he knows."

⁽⁷⁾ Ford, Whitey: American baseball player from the 50's. He was a friend of Mickey Mantle

⁽⁸⁾ Monk
1. Most likely refers to some American sportsman nicknamed "Monk" (or Monck?), but could refer to Thelonious Monk. Monk is recognized as one of the most influential figures in the history of Jazz. He was one of the architects of bebop and his impact as a composer and pianist has had a profound influence on every genre of music. Born on October 10, 1917, in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, but his parents, Barbara Batts and Thelonious Monk, soon moved the family to New York City. Monk began piano lessons as a young child and by the age of 13 he had won the weekly amateur contest at the Apollo Theater so many times that he was barred from entering. At the age of 19, Monk joined the house band at Minton's Playhouse in Harlem, where along with Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and a handful of other players, he developed the style of jazz that came to be known as bebop. In the decade that followed, Monk played on recordings with Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, and Sonny Rollins and recorded as a leader for Prestige Records and later for Riverside Records. He passed away on February 5, 1982.

2. "Tom Waits, Artist Choice". HearMusic.com. October 1999. TW: "Monk said "There is no wrong note, it has to do with how you resolve it." He almost sounded like a kid taking piano lessons.. I could relate to that when I first started playing the piano, because he was decomposing the music while he was playing it. It was like demystifying the sound, because there is a certain veneer to jazz and to any music, after a while it gets traffic rules, and the music takes a backseat to the rules. It's like aerial photography, telling you that this is how we do it. That happens in folk music too. Try playing with a bluegrass group and introducing new ideas. Forget about it. They look at like you're a communist. On "Solo Monk", he appears to be composing as he plays, extending intervals, voicing chords with impossible clusters of notes. "I Should Care" kills me, communion wine with a twist. Stride, church, jump rope, Bartok, melodies scratched into the plaster with a knife. A bold iconoclast. "Solo Monk" lets you not only see these melodies without clothes, but without skin. This is astronaut music from Bedlam."

⁽⁹⁾ Nickels worth, Up north for a
- Tom Waits (1976): "And 'He went up north for a nickel's worth' means he went up north to jail for five years - usually for armed robbery. I learned that when I was in jail. I go there a lot and they just know me." (Source: "The Ramblin' Street Life Is The Good Life For Tom Waits", from "Rambler" magazine. Chicago. December 30, 1976. Interview by Rich Trenbeth)