Known covers:
Blame It On My Youth. Holly Cole Trio, 1991/ 1992. Manhattan
Punishing Kiss. Ute Lemper. March 2000/ April 4, 2000. Polygram (Japan), Uni/ Decca (USA)

Waits performing "Empty Pockets"
at the Expo Theatre, Montreal/ Canada (July 3, 1981).
As featured in Canadian television concert documentary "Télé-Jazz - Montreal Jazz Festival"
With Teddy Edwards (tenor saxophone) and Greg Cohen (upright bass)

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ Empty Pockets: This song was originally composed for One From The Heart (1981), but didn't make it to the original soundtrack album. Tom Waits version first released on "One From The Heart" re-issue (CD/ DVD), 2004. The first released version of this song was by Holly Cole (Blame It On My Youth, 1992. with slightly altered lyrics). On that album it was titled "Purple Avenue", therefore the confusion over the original title of the song.
- Tom Waits (on One From The Heart, 1982): "Francis and Richard Beggs were constantly trying different songs against different scenes. They were very experimental in that way, always thinking, "What would happen if we moved this song there and replaced it with another one?" There was a song called "Empty Pockets" that was originally designed for the opening. Francis' brother August had mentioned the line to me. I wrote it down and later developed it into a song. So it was in, then out, then in again... now it's been replaced by a song called "Wages of Love." "Broken Bicycles" was an orphan for a while, until Francis shot a separate scene with Freddie in the junkyard, despondent. We tried that song against the scene; it worked and stayed in the film." (Source: "Tom Waits: Hollywood Confidential" BAM magazine (US). Date: Travelers' Cafe/ Echo Park. February 26, 1982)
- Paul Grein (1987) on Waits attending a Frank Sinatra swhow, 1987: "Frank Sinatra drew a lot of celebrities to his recent Greek Theatre shows, including at least one you might not expect: whiskey-voiced balladeer Tom Waits. Waits, who said he's been a Sinatra fan "forever," told Pop Eye he enjoyed the show: "It was magic. He waves his hand over the crowd like a wand when he sings." Other impressions? "He drank Jack Daniel's and soda. Waits noted that he's written a song, "Empty Pockets," that he wants to get to Sinatra but he hasn't tried yet. "I'm sure he's unlisted," Waits said dryly. Has Sinatra been a big influence on Waits? "Oh yeah, no question about it." In what way? "We have the same tailor." (Source: Los Angeles Times. Column Pop Eye, by Paul Grein. August 30, 1987)

⁽²⁾ On a roll
- phr. [1970s+] (orig. US gambling) on a winning streak, enjoying a period of success, whether lit. or fig. Roll: n. [1970s+] a spell of good fortune, a winning streak, whether lit. or fig. [roll, the roll of a dice] (Source: "Cassell's Dictionary Of Slang". Jonathon Green. Cassel & Co., 1998. ISBN: 0-304-35167-9).
- Also mentioned in Time, 1985: "And when they're on a roll, she pulls a razor from her boot And a thousand pigeons fall around her feet.", Depot, Depot, 1974: "I'm on a roll, just like a pool ball, baby."

⁽³⁾ Hoist on his own petard: Caught in his own trap, involved in the danger he meant for others. The petard was a conical instrument of war employed at one time for blowing open gates with gunpowder. The engineers used to carry the petard to the place they intended to blow up, and fire it at the small end by a fusee. Shakespeare spells the word petar. "'Tis the sport to have the engineer hoist with his own petar." (Hamlet, ii. 4.) (Source: "The First Hypertext Edition of The Dictionary of Phrase and Fable", E. Cobham Brewer. © 1997-99 Bibliomania.com Ltd)
- Petard: "A small bomb used to blow in a door or gate. If it wasn't for its appearance in Shakespeare's Hamlet: "For 'tis the sport to have the enginer / Hoist with his owne petar" and its fossil survival in the rather more modern spelling to be hoist with one's own petard, this term of warfare would have gone the way of the halberd, brattice and culverin. A petard was a bell-shaped metal grenade typically filled with five or six pounds of gunpowder and set off by a fuse. Sappers dug a tunnel or covered trench up to a building and fixed the device to a door, barricade, drawbridge or the like to break it open. The bomb was held in place with a heavy beam called a madrier. Unfortunately, the devices were unreliable and often went off unexpectedly. Hence the expression, where hoist meant to be lifted up, an understated description of the result of being blown up by your own bomb. The name of the device came from the Latin petar, to break wind, perhaps a sarcastic comment about the thin noise of a muffled explosion at the far end of an excavation." (Source: World Wide Words is copyright © Michael Quinion, 1996-2004)

⁽⁴⁾ Flesh and bone: Might refer to "Flesh and Blood" meaning: Human nature, as "Flesh and blood cannot stand it." (Source: "The First Hypertext Edition of The Dictionary of Phrase and Fable", E. Cobham Brewer. © 1997-99 Bibliomania.com Ltd)

⁽⁵⁾ Count the whiskers in the sink: One cover has been made of the song, by Ute Lemper on her album 'Punishing Kiss' 2000. He counts 'whiskers in the sink' instead of 'silver'. Ute Lemper uses the original lyrics. Maybe she has a cat? Or a sloppy boyfriend. (Submitted by Ulf Berggren. Tom Waits eGroups discussionlist, 2000)