Known covers:
Cross The River. Traveler. January, 2004. Self-released
God Is A Tom Waits Fan. The Box Spring Hogs. May 2004. Self-released demo
Modern Twang. Smokestack Lightnin'. March 9, 2007. EMI Music Marketing (Germany)
Grapefruit Moon: Songs of Tom Waits. Southside Johnny & La Bamba's Bigband. September 19, 2008. Evangeline (Soulfood Music). Duet with Tom Waits

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ Dot King
- "One of the songs inspired by the movie 'Dead Man Walking' (it's not actually heard in the film). You get a feeling that you know what it's about, but if you take a good look at each line, it's not that straightforward. How reliable is the 'Beautiful Maladies' songbook, you think? According to that book, this song starts with "That king was whittled from the bones of Cain". What king? And it sure sounds like he's singing "Dot King", doesn't it? So who was Dot King? Well, I'll tell ya. She was a chorus girl in the Ziegfeld Follies, found dead in her bed in 1923, with a bottle of chloroform beside her. At first it was believed to be suicide, but further investigation showed signs of a struggle, so they changed it to murder one. They never found the killer though, despite an abundance of suspects (=former lovers). The story inspired one of S. S. Van Dine's thrillers starring detective Philo Vance, 'The Canary Murder Case', later filmed with Louise Brooks doing the part of "Margaret O'Dell". (But apparently it has precious little to do with the actual case.) Dot was never called the Canary though, she was called "the Butterfly", something to do with the lightness with which she moved from one bed to another (if i understand it correctly). What this has got to do with being whittled from the bones of Cain, I don't know. Maybe it's not about her at all. As a matter of fact, when this song was being written and recorded (1995-1996), there was (in the States) a woman called Dorothy King on trial for murdering two of her young sons (her eldest son tipped the cops of.) Don't know if it's her either. She did a plea bargain and will probably be out any day now. Why don't you ask her? The rest of the people in this song are nowhere to be found. By the way, Gerrit Tijink points out that you can *slake* your thirst in a pond. I think that explains a lot, but it doesn't alter the fact that Tom sings "shake my thirst", and that's what it says in the song book too." (Submitted by Ulf Berggren. Tom Waits eGroups discussionlist, 2000).

⁽²⁾ Whittle: To reduce or eliminate gradually, as if by whittling with a knife (Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Houghton Mifflin - Third Edition)

⁽³⁾ Cain:
- 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 Dirt In The Ground: "Now Cain slew Abel, he killed him with a stone."

⁽⁴⁾ Bend: 1. n. [late 19C+] a drunken spree [abbr. bender] 2. [1960s] an experience created by a hallucinogenic drug [bent out of shape] (Source: "Cassell's Dictionary Of Slang". Jonathon Green. Cassel & Co., 1998. ISBN: 0-304-35167-9) 3. Around the bend: phr. [20C] mad, insane (around the twist, harpic), [old naut. jargon round the bend, mad; the image is one who is 'not straight'] (Source: "Cassell's Dictionary Of Slang". Jonathon Green. Cassel & Co., 1998. ISBN: 0-304-35167-9)

⁽⁵⁾ Yellow dog: An inferior or worthless person or thing (Source: Dictionary Of American Slang, Wentworth/ Flexner)