Perfecte uitbeelding van een dronkelap in een verlopen kroeg, ergens in de rosse buurt. De piano imiteert de onzekere gang van iemand die een paar glazen (of een halve liter) bourbon teveel op heeft, en de tekst zit vol prachtige beelden: The jukebox has to take a leak/And the carpet needs a haircut.
De song dateert uit 1976, toen Tom Waits zélf een serieus drankprobleem had. Tom is inmiddels alweer 30 jaar van de drank af, maar gemakkelijk was het niet: “Oh, you know, it was tough. I went to AA. I’m in the program. I’m clean and sober. Hooray. But, it was a struggle…Nah. Not the way I was drinking. No, I’m happy to be sober. Happy to be alive. I found myself in some places I can’t believe I made it out of alive.”
The piano has been drinking
My neck tie is asleep
And the combo went back to New York
The jukebox has to take a leak
And the carpet needs a haircut
And the spotlight looks like a prison break
Cause the telephone is out of cigarettes
And the balcony is on the make
And the piano has been drinking
The piano has been drinking
And the menus are all freezing
And the lightman’s blind in one eye
And he can’t see out of the other
And the piano tuner’s got a hearing aid
And showed up with his mother
And the piano has been drinking
The piano has been drinking
Cause the bouncer is a Sumo wrestler
Cream-puff casper milquetoast
And the owner is a mental midget with the I.Q. of a fencepost
Cause the piano has been drinking
The piano has been drinking
And you can’t find your waitress
With a Geiger counter
And she hates you and your friends
And you just can’t get served
Without her
And the box-office is drooling
And the bar stools are on fire
And the newspapers were fooling
And the ashtrays have retired
And the piano has been drinking
The piano has been drinking
The piano has been drinking
Not me, not me, not me, not me, not me
uitgelichte afbeelding: By Published by Asylum Records. Photographer uncredited and unknown. – Scan via Heritage Auctions. Cropped and retouched by uploader; see upload history below for unretouched original. Additional info about the photo via the Tom Waits Library (see P49750087)., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=99879626
