Lyrics to
The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me)

This version of The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me) was released by Tom Waits in 1976.

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The piano has been drinking, my necktie 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
And the telephone’s 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 light man’s blind in one eye
And he can’t see out of the other
And the piano-tuner’s got a hearing aid, and he showed up with his mother
And the piano has been drinking, the piano has been drinking
As the bouncer is a Sumo wrestler cream-puff casper milktoast
And the owner is a mental midget with the I.Q. of a fence post
‘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 ash-trays have retired
‘Cause 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

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Tom Waits has released many songs over the years besides The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me). Tom Waits released songs from 1973 to 2004 spanning across albums like Closing Time, The Heart Of Saturday Night, Nighthawks At The Diner, Small Change, Foreign Affairs, Blue Valentine, Heartattack And Vine, Swordfishtrombones, Rain Dogs, Franks Wild Years, The Early Years Vol. 1, Bone Machine, The Black Rider, The Early Years Vol. 2, Mule Variations, Blood Money, Alice, and Real Gone. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Tom Waits.

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About Lyrics and The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me) by Tom Waits

When you decide to study the lyrics to The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me), you're looking at the words, verses and background chorus from the 1976 song by Tom Waits. Some of the lyrics to The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me) have clear meanings and some contain metaphorical references. Like most songs, only Tom Waits and their collaborators know the full story behind any of the their songs.

You can understand the lyrics to The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me) if you take apart the structure of the words. The word "lyric" itself derives from the Latin word lyricus, with the actual English word lyrics applied to the definition "words set to music" listed in Stainer and Barrett's 1876 Dictionary of Musical Terms. Continuing the chain, the Latin word lyricus derives from the Greek word λυρικός or lyrikós. This somewhat means "poetry accompanied by the lyre" or "words set to music." You can easily see that by looking at the background of the word lyric, that the "lyrics to The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me)" means the words set to the music of The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me), or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by Tom Waits. The singular form "lyric" is still used to mean the complete words to a song. However, the singular form lyric is also commonly used to refer to a specific line (or phrase) within a song's lyrics. Hence, by this analysis of word structure, you could say that the lyric to The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me) and the lyrics to The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me) are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of Tom Waits who came here looking just for the lyrics to The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me), but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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