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* IncrediblyLamePun: "Jitterbug Boy"
--> ''Well, I'm a jitterbug boy by the shoe-shine''
--> ''Resting on my [[Creator/LaurelAndHardy laurels and my Hardy's]] too.''
--> ''Well, I'm a jitterbug boy by the shoe-shine''
--> ''Resting on my [[Creator/LaurelAndHardy laurels and my Hardy's]] too.''
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* {{Pun}}: "Jitterbug Boy"
--> ''Well, I'm a jitterbug boy by the shoe-shine''
--> ''Resting on my [[Creator/LaurelAndHardy laurels and my Hardy's]] too.''
--> ''Well, I'm a jitterbug boy by the shoe-shine''
--> ''Resting on my [[Creator/LaurelAndHardy laurels and my Hardy's]] too.''
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Trope was cut/disambiguated due to cleanup
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''Small Change'' is the fourth studio album by Music/TomWaits. Released in 1976 through Asylum Records, it's best known for the audience favorites "Tom Traubert's Blues", "Step Right Up", "The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me)", "Invitation to the Blues", "Pasties And A G-String" and the title track. Waits' third album was an important turning point in his career, as he became more confident as an artist. Here we can seem him gradually change into the comically GutturalGrowler he is most famous for today.
to:
''Small Change'' is the fourth studio album by Music/TomWaits. Released in 1976 through Asylum Records, it's best known for the audience favorites "Tom Traubert's Blues", "Step Right Up", "The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me)", "Invitation to the Blues", "Pasties And A G-String" and the title track. Waits' third album was an important turning point in his career, as he became more confident as an artist. Here we can seem him gradually change into the comically GutturalGrowler deep voice guy he is most famous for today.
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* GutturalGrowler: From this album on Waits started to evolve in the gravelly voiced singer he is today.
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Wick removal.
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%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.
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''Small Change'' is a 1976 album by Music/TomWaits, best known for the audience favorites "Tom Traubert's Blues", "Step Right Up", "The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me)", "Invitation to the Blues", "Pasties And A G-String" and the title track. Waits' third album was an important turning point in his career, as he became more confident as an artist. Here we can seem him gradually change into the comically GutturalGrowler he is most famous for today.
to:
''Small Change'' is a 1976 the fourth studio album by Music/TomWaits, Music/TomWaits. Released in 1976 through Asylum Records, it's best known for the audience favorites "Tom Traubert's Blues", "Step Right Up", "The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me)", "Invitation to the Blues", "Pasties And A G-String" and the title track. Waits' third album was an important turning point in his career, as he became more confident as an artist. Here we can seem him gradually change into the comically GutturalGrowler he is most famous for today.
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Overly Long Title has been disambiguated
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* LongTitle: "Jitterbug Boy" is crazy long if you count the parenthetical.
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* OverlyLongTitle: Most of the titles are very long and even have undertitles between brackets.
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* MsFanservice: The stripper on the album cover.
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* MsFanservice: The stripper on the album cover.cover, who is wearing [[TitleDrop pasties and a g-string]].
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[numlist:6]
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to:
[/numlist]
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** "I Wish I Was In New Orleans" namedrops "When The Saints Go Marching On".
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** "I Wish I Was In New Orleans" namedrops "When The Saints Go Marching On".In".
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* SomethingBlues: "Tom Traubert's Blues" and "Invitation To The Blues". "Pasties On A G-String" also mentions "car keys blues".
to:
* SomethingBlues: "Tom Traubert's Blues" and "Invitation To The Blues". "Pasties On A and a G-String" also mentions "car keys blues".
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* DreadfulMusician: Alluded to during "Pasties On A G-String"
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* DreadfulMusician: Alluded to during "Pasties On A and a G-String"
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Per TRS
, this is YMMV
, this is YMMVDeleted line(s) 87 (click to see context) :
* RefrainFromAssuming: "Tom Traubert's Blues (Four Sheets to the Wind in Copenhagen)" is often erroneously called "Waltzing Matilda" because it uses that song as its chorus. Waits is fond of concept albums, and the title only makes sense in that context; it's just never explained in the song itself. Most of the songs on that album also have alternate or expanded titles in parentheses.
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** In the ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' episode ''Film/FireMaidensFromOuterSpace'' Joel quotes "Step Right Up" in a sketch.
to:
** In the ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' episode ''Film/FireMaidensFromOuterSpace'' ''Film/FireMaidensOfOuterSpace'' Joel quotes "Step Right Up" in a sketch.
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** "Jitterbug Boy" namedrops Creator/LaurelAndHardy, Creator/MarilynMonroe, boxer Rocky Marciano, Music/LouisArmstrong and Mickey Mantle. Also mentions [[Film/TheHustler Minnesota Fats]] and [[Music/JohnnyCash The Wabash Cannonball]].
to:
** "Jitterbug Boy" namedrops Creator/LaurelAndHardy, Creator/MarilynMonroe, boxer Rocky Marciano, Music/LouisArmstrong and Mickey Mantle. Also mentions [[Film/TheHustler [[Film/TheHustler1961 Minnesota Fats]] and [[Music/JohnnyCash The Wabash Cannonball]].
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* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: "Step Right Up" advocates a miracle cure which "gives you an [[RagingStiffie erection]], it wins the election".
to:
%% * GettingCrapPastTheRadar: "Step Right Up" advocates a miracle cure which "gives GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you an [[RagingStiffie erection]], it wins are reading this in the election". future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.
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Minor addition.
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* ImmediateSelfContradiction: "Invitation To The Blues": nobody would want to be invited to the blues.
to:
* ImmediateSelfContradiction: "Invitation To The Blues": nobody would want to be invited to the blues. Although in this case it's more 'knowing it'll suck and doing it anyway'.
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* ClicheStorm: "Step Right Up" is mostly a collection of advertising catchphrases and cliches.
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* ClicheStorm: "Step Right Up" is mostly a collection of advertising catchphrases and cliches.
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circular link
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** ''Film/AFistfulOfDollars'' can't change the fact that ''Music/SmallChange'' got rained on with his own .38.
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** ''Film/AFistfulOfDollars'' can't change the fact that ''Music/SmallChange'' Small Change got rained on with his own .38.
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** "Jitterbug Boy" namedrops Creator/LaurelAndHardy, Creator/MarilynMonroe, boxer Rocky Marciano, Music/LouisArmstrong and Mickey Mantle.
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** "Jitterbug Boy" namedrops Creator/LaurelAndHardy, Creator/MarilynMonroe, boxer Rocky Marciano, Music/LouisArmstrong and Mickey Mantle. Also mentions [[Film/TheHustler Minnesota Fats]] and [[Music/JohnnyCash The Wabash Cannonball]].
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How To Create A Works Page explicitly says "No bolding is used for work titles."
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'''Small Change''' is a 1976 album by Music/TomWaits, best known for the audience favorites "Tom Traubert's Blues", "Step Right Up", "The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me)", "Invitation to the Blues", "Pasties And A G-String" and the title track. Waits' third album was an important turning point in his career, as he became more confident as an artist. Here we can seem him gradually change into the comically GutturalGrowler he is most famous for today.
'''Tracklist'''
'''Tracklist'''
to:
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# "I Wish I Was In New Orleans (In the Ninth Ward)" (4:53)
# "The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me) (An Evening with Pete King)" (3:40)
# "The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me) (An Evening with Pete King)" (3:40)
to:
# "I Wish I Was In in New Orleans (In the Ninth Ward)" (4:53)
# "The PianoHas has Been Drinking (Not Me) (An Evening with Pete King)" (3:40)
# "The Piano
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# "I Can't Wait To Get Off Work (And See My Baby On Montgomery Avenue)" (3:l7)
'''Personnel'''
'''Personnel'''
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# "I Can't Wait To to Get Off Work (And See My Baby On on Montgomery Avenue)" (3:l7)
'''Personnel'''!! Personnel
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** "Invitation To The Blues" was used in the opening credits of the CultClassic ''Film/BadTiming''.
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** "Invitation To The Blues" was used in the opening credits of the CultClassic cult film ''Film/BadTiming''.
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** "Invitation To The Blues" was used in the opening credits of the CultClassic ''Film/BadTiming''.
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'''Side 1'''
to:
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'''Side 2'''
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[[caption-width-right:350: And it's a battered old suitcase to a hotel someplace, and a wound that will never heal.]]
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[[caption-width-right:350: And ''And it's a battered old suitcase to a hotel someplace, and a wound that will never heal.]]
'']]
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!! Tracklist
to:
'''Side 1'''
'''Side 2'''
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!! Personnel
# Music/TomWaits: vocals, piano
# Jim Hughart: bass
# Ed Lustgarten: cello, orchestra manager string
# Shelly Manne: drums
# Lew Tabackin: tenor saxophone
# Jerry Yester: arranger & conductor of string section.
# Music/TomWaits: vocals, piano
# Jim Hughart: bass
# Ed Lustgarten: cello, orchestra manager string
# Shelly Manne: drums
# Lew Tabackin: tenor saxophone
# Jerry Yester: arranger & conductor of string section.
to:
#
* Music/TomWaits: vocals, piano
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* MedicineShow: Waits plays a medicine show trickster during "Step Right Up".
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* PatterSong: "Step Right Up" is basically Waits ranting the benefits of some miracle medicine.
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* PatterSong: "Step Right Up" is basically Waits ranting about the benefits of some miracle medicine.
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* TheAlcoholic: "Bad Liver & A Broken Heart", "The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me)".
to:
* TheAlcoholic: TheAlcoholic:
** "Bad Liver & A BrokenHeart", Heart"
--> ''And I don't have a drinking problem, except when I can't get a drink''.
** "The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me)".
** "Bad Liver & A Broken
--> ''And I don't have a drinking problem, except when I can't get a drink''.
** "The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me)".
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* BadassBoast: "Jitterbug Boy".
to:
* BadassBoast: "Jitterbug Boy".Boy"
--> ''I seen the Wabash Cannonball, buddy, I've done it all''
--> ''Because I slept with the lions and Creator/MarilynMonroe''
--> ''Had breakfast in the eye of a hurricane''
--> ''Fought Rocky Marciano, played Minnesota Fats''
--> ''Burned hundred-dollar bills, I eaten Mulligan stew''
--> ''And got drunk with Music/LouisArmstrong, what's that old song?''
--> ''I taught Mickey Mantle everything that he knows''
--> ''I seen the Wabash Cannonball, buddy, I've done it all''
--> ''Because I slept with the lions and Creator/MarilynMonroe''
--> ''Had breakfast in the eye of a hurricane''
--> ''Fought Rocky Marciano, played Minnesota Fats''
--> ''Burned hundred-dollar bills, I eaten Mulligan stew''
--> ''And got drunk with Music/LouisArmstrong, what's that old song?''
--> ''I taught Mickey Mantle everything that he knows''
--> ''Well, I got a bad liver and a broken heart''
--> ''Yeah, I drunk me a river since you tore me apart''
--> ''Yeah, I drunk me a river since you tore me apart''
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* DrowningMySorrows: "Bad Liver and a Broken Heart", "The Piano Has Been Drinking", "Invitation To The Blues".
to:
* DreadfulMusician: Alluded to during "Pasties On A G-String"
--> ''And the band is awful and so are the tunes''
* DrowningMySorrows: "Bad Liver and a Broken Heart", "The Piano Has Been Drinking", "Invitation To TheBlues".Blues" all adress miserable alcoholics.
--> ''And the band is awful and so are the tunes''
* DrowningMySorrows: "Bad Liver and a Broken Heart", "The Piano Has Been Drinking", "Invitation To The
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* PatterSong: "Step Right Up".
to:
* PatterSong: "Step Right Up".Up" is basically Waits ranting the benefits of some miracle medicine.
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* SomethingBlues: "Tom Traubert's Blues", "Invitation To The Blues".
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* SomethingBlues: "Tom Traubert's Blues", Blues" and "Invitation To The Blues".Blues". "Pasties On A G-String" also mentions "car keys blues".
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* YouCanLeaveYourHatOn: "Pasties and a G-String" is a rambunctious ode to burleque strippers.
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* YouCanLeaveYourHatOn: "Pasties and a G-String" is a rambunctious ode to burleque strippers.burlesque strippers.
-->''Strip tease, prick tease, car keys blues''
-->''And the porno floor show, live nude girls,''
-->''Dreamy and creamy and brunette curls''
-->''Chesty Morgan and Watermelon Rose''
-->''Raise my rent and take off all your clothes''
-->''With trench coats, magazines, a bottle full of rum,''
-->''She's so good, make a dead man come''
-->''Strip tease, prick tease, car keys blues''
-->''And the porno floor show, live nude girls,''
-->''Dreamy and creamy and brunette curls''
-->''Chesty Morgan and Watermelon Rose''
-->''Raise my rent and take off all your clothes''
-->''With trench coats, magazines, a bottle full of rum,''
-->''She's so good, make a dead man come''
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* FaceOnTheCover: Tom Waits, backstage in a dressing room.
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* LongTitle: "Jitterbug Boy" is crazy long if you count the parenthetical.
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* YouCanLeaveYourHatOn: "Pasties and a G-String" is a rambunctious ode to burleque strippers.
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* TimeMarchesOn: In the song "Tom Traubert's Blues" Waits sings: "And the maverick Chinamen", a word that nowadays would no longer be considered politically correct.
to:
* TimeMarchesOn: In the song "Tom Traubert's Blues" Waits sings: "And the maverick Chinamen", Chinaman", a word that nowadays would no longer be considered politically correct.
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[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tomwaits_smallchange_7880.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350: And it's a battered old suitcase to a hotel someplace, and a wound that will never heal.]]
'''Small Change''' is a 1976 album by Music/TomWaits, best known for the audience favorites "Tom Traubert's Blues", "Step Right Up", "The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me)", "Invitation to the Blues", "Pasties And A G-String" and the title track. Waits' third album was an important turning point in his career, as he became more confident as an artist. Here we can seem him gradually change into the comically GutturalGrowler he is most famous for today.
!! Tracklist
# "Tom Traubert's Blues (Four Sheets to the Wind in Copenhagen)" (6:39)
# "Step Right Up" (5:43)
# "Jitterbug Boy (Sharing A Curbstone with Chuck E. Weiss, Robert Marchese, Paul Body and the Mug and Artie) (3:44)
# "I Wish I Was In New Orleans (In the Ninth Ward)" (4:53)
# "The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me) (An Evening with Pete King)" (3:40)
# "Invitation to the Blues" (5:24)
# "Pasties and a G-String (At the Two O' Clock Club)" (2:32)
# "Bad Liver and a Broken Heart (In Lowell)" (4:50)
# "The One That Got Away" (4:07)
# "Small Change (Got Rained On With His Own 38)" (5:07)
# "I Can't Wait To Get Off Work (And See My Baby On Montgomery Avenue)" (3:l7)
!! Personnel
# Music/TomWaits: vocals, piano
# Jim Hughart: bass
# Ed Lustgarten: cello, orchestra manager string
# Shelly Manne: drums
# Lew Tabackin: tenor saxophone
# Jerry Yester: arranger & conductor of string section.
!! Tropes And A G-String
* AlbumTitleDrop: "Small Change"
--> ''Small Change got rained on with his own .38.''
* TheAlcoholic: "Bad Liver & A Broken Heart", "The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me)".
* AlliterativeName and AlliterativeTitle: "'''T'''om '''T'''raubert's Blues".
* BadassBoast: "Jitterbug Boy".
* BreakUpSong: "Bad Liver & A Broken Heart".
* CallBack and ContinuityNod: The title track of "Small Change" had been referenced on Waits' previous album ''Music/TheHeartOfSaturdayNight'' during the final song "The Ghosts of Saturday Night":
--> ''And a solitary sailor''
--> ''Who spends the facts of his life like '''small change''' on strangers''
--> ''Paws his inside P-coat pocket for a welcome twenty-five cents''.
* CradleOfLoneliness: Much like Waits' earlier two albums he presents a world of lonely drunks, prostitutes, strippers and small-time losers.
* DrowningMySorrows: "Bad Liver and a Broken Heart", "The Piano Has Been Drinking", "Invitation To The Blues".
* DrunkenSong: "The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me)", "Bad Liver & Broken Heart", which has the line:
--> ''And I don't have a drinking problem, except when I can't get a drink.''
* EitherOrTitle: Most of the songs are titled this way - for instance, "Tom Traubert's Blues (Four Sheets To The Wind In Copenhagen)".
* GayParee: "Pasties And A G-String":
--> ''Wrinkles and Cherry and Twinkie and Pinkie and Fifi live from Gay Paree.''
* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: "Step Right Up" advocates a miracle cure which "gives you an [[RagingStiffie erection]], it wins the election".
* GreasySpoon: "Invitation to the Blues" is set in a greasy spoon, and deals with the narrator's infatuation with a waitress there.
* GutturalGrowler: From this album on Waits started to evolve in the gravelly voiced singer he is today.
* HaveAGayOldTime: "I Can't Wait To Get Off Work And See My Baby" is one of the more egregious examples, using "jerk off" to mean "slack off".
* HeadsOrTails: "Jitterbug Boy".
--> ''Flippin' this quarter trying to make up my mind''
--> ''And if it's heads I'll go to Tennessee, and tails I'll buy a drink''
--> ''If it lands on the edge I'll keep talking to you.''
* HollywoodToneDeaf: For "The Piano Has Been Drinking" Waits lapses into this with both his vocals and the instruments (including numerous missed piano cues), all done intentionally to give the idea that the singer is drunk.
* ImmediateSelfContradiction: "Invitation To The Blues": nobody would want to be invited to the blues.
* IncrediblyLamePun: "Jitterbug Boy"
--> ''Well, I'm a jitterbug boy by the shoe-shine''
--> ''Resting on my [[Creator/LaurelAndHardy laurels and my Hardy's]] too.''
* LipstickMark: "Step Right Up", the product being sold (whatever it is) "gets rid of unwanted lipstick on your collar."
* MsFanservice: The stripper on the album cover.
* MurderBallad: "Small Change" about a man who got shot.
* NewSoundAlbum: The atmosphere is similar to Waits' previous ''drunk pianist'' albums, but more playful in the vocal delivery. "Pasties And A G-String" has a very minimal musical arrangement that makes the song stand out between the other bar piano numbers.
* OdeToSobriety: "The Piano Has Been Drinking" is a comedic example.
* TheOneThatGotAway: One song is literally titled that way, although it's more about the life of the protagonist after the one that got away left.
* OverlyLongTitle: Most of the titles are very long and even have undertitles between brackets.
* PatterSong: "Step Right Up".
* RealLifeWritesThePlot: "I Can't Wait to Get Off Work (And See My Baby on Montgomery Avenue)" is about Waits' first job at a pizza house in San Diego where he started to work at age 16. "Four Sheets to the Wind in Copenhagen" is about a meeting in Copenhagen, 1976, where he met Danish singer Mathilde Bondo and allegedly was the protagonist in the number itself. Tom Traubert was someone Waits knew who died in prison.
* RefrainFromAssuming: "Tom Traubert's Blues (Four Sheets to the Wind in Copenhagen)" is often erroneously called "Waltzing Matilda" because it uses that song as its chorus. Waits is fond of concept albums, and the title only makes sense in that context; it's just never explained in the song itself. Most of the songs on that album also have alternate or expanded titles in parentheses.
* ShoutOut:
** "Step Right Up" namedrops the song "See You Later Alligator".
** "Jitterbug Boy" namedrops Creator/LaurelAndHardy, Creator/MarilynMonroe, boxer Rocky Marciano, Music/LouisArmstrong and Mickey Mantle.
** "I Wish I Was In New Orleans" namedrops "When The Saints Go Marching On".
** "Invitation To The Blues" has the following line:
--> ''And you feel just like [[Creator/JamesCagney Cagney]], she looks like [[Creator/RitaHayworth Rita Hayworth]].''
** "Pasties And A G-String" namedrops Al Cohn and Chesty Morgan.
** ''Film/AFistfulOfDollars'' can't change the fact that ''Music/SmallChange'' got rained on with his own .38.
** "I Can't Get Wait To Get Off Work" namedrops the song "Nice Work If You Can Get It".
--> ''It's nice work if you can get it, now who the hell said it?''
** "The One That Got Away" tells us: "He got a snakeskin sport shirt and he looks like Creator/VincentPrice."
** In the ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' episode ''Film/FireMaidensFromOuterSpace'' Joel quotes "Step Right Up" in a sketch.
** ''WebVideo/ToddinTheShadows'': In his ''Your Love is my Drug'' review, a snippet of ''[[Music/TomWaits The Piano Has been Drinking]]'' from ''Music/SmallChange'' plays after Todd drunkenly passes out.
* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: The songs were far more cynical than Waits' previous output. "Tom Traubert's Blues".
* SnakeOilSalesman: He plays one in "Step Right Up" from ''Music/SmallChange'' cramming as many AdvertisingTropes as possible into hawking a product.
* SomethingBlues: "Tom Traubert's Blues", "Invitation To The Blues".
* StockSoundEffects: At the start of "Small Change" Waits can be heard striking a match to light a cigarette.
* StylisticSuck: "The Piano Has Been Drinking" is played on an off-key piano while Tom sings in a ludicrous voice.
* SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: At the end of [[spoiler: "The Piano's Been Drinking" the ''entire song'' is revealed to be one.]]
* TimeMarchesOn: In the song "Tom Traubert's Blues" Waits sings: "And the maverick Chinamen", a word that nowadays would no longer be considered politically correct.
* TooDumbToLive: "The Piano Has Been Drinking":
--> ''And the owner is a mental midget with the I.Q. of a lamp post.''
* WordSaladLyrics: "The Piano Has Been Drinking" from ''Music/SmallChange'', but then again the singer is drunk out of his mind, so no wonder.
----
[[caption-width-right:350: And it's a battered old suitcase to a hotel someplace, and a wound that will never heal.]]
'''Small Change''' is a 1976 album by Music/TomWaits, best known for the audience favorites "Tom Traubert's Blues", "Step Right Up", "The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me)", "Invitation to the Blues", "Pasties And A G-String" and the title track. Waits' third album was an important turning point in his career, as he became more confident as an artist. Here we can seem him gradually change into the comically GutturalGrowler he is most famous for today.
!! Tracklist
# "Tom Traubert's Blues (Four Sheets to the Wind in Copenhagen)" (6:39)
# "Step Right Up" (5:43)
# "Jitterbug Boy (Sharing A Curbstone with Chuck E. Weiss, Robert Marchese, Paul Body and the Mug and Artie) (3:44)
# "I Wish I Was In New Orleans (In the Ninth Ward)" (4:53)
# "The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me) (An Evening with Pete King)" (3:40)
# "Invitation to the Blues" (5:24)
# "Pasties and a G-String (At the Two O' Clock Club)" (2:32)
# "Bad Liver and a Broken Heart (In Lowell)" (4:50)
# "The One That Got Away" (4:07)
# "Small Change (Got Rained On With His Own 38)" (5:07)
# "I Can't Wait To Get Off Work (And See My Baby On Montgomery Avenue)" (3:l7)
!! Personnel
# Music/TomWaits: vocals, piano
# Jim Hughart: bass
# Ed Lustgarten: cello, orchestra manager string
# Shelly Manne: drums
# Lew Tabackin: tenor saxophone
# Jerry Yester: arranger & conductor of string section.
!! Tropes And A G-String
* AlbumTitleDrop: "Small Change"
--> ''Small Change got rained on with his own .38.''
* TheAlcoholic: "Bad Liver & A Broken Heart", "The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me)".
* AlliterativeName and AlliterativeTitle: "'''T'''om '''T'''raubert's Blues".
* BadassBoast: "Jitterbug Boy".
* BreakUpSong: "Bad Liver & A Broken Heart".
* CallBack and ContinuityNod: The title track of "Small Change" had been referenced on Waits' previous album ''Music/TheHeartOfSaturdayNight'' during the final song "The Ghosts of Saturday Night":
--> ''And a solitary sailor''
--> ''Who spends the facts of his life like '''small change''' on strangers''
--> ''Paws his inside P-coat pocket for a welcome twenty-five cents''.
* CradleOfLoneliness: Much like Waits' earlier two albums he presents a world of lonely drunks, prostitutes, strippers and small-time losers.
* DrowningMySorrows: "Bad Liver and a Broken Heart", "The Piano Has Been Drinking", "Invitation To The Blues".
* DrunkenSong: "The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me)", "Bad Liver & Broken Heart", which has the line:
--> ''And I don't have a drinking problem, except when I can't get a drink.''
* EitherOrTitle: Most of the songs are titled this way - for instance, "Tom Traubert's Blues (Four Sheets To The Wind In Copenhagen)".
* GayParee: "Pasties And A G-String":
--> ''Wrinkles and Cherry and Twinkie and Pinkie and Fifi live from Gay Paree.''
* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: "Step Right Up" advocates a miracle cure which "gives you an [[RagingStiffie erection]], it wins the election".
* GreasySpoon: "Invitation to the Blues" is set in a greasy spoon, and deals with the narrator's infatuation with a waitress there.
* GutturalGrowler: From this album on Waits started to evolve in the gravelly voiced singer he is today.
* HaveAGayOldTime: "I Can't Wait To Get Off Work And See My Baby" is one of the more egregious examples, using "jerk off" to mean "slack off".
* HeadsOrTails: "Jitterbug Boy".
--> ''Flippin' this quarter trying to make up my mind''
--> ''And if it's heads I'll go to Tennessee, and tails I'll buy a drink''
--> ''If it lands on the edge I'll keep talking to you.''
* HollywoodToneDeaf: For "The Piano Has Been Drinking" Waits lapses into this with both his vocals and the instruments (including numerous missed piano cues), all done intentionally to give the idea that the singer is drunk.
* ImmediateSelfContradiction: "Invitation To The Blues": nobody would want to be invited to the blues.
* IncrediblyLamePun: "Jitterbug Boy"
--> ''Well, I'm a jitterbug boy by the shoe-shine''
--> ''Resting on my [[Creator/LaurelAndHardy laurels and my Hardy's]] too.''
* LipstickMark: "Step Right Up", the product being sold (whatever it is) "gets rid of unwanted lipstick on your collar."
* MsFanservice: The stripper on the album cover.
* MurderBallad: "Small Change" about a man who got shot.
* NewSoundAlbum: The atmosphere is similar to Waits' previous ''drunk pianist'' albums, but more playful in the vocal delivery. "Pasties And A G-String" has a very minimal musical arrangement that makes the song stand out between the other bar piano numbers.
* OdeToSobriety: "The Piano Has Been Drinking" is a comedic example.
* TheOneThatGotAway: One song is literally titled that way, although it's more about the life of the protagonist after the one that got away left.
* OverlyLongTitle: Most of the titles are very long and even have undertitles between brackets.
* PatterSong: "Step Right Up".
* RealLifeWritesThePlot: "I Can't Wait to Get Off Work (And See My Baby on Montgomery Avenue)" is about Waits' first job at a pizza house in San Diego where he started to work at age 16. "Four Sheets to the Wind in Copenhagen" is about a meeting in Copenhagen, 1976, where he met Danish singer Mathilde Bondo and allegedly was the protagonist in the number itself. Tom Traubert was someone Waits knew who died in prison.
* RefrainFromAssuming: "Tom Traubert's Blues (Four Sheets to the Wind in Copenhagen)" is often erroneously called "Waltzing Matilda" because it uses that song as its chorus. Waits is fond of concept albums, and the title only makes sense in that context; it's just never explained in the song itself. Most of the songs on that album also have alternate or expanded titles in parentheses.
* ShoutOut:
** "Step Right Up" namedrops the song "See You Later Alligator".
** "Jitterbug Boy" namedrops Creator/LaurelAndHardy, Creator/MarilynMonroe, boxer Rocky Marciano, Music/LouisArmstrong and Mickey Mantle.
** "I Wish I Was In New Orleans" namedrops "When The Saints Go Marching On".
** "Invitation To The Blues" has the following line:
--> ''And you feel just like [[Creator/JamesCagney Cagney]], she looks like [[Creator/RitaHayworth Rita Hayworth]].''
** "Pasties And A G-String" namedrops Al Cohn and Chesty Morgan.
** ''Film/AFistfulOfDollars'' can't change the fact that ''Music/SmallChange'' got rained on with his own .38.
** "I Can't Get Wait To Get Off Work" namedrops the song "Nice Work If You Can Get It".
--> ''It's nice work if you can get it, now who the hell said it?''
** "The One That Got Away" tells us: "He got a snakeskin sport shirt and he looks like Creator/VincentPrice."
** In the ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' episode ''Film/FireMaidensFromOuterSpace'' Joel quotes "Step Right Up" in a sketch.
** ''WebVideo/ToddinTheShadows'': In his ''Your Love is my Drug'' review, a snippet of ''[[Music/TomWaits The Piano Has been Drinking]]'' from ''Music/SmallChange'' plays after Todd drunkenly passes out.
* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: The songs were far more cynical than Waits' previous output. "Tom Traubert's Blues".
* SnakeOilSalesman: He plays one in "Step Right Up" from ''Music/SmallChange'' cramming as many AdvertisingTropes as possible into hawking a product.
* SomethingBlues: "Tom Traubert's Blues", "Invitation To The Blues".
* StockSoundEffects: At the start of "Small Change" Waits can be heard striking a match to light a cigarette.
* StylisticSuck: "The Piano Has Been Drinking" is played on an off-key piano while Tom sings in a ludicrous voice.
* SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: At the end of [[spoiler: "The Piano's Been Drinking" the ''entire song'' is revealed to be one.]]
* TimeMarchesOn: In the song "Tom Traubert's Blues" Waits sings: "And the maverick Chinamen", a word that nowadays would no longer be considered politically correct.
* TooDumbToLive: "The Piano Has Been Drinking":
--> ''And the owner is a mental midget with the I.Q. of a lamp post.''
* WordSaladLyrics: "The Piano Has Been Drinking" from ''Music/SmallChange'', but then again the singer is drunk out of his mind, so no wonder.
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