Tom Waits - I Can't Wait To Get Off Work (And See My Baby On Montgomery Avenue) Lyrics

Because of this song she leaves the porchlight on for me

I was hoping someone could give me some insight. In the last two lines "This broom will have to be my baby. If i hurry I just might get off before the dawn's early light" is he insinuating that he doesn't actually have a baby to go home too and he is just crooning about his desire to have someone to go home to or is he just working really late and misses his baby.

I think he's single. The broom, unfortunately is his inanimate girlfriend.

I worked in a small dive bar in the East Village in the late 80s and early 90s. This album was on the jukebox. I would play it after all had gone (4am) and I was counting cash and cleaning up. And yes, we even had a cigarette machine, which often had me simultaneously working with Tom "sweeping up over by the cigarette machine."
I remember while sweeping up I would often be pushing around change customers had dropped, saying to myself "This is all going in the trash, I made 500 bucks tonight, I don't have to stoop for nickels and dimes." But I would also occasionally say to myself "ooo a quarter!" and dig it out of the dust and butts to pocket.
This song transports me there. It was splendid there.

When I visited NYC I used to go to a dive bar, I think on D Ave in alphabet city. I remember a juke box there and I always played waits while there, small change in particular. This was in the early and mid 2000s. I don't remember the name of the place, but I always recalled, the beer was as cheap as it was down south. I bet this is the same place you worked.

Absolutely part of the Great American Songbook, along with 'I Wish I Was in New Orleans', 'Invitation to the Blues', most of Foreign Affairs and 'Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis' as an absolute minimum.

Mike Smith Such a great point. There are so many that would prop up that beautiful tome. Americans do justice to art in so many aspects, if they do nothing else. And Waits songs should be right up there in any serious songbook. For damn sure.

Note: Jerking off used to mean the same as slacking off. Waits is a big fan of using outdated terms.

No one does it better than Tom....

My most favorite song from my most favorite singer. Absolutely brilliant.

Tom do this, Tom do that. Tom, don't do that.

pearlynx1 my life everyday

this & ol 55 are beautiful Sunday morning driving home songs.

His first three or four albums were great. Then his voice changed.

Lorenzo1950 I found that while his voice changed hr still was the same old Tom. it's when the music changed a long with it and wasn't jazz anymore when he really changed

his last album bad as me is a masterpiece in my opinion

I still relate to this song ...every Friday n Saturday night.

Ela Lamblin
chasing the dollars to keep her I magazines. I know

Having the lyrics often helps a lot when listening to Waits.
Enjoy.
Lyrics
I don't mind working, 'cause I used to be jerking off most of my time in bars,
I've been a cabbie and a stock clerk and a soda-fountain jock-jerk
And a manic mechanic on cars.
It's nice work if you can get it, now who the hell said it?
I got money to spend on my gal,
But the work never stops, and I'll be busting my chops
Working for Joe and Sal.

And I can't wait to get off work and see my baby,
She said she'd leave the porch light on for me.
I'm disheveled and I'm disdainful and I'm distracted and it's painful,
But this job sweeping up here is gainfully employing me tonight.

Well "Tom, do this" and "Tom, do that", and "Tom, don't do that",
Count the cash, clean the oven, dump the trash,
Oh your loving is a rare and a copacetic gift,
And I'm a moonlight watch manic, it's hard to be romantic
Sweeping up over by the cigarette machine,
Sweeping up over by the cigarette machine...

I can't wait to get off work and see my baby
She'll be waiting up with a magazine for me.
Clean the bathrooms and clean 'em good, oh your loving I wish you would
Come down here and sweep a-me off my feet, this broom'll have to be my baby,
If I hurry, I just might get off before the dawn's early light.

Working on a saturday song : (

My saTurday song

Besides being the album that changed my brakes, and lubed my life, the fidelity of this straight to 2 track is fabulous. Thanks to the DJ on KSAN (S.F.) back in the mid seventies who decided to play the whole album with no breaks. Everyone listened to KSAN back then. Traffic, The Who, Santana, Van Morrison, The Doors, Tom Rush, Harvery Mandel, Cold Blood, Tower, you name them, KSAN played them. So, the next day at work, everybody was talking about Small Change. Everybody. 

What a great song. 

best song ever

Tom Waits reaches into that place inside of us to touch something with his gravel voice and flowing chords that few other vocalists can touch.

Thanks for posting this Tom Waits classic, which has some great jazz/rock chords in it. The sheet music for Waits' piano part (& the bass part) on "I Can't Wait To Get Off Work" can be found at manymidi.com/sheetmusic.htm - a note-for-note transcription.