The song has been described as "[inhabiting] that late-night hades, the club where you can't find a waitress, 'even with a Geiger counter'; where 'the spotlight looks like a prison break' and the owner has 'the IQ of a fence post.
"[3] Waits performed the song, in truncated form, on the short-lived US television show, Fernwood 2 Night in 1977, during the promotion for Small Change.
The appearance also included a short skit in interview form, premised on a broken-down tour bus, during which Waits asks to borrow money from hosts Martin Mull and Fred Willard.
"[2] Bill Janovitz, writing for Allmusic, wrote that the song "deflates the myth that there is glory in a life on the road, the darker reality of Kerouac's romanticizing, but it does so without being didactic or even very serious.
"[6] The song has twice been covered by Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks, for his albums Beatin' The Heat (2000) and Alive & Lickin' (2001).