  The concepts, which have traditionally been useful in understanding the
effects of the electron--phonon interaction in optical spectroscopy, are based
on insights obtained within the infinite electronic band approximation and no
longer apply in finite band metals. Impurity and phonon contributions to
electron scattering are not additive and the apparent strength of the coupling
to the phonon degrees of freedom is substantially reduced with increased
elastic scattering. The optical mass renormalization changes sign with
increasing frequency and the optical scattering rate never reaches its high
frequency quasiparticle value which itself is also reduced below its infinite
band value.
