Bone Machine

Infobox Album | Name = Bone Machine
Type = Album
Artist = Tom Waits


Released = August 1992
Recorded = Prairie Sun Recording, Cotati, California
Genre = Rock, Experimental
Length = 53:30
Label = Island
Producer = Joe Marquez
Tom Waits
Reviews =
* Allmusic Rating|4.5|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:uc0xlfae5cqi link]
*"Fast Folk" (favorable) Allen, Jim, [http://media.smithsonianfolkways.org/liner_notes/fast_folk/FFFF609.pdf "The Ten Best Albums of 1992"] , "Fast Folk Musical Magazine", 6:9-10, (February 1993) p.12-13]
*Rolling Stone Rating|4|5 [http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/tomwaits/albums/album/238612/review/5945634/bone_machine link] | Last album = "Night on Earth"
(1992)
This album = "Bone Machine"
(1992)
Next album = "The Early Years, Volume Two"
(1993)

"Bone Machine" is a critically acclaimed and award-winning album by Tom Waits, released in 1992 on Island Records. It won a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album, and features guest appearances by Primus's Les Claypool and The Rolling Stones' Keith Richards.

"Bone Machine" marked a return to studio material for Waits, coming a full five years after his previous studio album "Franks Wild Years" (1987). The album is often noted for its dark lyrical obsession with death and murders, and for its rough, stripped-down, percussion-heavy blues rock style.

Recording and production

"Bone Machine" was recorded and produced entirely at the Prairie Sun Recording studios in Cotati, California in a room of Studio X known as "the Waiting Room," in the old cement hatchery rooms of the cellar of the buildings.

Mark Rennick, Prairie Sun studio chief said:

[Waits] gravitated toward these 'echo' rooms and created the 'Bone Machine' aural landscape [...] What we like about Tom is that he is a musicologist. And he has a tremendous ear. His talent is a national treasure. [ cite web|url=http://www.metroactive.com/papers/sonoma/02.18.99/prairiesun1-9907.html|title=Dream Maker:Prairie Sun Recording Studio chief Mark Rennick is a musician's best friend|accessdate=2007-11-23|last= McDermid | first= Charles | publisher=MetroActive Music ]

Waits himself said of the bare-bones studio "I found a great room to work in, it's just a cement floor and a hot water heater. "Okay, we'll do it here. It's got some good echo." In interview with Brian Bannon for "Thrasher" magazine, February 1993; collected in "Innocent When You Dream" p.146 ]

Artwork

The cover photo, which consists of a blurred black-and-white, close-up image of Waits in a leather skullcap and protective goggles, was taken by Jesse Dylan, the son of music legend Bob Dylan. [ cite web|url=http://www.lib.ru/SONGS/whaits/waits92.txt|title= Bone Machine album credits| accessdate=2007-11-23|publisher=www.lib.ru| ] He wears this getup, along with a single biker's shoe and a woman's high heel, while riding a bicycle, in the music video for "I Don't Wanna Grow Up" - which also features Waits playing the song on a miniature stage, with a miniature guitar.

Covers and soundtracks

A number of the songs from "Bone Machine" have been used in a number of high profile movie Soundtracks, and have been covered by artists in varying genres.

Album opener "Earth Died Screaming" is featured in the 1995 film "Twelve Monkeys", while "Jesus Gonna Be Here" is featured in the 2005 film "Domino", in which Waits himself appears. "Goin' Out West" is featured in the 1999 film "Fight Club" and has been covered by Queens of the Stone Age, [cite web | url= http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/page/news/43414-qotsa-cover-tom-waits-elliott-smith-on-sick-single | title= QOTSA Cover Tom Waits, Elliott Smith on "Sick" Single | accessdate= 2007-11-25 | publisher= Pitchfork Media ] Gomez, Widespread Panic, and Australian band, The Dissociatives. "I Don't Wanna Grow Up" was covered by The Ramones for their last album "Adios Amigos", and by Petra Haden and Bill Frisell on their album collaboration "Petra Haden & Bill Frisell" (2003) with a recent version on Hayes Carll's Trouble In Mind (2008).

Track listing

Tracks written by Tom Waits, except where noted.

# "Earth Died Screaming" – 3:39
# "Dirt in the Ground" (Waits / Kathleen Brennan) – 4:08
# "Such a Scream" – 2:07
# "All Stripped Down" – 3:04
# "Who Are You" (Waits / Brennan) – 3:57
# "The Ocean Doesn't Want Me" – 1:51
# "Jesus Gonna Be Here" – 3:21
# "A Little Rain" (Waits / Brennan) – 2:58
# "In the Colosseum" (Waits / Brennan) – 4:50
# "Goin' Out West" (Waits / Brennan) – 3:19
# "Murder in the Red Barn" (Waits / Brennan) – 4:29
# "Black Wings" (Waits / Brennan) – 4:37
# "Whistle Down the Wind" – 4:36
# "I Don't Wanna Grow Up" (Waits / Brennan) – 2:31
# "Let Me Get Up On It" – 0:55 (Instrumental)
# "That Feel" (Keith Richards / Waits) – 3:11

Personnel

* Tom Waits - Vocals (all songs), Chamberlin (1,6,9), Percussion (1,3,4,5,6,15), Guitar (1,3,5,12,14,16), Sticks (1), Piano (2,13), Upright Bass (7), Conundrum (9), Drums (10,11,12,16)
* Brain - Drums (3,9)
* Kathleen Brennan - Sticks (1)
* Ralph Carney - Alto Sax (2,3), Tenor Sax (2,3), Bass Clarinet (2)
* Les Claypool - Electric Bass (1)
* Joe Gore - Guitar (4,10,12)
* David Hidalgo - Violin (13), Accordion (13)
* Joe Marquez - Sticks (1), Banjo (11)
* David Phillips - Pedal Steel Guitar (8,13), Steel Guitar (16)
* Keith Richards - Guitar (16), Vocal (16)
* Larry Taylor - Upright Bass (1,2,4,5,8,9,10,11,12,14,16), Guitar (7)
* Waddy Wachtel - Guitar (16)

Footnotes

References

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