Bone Machine

''Bone Machine'' is the eleventh studio album by American singer and musician Tom Waits, released by Island Records on September 8, 1992. It won a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album and features guest appearances by David Hidalgo, Les Claypool, Brain, and Keith Richards. The album marked Waits' return to studio albums, coming five years after his previous effort ''Franks Wild Years'' (1987).

Recorded in a room in the cellar area of Prairie Sun Recording studios, described by Waits as "just a cement floor and a hot water heater", the album is often noted for its rough, stripped-down, percussion-heavy style, as well as its dark lyrical themes revolving around death and chaos. The album covera blurry, black-and-white, close-up image of Waits apparently screaming while wearing a horned skullcap and protective goggleswas taken by filmmaker Jesse Dylan, son of Bob Dylan.

Recording and production

''Bone Machine'' was recorded and produced entirely at the Prairie Sun Recording studios in Cotati, California, in a room of Studio C known as "the Waits Room", located in the old cement hatchery rooms of the cellar of the buildings. Prairie Sun's studio head Mark "Mooka" Rennick said, " aitsgravitated 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."

Waits 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."Interview with Brian Bannon for ''Thrasher'' magazine, February 1993; collected in ''Innocent When You Dream'' p.146 References to the recording environment and process were made in the field-recorded interview segments made for the promotional CD release, ''Bone Machine: The Operator's Manual'', which threaded together full studio tracks and conversation for a pre-recorded radio show format.

''Bone Machine'' was the first Waits album on which he played drums and percussion extensively. In 1992, Waits stated: "I like to play drums when I'm angry. At home I have a metal instrument called a conundrum with a lot of things hanging off it that I've found - metal objects - and I like playing it with a hammer. I love it. Drumming is therapeutic. I wish I'd found it when I was younger."

Critical reception

''Bone Machine'' was included on several "Best Albums of the 1990s" lists, being ranked at No. 49 by ''Pitchfork'' and No. 53 by ''Rolling Stone''. The album was also included in the book ''1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die''.

Track listing

Personnel

Performance

* Tom Waits lead vocals (all tracks), Chamberlin (1, 6, 9), percussion (1, 3–6, 15), guitar (1, 3, 5, 12, 14, 16), sticks (1), piano (2, 13), upright bass (7), conundrum (9), drums (10–12, 16), acoustic guitar (14)
* Brain drums (3, 9)
* Kathleen Brennan sticks (1)
* Ralph Carney alto saxophone (2, 3), tenor saxophone (2, 3), bass clarinet (2)
* Les Claypool bass guitar (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), backing vocals (16)
* Larry Taylor upright bass (1, 2, 4, 5, 8–12, 14, 16), guitar (7)
* Waddy Wachtel guitar (16)

Production

* Tom Waits producer
* Kathleen Brennan associate producer
* Biff Dawes recording (17, 912, 1416)
* Joe Marquez recording (8, 13)
* Tchad Blake mixing (115)
* Biff Dawes mixing (115)
* Joe Marquez mixing (115), second engineer
* Joe Blaney mixing (16)
* Shawn Michael Morris third engineer
* Bob Ludwig mastering
* Frances Thumm "musical security guard"

Charts

In popular culture

* "Earth Died Screaming" is featured in the 1995 film ''12 Monkeys''.
* "Dirt in the Ground" is featured in the 1998 film ''Jerry and Tom''.
* "Jesus Gonna Be Here" is featured in the 2005 film ''Domino'', in which Waits also appears, and has been covered by gospel group The Blind Boys of Alabama.
* "Goin' Out West" is featured in the 1999 film ''Fight Club'' and has been covered by Queens of the Stone Age, Gomez, Widespread Panic, Gov't Mule, Jimmy Barnes, and Ash Grunwald.
* "I Don't Wanna Grow Up" was covered by Ramones and was featured during the end credits of the first episode of Netflix's adult animated series '' Big Mouth'', in the 2019 film ''Jojo Rabbit'', and during the end credits of the 2019 film '' Shazam!'' It has also been covered by Petra Haden and Bill Frisell, Hayes Carll, Scarlett Johansson, Squeeze, and Emily Kinney's character Beth Greene on '' The Walking Dead'' episode " Infected". It was also featured in an episode of "Stumptown".
* "Dirt in the Ground" has been covered by Danish band Kellermensch.
* Joan Baez's 2018 album used '' Whistle Down the Wind'' as its title, and includes a cover of Waits' song " Last Leaf".

References

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Tom Waits albums
1992 albums
Island Records albums
Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album