Bone Machine

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For the song "Bone Machine" by the Pixies, see Surfer Rosa
Bone Machine
Bone Machine cover
Studio album by Tom Waits
Released August 1992
Recorded Prairie Sun Recording, Cotati, California
Genre Rock, Experimental
Length 53:30
Label Island
Producer Joe Marquez
Tom Waits
Professional reviews
Tom Waits chronology
Night on Earth
(1992)		 Bone Machine
(1992)		 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.

Contents

[edit] 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. [1]

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." [2]

[edit] 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.[3]

[edit] 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 (during Era Vulgaris sessions [4]) as well as by Gomez 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).

[edit] Track listing

Tracks written by Tom Waits, except where noted.

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

[edit] 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)

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ McDermid, Charles. Dream Maker:Prairie Sun Recording Studio chief Mark Rennick is a musician's best friend. MetroActive Music. Retrieved on 2007-11-23.
  2. ^ In interview with Brian Bannon for Thrasher magazine, February 1993; collected in Innocent When You Dream p.146
  3. ^ Bone Machine album credits. www.lib.ru. Retrieved on 2007-11-23.
  4. ^ QOTSA Cover Tom Waits, Elliott Smith on "Sick" Single. Pitchfork Media. Retrieved on 2007-11-25.

[edit] References

  • Montandon, Mac (2005). Innocent When You Dream: Tom Waits the Collected Interviews. Thunder's Mouth Press. ISBN 0752873946. 
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