Bone Machine
| Untitled | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   [1] |
| Fast Folk | (favorable)[2] |
| Mojo | |
| Rolling Stone |  link |
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 Los Lobos' David Hidalgo, Primus' 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 themes of death and murder, 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 C known as "the Waits Room," in the old cement hatchery rooms of the cellar of the buildings.
Mark "Mooka" 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.[3]
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."[4] 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.
Artwork
The cover photo, which consists of a blurred black-and-white, close-up image of Waits in a leather skullcap with horns and protective goggles, was taken by Jesse Dylan, the son of Bob Dylan.[5] He wears this same outfit in the video for "Goin' Out West" and "I Don't Wanna Grow up".
Covers and soundtracks
A number of the songs from Bone Machine have been used in a number of film soundtracks, and have been covered by artists in varying genres.
"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 appears. "Goin' Out West" is featured in the 1999 film Fight Club and has been covered by Queens of the Stone Age,[6] Gomez, Widespread Panic, Gov't Mule, and Australian blues guitarist Ash Grunwald. "I Don't Wanna Grow Up" was covered by Ramones for their album Adios Amigos, by Petra Haden and Bill Frisell on their collaboration Petra Haden & Bill Frisell (2003), by [[Hayes Carll] on his Trouble In Mind (2008), and by Scarlett Johansson on her debut album, Anywhere I Lay My Head (2008). Danish band Kellermensch covered "Dirt in the Ground" on their debut album.
Chart information
| Chart | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Switzerland | 21 |
| The Billboard 200 (1992) | 176 |
Track listing
Songs written by Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan, except where noted.
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Earth Died Screaming" | Waits | 3:39 |
| 2. | "Dirt in the Ground" | 4:08 | |
| 3. | "Such a Scream" | Waits | 2:07 |
| 4. | "All Stripped Down" | Waits | 3:04 |
| 5. | "Who Are You" | 3:58 | |
| 6. | "The Ocean Doesn't Want Me" | Waits | 1:51 |
| 7. | "Jesus Gonna Be Here" | Waits | 3:21 |
| 8. | "A Little Rain" | 2:58 | |
| 9. | "In the Colosseum" | 4:50 | |
| 10. | "Goin' Out West" | 3:19 | |
| 11. | "Murder in the Red Barn" | 4:29 | |
| 12. | "Black Wings" | 4:37 | |
| 13. | "Whistle Down the Wind" | Waits | 4:36 |
| 14. | "I Don't Wanna Grow Up" | 2:31 | |
| 15. | "Let Me Get Up on It" (Instrumental) | Waits | 0:55 |
| 16. | "That Feel" | Waits, Keith Richards | 3:11 |
Credits
- 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), Acoustic Guitar (14)
- 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)
Produced by Tom Waits. Associate Producer: Kathleen Brennan
Recorded by Biff Dawes, except " Whistle Down the Wind" and "A Little Rain" recorded by Joe Marquez. Mixed by Tchad Blake, Biff Dawes, and Joe Marquez. "That Feel" mixed by Joe Blaney at Studio 900. 2nd Engineer: Joe Marquez, 3rd Engineer: Shawn Michael Morris
Musical Security Guard: Frances Thumm. Mastered by Bob Ludwig at Masterdisk
Footnotes
- ^ Bone Machine, Allmusic
- ^ Allen, Jim, "The Ten Best Albums of 1992", Fast Folk Musical Magazine, 6:9-10, (February 1993) pp. 12-13
- ^ McDermid, Charles. "Dream Maker:Prairie Sun Recording Studio chief Mark "Mooka" Rennick is a musician's best friend". MetroActive Music. Retrieved 2007-11-23.
- ^ Interview with Brian Bannon for Thrasher magazine, February 1993; collected in Innocent When You Dream p.146
- ^ "Bone Machine album credits". www.lib.ru. Retrieved 2007-11-23.
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|1=(help) - ^ "QOTSA Cover Tom Waits, Elliott Smith on "Sick" Single". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 2007-11-25.
References
- Montandon, Mac (2005). Innocent When You Dream: Tom Waits the Collected Interviews. Thunder's Mouth Press. ISBN 0752873946.