Bone Machine

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title: "Bone Machine" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["tom-waits-albums", "1992-albums", "island-records-albums", "grammy-award-for-best-alternative-music-album"] topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bone_Machine" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::data[format=table title="Infobox album|"]

FieldValue
nameBone Machine
typeAlbum
artistTom Waits
coverTomWaits-BoneMachine.jpg
releasedSeptember 8, 1992
recordedPrairie Sun, Cotati
genre*Experimental rock
*lo-fi{{cite magazineurl
*avant-garde<ref name"Waterman"
*blues<ref name"Waterman"/
*blues rock{{cite magazineurl
length53:30
labelIsland
producer
prev_titleNight on Earth
prev_year1992
next_titleThe Black Rider
next_year1993
misc{{Singles
nameBone Machine
typestudio
single1Goin' Out West
single1date1992
::

| name = Bone Machine | type = Album | artist = Tom Waits | cover = TomWaits-BoneMachine.jpg | alt = | released = September 8, 1992 | recorded = Prairie Sun, Cotati | genre = *Experimental rock

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 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 decay. The album covera blurry, black-and-white, close-up image of Waits screaming while wearing a horned skullcap and protective goggleswas taken by filmmaker Jesse Dylan, son of Bob Dylan. The photo is taken from a freeze frame of the Dylan and Jim Jarmusch directed video for "Goin' Out West". They also directed a video for "I Don't Wanna Grow Up". Bone Machine won the Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album.

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, "[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."

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." 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

| rev1 = AllMusic | rev1score = | rev2 = Chicago Tribune | rev2score = | rev3 = Entertainment Weekly | rev3score = A+ | rev4 = Los Angeles Times | rev4score = | rev5 = Mojo | rev5score = | rev6 = NME | rev6score = 8/10 | rev7 = Q | rev7score = | rev8 = Rolling Stone | rev8score = | rev9 = Select | rev9score = 5/5 | rev10 = Uncut | rev10score =

In a rave review for the Los Angeles Times, Chris Willman wrote that "Waits waxes equally fatalistic on morality and mortality" on Bone Machine, and that even "amid all this casual morbidity", the album's "low-fi, home-studio" sounds make the album "so much—in a manner of speaking—fun." "Rhythmically," said Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune, "it's the most varied and impressive group of songs Waits has written, and damaged voice and all, the tunes are unshakable." *Entertainment Weekly*s Billy Altman noted that although listeners may find themselves "shocked, thrilled, or just plain unnerved by some startling image or sound" while listening to Bone Machine, "beneath his hellacious bellows... and grotesque arrangements... lurks a caring, humanist heart." NME writer Terry Staunton summarized the album as "scary, mournful, morbid and easily one of Tom's best."

Retrospectively, AllMusic reviewer Steve Huey deemed Bone Machine "Waits' most affecting and powerful recording, even if it isn't his most accessible", noting the album's "chilling, primal sound" and fixation with "decay and mortality, the ease with which earthly existence can be destroyed."

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. Elvis Costello included it on his list of essential albums, highlighting "A Little Rain" and "I Don't Wanna Grow Up".

Track listing

| title1 = Earth Died Screaming | length1 = 3:39 | writer1 = Tom Waits | title2 = Dirt in the Ground | length2 = 4:08 | writer2 = | title3 = Such a Scream | length3 = 2:07 | writer3 = Waits | title4 = All Stripped Down | length4 = 3:04 | writer4 = Waits | title5 = Who Are You | length5 = 3:58 | writer5 = | title6 = The Ocean Doesn't Want Me | length6 = 1:51 | writer6 = Waits | title7 = Jesus Gonna Be Here | length7 = 3:21 | writer7 = Waits | title8 = A Little Rain | length8 = 2:58 | writer8 = | title9 = In the Colosseum | length9 = 4:50 | writer9 = | title10 = Goin' Out West | length10 = 3:19 | writer10 = | title11 = Murder in the Red Barn | length11 = 4:29 | writer11 = | title12 = Black Wings | length12 = 4:37 | writer12 = | title13 = Whistle Down the Wind | length13 = 4:36 | writer13 = Waits | title14 = I Don't Wanna Grow Up | length14 = 2:31 | writer14 = | title15 = Let Me Get Up on It | length15 = 0:55 | writer15 = Waits | title16 = That Feel | writer16 = | length16 = 3:11

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

::data[format=table title="Chart performance for ''Bone Machine''"] | Chart (1992) | Peak position | US Billboard 200 | |---|---|---| | 176 | | | ::

References

;Sources

References

  1. Shipley, Al. (October 3, 2023). "Every Tom Waits Album, Ranked".
  2. Waterman, Cole. (November 17, 2020). "Between the Grooves: Tom Waits - Bone Machine".
  3. Jackson Toth, James. (September 9, 2013). "Tom Waits Albums From Worst To Best".
  4. (July 27, 2015). "True Alternative: The Top 100 Songs of the ’90s Underground".
  5. Melis, Matt. (July 20, 2017). "The 50 Albums of 1987".
  6. "Bone Machine album credits". www.lib.ru.
  7. "35th Annual GRAMMY Awards".
  8. McDermid, Charles. "Dream Maker:Prairie Sun Recording Studio chief Mark "Mooka" Rennick is a musician's best friend". MetroActive Music.
  9. Interview with Brian Bannon for ''Thrasher'' magazine, February 1993; collected in ''Innocent When You Dream'' p.146
  10. Peter Orr. "Tom Waits at work in the fields of the song" Reflex, issue 28, October 6, 1992; as quoted on [https://www.tomwaitsfan.com/tom%20waits%20library/www.tomwaitslibrary.com/instruments/percussioninstruments.html Percussion Instruments] on TomWaitsFan.com, accessed 13 November 2020
  11. Huey, Steve. "Bone Machine – Tom Waits". [[AllMusic]].
  12. Kot, Greg. (September 17, 1992). "Tom Waits: Bone Machine (Island)". [[Chicago Tribune]].
  13. Altman, Billy. (September 25, 1992). "Bone Machine".
  14. Willman, Chris. (September 20, 1992). "Tom Waits 'Bone Machine' Island". [[Los Angeles Times]].
  15. Male, Andrew. (July 2010). "Tom Waits: Bone Machine".
  16. Staunton, Terry. (September 5, 1992). "Humerus Anecdotes".
  17. Gill, Andy. (October 1992). "Formidable".
  18. O'Connor, Rob. (October 29, 1992). "Bone Machine".
  19. Collis, Andrew. (October 1992). "Tom Waits: Bone Machine".
  20. Gill, Andy. (December 2011). "What Is He Building in There..?".
  21. (November 16, 2003). "Top 100 Albums of the 1990s".
  22. (2010). "The '90s: The Inside Stories from the Decade That Rocked". [[Harper Design]].
  23. Heller-Nicholas, Alexandra. (2006). "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die". [[Universe Publishing]].
  24. Costello, Elvis. (November 2000). "Costello's 500".
  25. "Billboard 200: Week of September 26, 1992".

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