Maps of Music

Bone Machine (1992)

Where the lyrics of Bone Machine take you, and where it was really made.

Recorded in a room with a bare cement floor and a hot water heater, the album went on to win a Grammy Award.

Key places

Prairie Sun Recording Studios, where the album was made (1992)

Recording site Prairie Sun Recording Studios — The album was recorded and produced entirely at this Cotati studio, in a room known as the Waits Room in the cellar. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Bone Machine: eleventh studio album by Tom Waits
• Released by Island Records on September 8, 1992
• Won a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album
• Features guest appearances by David Hidalgo, Les Claypool, Brain, and Keith Richards
• Marked Waits' return to studio albums, five years after Franks Wild Years (1987)
• Known for a rough, stripped-down, percussion-heavy style
• Dark lyrical themes revolve around death and decay

Background

• First Waits album on which he played drums and percussion extensively
• In 1992, Waits said he liked playing drums when he was angry
• He described drumming as therapeutic and said he wished he had found it earlier
• A metal instrument called a conundrum, hung with found metal objects, was part of his percussion setup

Recording

• Recorded and produced entirely at Prairie Sun Recording Studios in Cotati, California
• Recorded in a room of Studio C known as 'the Waits Room', in the old cement hatchery rooms of the building's cellar
• Waits described the room as just a cement floor and a hot water heater, with some good echo
• Studio head Mark 'Mooka' Rennick said Waits gravitated toward the echo rooms and created the album's aural landscape
• Promotional CD Bone Machine: The Operator's Manual combined field-recorded interviews with full studio tracks

Cover

• Blurry black-and-white close-up of Waits screaming, wearing a horned skullcap and protective goggles
• Photo taken by filmmaker Jesse Dylan, son of Bob Dylan
• Taken from a freeze frame of the Dylan and Jim Jarmusch video for 'Goin' Out West'

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · fr.wikipedia.org · es.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Career

• Tom Waits, born Thomas Alan Waits on 7 December 1949 in Pomona, California, is an American singer-songwriter, musician, music director and actor.
• Known for his gravelly voice, cynical texts and theatrical stage presence, he blends blues, jazz, bluegrass, vaudeville and country with rock.
• His lyrics portray the bizarre and overlooked people and places, while his work also shows romanticism and humour.
• Debuted in Los Angeles in 1971 after signing with manager Herb Cohen; the album Closing Time (1973) received good reviews, and the Eagles' cover of Ol' 55 brought success in 1974.
• Mid-1980s albums Swordfishtrombones, Rain Dogs and Frank's Wild Years featured eclectic instrumentation, marking a less conventional period after leaving Asylum for Island Records.
• Worked with his wife Kathleen Brennan on musicals such as The Black Rider with William S. Burroughs, and moved toward theatre alongside a parallel acting career.
• Acted in films by Francis Ford Coppola, Jim Jarmusch, Robert Altman and Terry Gilliam; composed the score for Coppola's Coup de cœur.
• Won Grammy Awards for Bone Machine (1993) and Mule Variations (2000); inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011.
• Has consistently refused to license his music for advertising and won lawsuits against several companies that ignored this.

Sources: fr.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Los Angeles Times: Chris Willman gave a rave review and wrote that Waits waxes equally fatalistic on morality and mortality
• Chicago Tribune: Greg Kot said it is the most varied and impressive group of songs Waits has written
• Entertainment Weekly: Billy Altman noted listeners may be shocked, thrilled, or unnerved, while a caring, humanist heart lurks beneath the bellows and grotesque arrangements
• NME: Terry Staunton summarized the album as scary, mournful, morbid and easily one of Tom's best

Reappraisal

• AllMusic: Steve Huey called it Waits' most affecting and powerful recording, even if it isn't his most accessible
• Huey pointed to its chilling, primal sound and its fixation on decay and mortality

Records

• Included on several 'Best Albums of the 1990s' lists
• Ranked No. 49 by Pitchfork and No. 53 by Rolling Stone in those lists
• Included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die
• Elvis Costello listed it among his essential albums, highlighting 'A Little Rain' and 'I Don't Wanna Grow Up'
• Won a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · es.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The cover photo is a freeze frame from the music video for 'Goin' Out West', directed by Jesse Dylan's father's contemporary Jim Jarmusch together with Dylan
• Dylan and Jarmusch also directed the video for 'I Don't Wanna Grow Up'
• Waits described the Prairie Sun room as just a cement floor and a hot water heater
• 'That Feel' was co-written with Keith Richards
• 'Goin' Out West' appears in the film Fight Club (1999)
• 'Earth Died Screaming' was used in the 1995 film 12 Monkeys

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · ja.wikipedia.org

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