Tom Waits - Bone Machine
NME.COM feature on Tom Waits - Bone Machine album including album review, artwork, tracks, listen now, tour dates, discography and more.
Release date: 22 December 1992
Tracklisting click track to read more
- The Earth Died Screaming
- Dirt In The Ground
- Such A Scream
- All Stripped Down
- Who Are You This Time
- The Ocean
- Jesus Gonna Be Here
- A Little Rain
- In The Colosseum
- Goin' Out West
- Murder In The Red Barn
- Black Wings
- Whistle Down The Wind
- I Don't Wanna Grow Up
- Let Me Down Up On It
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Tom Waits - Bone Machine YouTube Videos
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Tom Waits News
Tom Waits and Anton Corbijn to release photo book
Book will feature over 200 pages of images taken by both Corbijn and Waits himself
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Vintage duo team up for Johnny Depp's pirate-themed album
Tom Waits to appear in 'The Simpsons' tonight (January 6)
Singer will play himself in the episode titled 'Homer Goes To Prep School'
Tom Waits - Bone Machine: Wikipedia Album Entry
Released September 8, 1992
Those vocals. Those lyrics. That mood. This was My first foray into Tom's world: a gift when I was 14. I haven't looked back. From the alpha (the thumping primitive drums of "Earth Died Screaming") to the omega (the howling chorus ((Keith Richard sits in and warbles and twangs)) of guts and guitars finishing off "That Feel"), this CD is like nothing else on the planet. This is a macabre, twisted world: a vision entirely of Mr. and Mrs. Waits's devising (Kathleen Brennan is his wife and they write together- what a team!)
Lyrically, this is light years beyond so much music out there... Namely, all of it. Waits never stoops to cliche, never resorts to the old, crusty, stale rhymes and metaphors that haunt the minds of most songsmiths. His lyrics are restlessly inventive and vivid. When he tells a story he lures you in, shows you the scene and leaves you there to figure out what happened and find your own way home again.
On the whole, this is a dark album, and it fits easily into his output from the 80's-90's... Songs such as "In the Colosseum," and "Murder in the Red barn," are eerie and unsettling. Still, Tom doesn't just write disturbing music. "Little rain," "Whistle Down the Wind," and "Who Are You," are more upbeat (kinda) pieces, meaning the lovelorn lyrics and strange musings are masked by a major-key chord progression. The musical styles veer all over the board- never quite playing its straight, some of the songs are country sounding, some are folk, a couple are blues... But not quite. They inhabit a strange place between genres.
Some highlights:
The rusty, falsetto croon of "Dirt in the ground" set to the kind of funeral march horns and beat you'd expect to see in New Orleans, if New Orleans were populated by half-dead prophets and zombie musicians!
The sweet, bluesy satire of "Jesus Gonna Be Here," that sounds like Tom waits is actually a venerable bluesman from the Mississippi Delta. I played this at work once and everyone in the kitchen insisted that the singer must be a black guy. Just Tom, a bass-line and two-notes of twangy guitar. The cough at the end of the song- that cough has more soul than most band's entire discographies!!!!!
The Ennio Morricone-esque brilliance of "Black Wings": Tom is rolling the wheel of an old film projector and he rasps and murmurs and tells the story of a strange character who has no name... This song is brilliant!!! The guitar and the swishing drums... nothing I have ever heard sounds like this tune, perhaps my favorite...
Buy this CD- it's a great trampoline into Waits' more out there stuff. And it's easily one of his more balanced CDs- pretty much no sleeper tracks here!
Fun Facts: Earth Died Screaming is used for a scene in the Gilliam film "12 Monkeys," when Bruce Willis has taken Madeleine Stowe hostage and she's driving him into a large city (Philadelphia, I think). Also, the steady cam scene in "Fight Club," where Tyler Durden and his crew walk through the creepy bar and into the basement while Ed Norton voice-over's the sequence (right before Pitt delivers them The 8 Rules...) is set to "Goin' Out West"- with its muscular, dark, fuzzed out mutant surf-rock bass riff...
C'mon, take a chance on this!
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Tom Waits - Bone Machine Lyrics
Tom Waits - Earth Died Screaming Lyrics
Rudy's on the midway
And Jacob's in the hole
THe monkey's on the ladder
The devil shovels coal
Tom Waits - Let Me Get Up On It Lyrics
C'mon let me get up on it
Tom Waits - I Don't Wanna Grow Up Lyrics
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Tom Waits - Whistle Down The Wind Lyrics
I've grown up here now
All of my life
But I dreamed
Someday I'd go
Tom Waits - Black Wings Lyrics
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Tom Waits - Murder In The Red Barn Lyrics
We are not in a position to display these lyrics due to licensing restrictions. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Tom Waits - Goin' Out West Lyrics
We are not in a position to display these lyrics due to licensing restrictions. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Tom Waits - A Little Rain Lyrics
The Ice Man's mule is parked
Outside the bar
Where a man with missing fingers
Plays a strange guitar
And the German dwarf
Dances with the butcher's son
And a little rain never hurt no one
And a little rain never hurt no one
They're dancing on the roof
And the ceiling's coming down
I sleep with my shovel and my leather gloves
A little trouble makes it worth the going
And a little rain never hurt no one
The world is round
And so I'll go around
You must risk something that matters
My hands are strong
I'll take any man here
If it's worth the going
It's worth the ride
She was 15 years old
And never seen the ocean
She climbed into a van
With a vagabond
And the last thing she said
Was, "I love you mom."
And a little rain
Never hurt no one
And a little rain
Never hurt no one
Tom Waits - Jesus Gonna Be Here Lyrics
Well, Jesus will be here
Be here soon
he's gonna cover us up with leaves
With a blanket from the moon
Tom Waits - The Ocean Doesn't Want Me Lyrics
The ocean doesn't want me today
But I'll be back tomorrow to play
And the stranglers will take me
Down deep in their brine
Tom Waits - Who Are You Lyrics
They're lining up
To mad dog your tilta whirl
3 shots for a dollar
Win a real live doll
Tom Waits - All Stripped Down Lyrics
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Tom Waits - Such A Scream Lyrics
Well Pale Face said
To the Eyeball Kid
She just goes clank and boom and steam
A halo, wings, horns and a tail
Tom Waits - Dirt In The Ground Lyrics
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Tom Waits - That Feel Lyrics
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