Bone Machine

Bone Machine
Studio album by
ReleasedSeptember 8, 1992
RecordedPrairie Sun, Cotati
Genre
Length53:30
LabelIsland
Producer
Tom Waits chronology
Night on Earth
(1992)
Bone Machine
(1992)
The Black Rider
(1993)
Singles from Bone Machine
  1. "Goin' Out West"
    Released: 1992

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.