After months of dead heat between the nineties and the eighties in terms of reviews, the nineties have pulled away with three straight albums rolled. How will it all end? Who knows - check back around 2015 or so.
For now, here's the latest disc, the sixth Tom Waits album to appear on the Odyssey.
Disc 183 is...Bone Machine
Artist: Tom Waits
Year of Release: 1992
What’s Up With The Cover?: Tom Waits looking creepy in goggles and a horned helm. I like this album cover - it captures the wacky and disturbing experience that is Tom Waits. He wears this outfit in the video for the single "I Don't Wanna Grow Up" - a great song covered in the mid-nineties by the Ramones.
How I Came To Know It: I have known Tom Waits for many years, and this album is just me digging through the collection. I first saw a video for "I Don't Wanna Grow Up" but didn't buy the album for many years later. Despite this delay, I've had this one for a while longer than many others, in part because my buddy Zeb is also a Tom Waits fan, and he said this was one of his favourites. That moved it up the list considerably, since Zeb has a good musical ear. Trust your friends, friends.
How It Stacks Up: I have eighteen Tom Waits albums. "Bone Machine" holds its own in a tough field - I'm going to put it just out of the top five, at...number six.
Rating: 4 stars.
"Bone Machine" came out in 1992 and for me it is a transition album from the full on 'hell's circus' sound that he developed in the eighties and into music with slightly more traditional arrangements such as 1999's "Mule Variations". Emphasis on 'slightly' here, however - this is Tom Waits we're talking about.
On this listen, I was struck at how many of these songs are about sad and disturbing topics. Some of these are more personally troubling, such as a small town murder depicted in "Murder In the Red Barn" or the man seeking to drown himself in "The Ocean Doesn't Want Me Today". However, they run the gamut, all the way up to apocalyptic visions like "Jesus Gonna Be Here," warning of the pending second coming, and "Dirt In The Ground" which advises of the opposite ending:
"What does it matter, a dream of love
Or a dream of lies
We're all gonna be the same place
When we die."
And later in the same song, one of my favourite Tom Waits lines:
"'Cause hell is boiling over
And heaven is full
We're chained to the world
And we all gotta pull."
Waits also continues his tradition of drawing the character of lowlife types with the vivid use of the character's own words. My favourite song on the album (this time around) was the depiction of a tough filled with sneer and bravado, bragging how he's leaving town and "Goin' Out West":
"Well I'm goin' out west
Where the wind blows tall
'Cause Tony Franciosa
Used to date my ma
They got some money out there
They're giving it away
I'm gonna do what I want
And I'm gonna get paid."
And how does our anti-hero plan to manage this when he arrives? Later in the song he lists some of his attributes:
"Well I know karate, Voodoo too
I'm gonna make myself available to you
I don't need no make up
I got real scars
I got hair on my chest
I look good without a shirt."
He later adds that he has "dragstrip courage" and that he can "really drive a bed." I'm not liking this guy's chances to land a real job - but he probably wouldn't go for a straight 9 to 5 anyway. The song features a driving rock beat, with a nineties reverb guitar riff, combined with Dick Dale-like surfer guitar - all worked into one song. Even if you weren't paying attention to the lyrics, the music says, "small minded thug moves to California" just as effectively.
If you like Tom Waits, odds are you have this album. If you don't like Tom Waits, hey - there's no accounting for bad taste. You should. There's a few better, but "Bone Machine" is as good a place to check him out as any.
Best tracks: Dirt In the Ground, Ocean Doesn't Want Me, Jesus Gonna Be Here, A Little Rain, Goin' Out West, Black Wings, I Don't Wanna Grow Up
For now, here's the latest disc, the sixth Tom Waits album to appear on the Odyssey.
Disc 183 is...Bone Machine
Artist: Tom WaitsYear of Release: 1992
What’s Up With The Cover?: Tom Waits looking creepy in goggles and a horned helm. I like this album cover - it captures the wacky and disturbing experience that is Tom Waits. He wears this outfit in the video for the single "I Don't Wanna Grow Up" - a great song covered in the mid-nineties by the Ramones.
How I Came To Know It: I have known Tom Waits for many years, and this album is just me digging through the collection. I first saw a video for "I Don't Wanna Grow Up" but didn't buy the album for many years later. Despite this delay, I've had this one for a while longer than many others, in part because my buddy Zeb is also a Tom Waits fan, and he said this was one of his favourites. That moved it up the list considerably, since Zeb has a good musical ear. Trust your friends, friends.
How It Stacks Up: I have eighteen Tom Waits albums. "Bone Machine" holds its own in a tough field - I'm going to put it just out of the top five, at...number six.
Rating: 4 stars.
"Bone Machine" came out in 1992 and for me it is a transition album from the full on 'hell's circus' sound that he developed in the eighties and into music with slightly more traditional arrangements such as 1999's "Mule Variations". Emphasis on 'slightly' here, however - this is Tom Waits we're talking about.
On this listen, I was struck at how many of these songs are about sad and disturbing topics. Some of these are more personally troubling, such as a small town murder depicted in "Murder In the Red Barn" or the man seeking to drown himself in "The Ocean Doesn't Want Me Today". However, they run the gamut, all the way up to apocalyptic visions like "Jesus Gonna Be Here," warning of the pending second coming, and "Dirt In The Ground" which advises of the opposite ending:
"What does it matter, a dream of love
Or a dream of lies
We're all gonna be the same place
When we die."
And later in the same song, one of my favourite Tom Waits lines:
"'Cause hell is boiling over
And heaven is full
We're chained to the world
And we all gotta pull."
Waits also continues his tradition of drawing the character of lowlife types with the vivid use of the character's own words. My favourite song on the album (this time around) was the depiction of a tough filled with sneer and bravado, bragging how he's leaving town and "Goin' Out West":
"Well I'm goin' out west
Where the wind blows tall
'Cause Tony Franciosa
Used to date my ma
They got some money out there
They're giving it away
I'm gonna do what I want
And I'm gonna get paid."
And how does our anti-hero plan to manage this when he arrives? Later in the song he lists some of his attributes:
"Well I know karate, Voodoo too
I'm gonna make myself available to you
I don't need no make up
I got real scars
I got hair on my chest
I look good without a shirt."
He later adds that he has "dragstrip courage" and that he can "really drive a bed." I'm not liking this guy's chances to land a real job - but he probably wouldn't go for a straight 9 to 5 anyway. The song features a driving rock beat, with a nineties reverb guitar riff, combined with Dick Dale-like surfer guitar - all worked into one song. Even if you weren't paying attention to the lyrics, the music says, "small minded thug moves to California" just as effectively.
If you like Tom Waits, odds are you have this album. If you don't like Tom Waits, hey - there's no accounting for bad taste. You should. There's a few better, but "Bone Machine" is as good a place to check him out as any.
Best tracks: Dirt In the Ground, Ocean Doesn't Want Me, Jesus Gonna Be Here, A Little Rain, Goin' Out West, Black Wings, I Don't Wanna Grow Up
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