Line #171 Music/BoneMachine


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tomwaits-bonemachine_2622.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350: ''Such a scream.'']]
3
4	->''What does it matter, a dream of love or a dream of lies?\
5	We're all gonna be the same place when we die.\
6	Your spirit don't leave knowing your face or your name.\
7	The wind through your bones is all that remains.''
8
9	''Bone Machine'' is the eleventh studio album by Music/TomWaits, released in 1992 through Creator/IslandRecords.
10
11	Recorded in the cellar of a music studio (described by Waits as "just a cement floor and a hot water heater" and chosen because he liked the echo there), the album showcases a DarkerAndEdgier sound [[NewSoundAlbum than his previous work]]. It was Waits's first studio album since ''Music/FranksWildYears'' (1987) and is best recognized for the tracks "Earth Died Screaming," "Goin' Out West," and "I Don't Wanna Grow Up."
12
13	Not to be confused with the Music/{{Pixies}} song of the same name, which can be found on ''Music/SurferRosa'' (1988).
14	----
15
16	!! Tracklist:
17
18	# "Earth Died Screaming" (3:39)
19	# "Dirt in the Ground" (4:08)
20	# "Such a Scream" (2:07)
21	# "All Stripped Down" (3:04)
22	# "Who Are You" (3:58)
23	# "The Ocean Doesn't Want Me" (1:51)
24	# "Jesus Gonna Be Here" (3:21)
25	# "A Little Rain (For Clyde)" (2:58)
26	# "In the Colosseum" (4:50)
27	# "Goin' Out West" (3:19)
28	# "Murder in the Red Barn" (4:29)
29	# "Black Wings" (4:37)
30	# "Whistle Down the Wind (For Tom Jans)" (4:36)
31	# "I Don't Wanna Grow Up" (2:31)
32	# "Let Me Get Up on It" (0:55)
33	# "That Feel" (3:11)
34	----
35
36	!! The Earth Died Screaming While I Lay Troping:
37	* AdmiringTheAbomination: "Black Wings":
38	--> Some say they fear him;\
39	Others admire him.
40	* AllAreEqualInDeath: "Dirt in the Ground":
41	-->Take a king or a beggar\
42	And the answer they'll give\
43	Is we're all gonna be ... just dirt in the ground
44	* AlliterativeTitle: "'''W'''histle Down the '''W'''ind."
45	* AlternativeRock: And ''how'' alternative it is.
46	* AngelsInOvercoats: The song "Black Wings" invokes this trope. The main character of the song is a very dangerous, AmbiguouslyEvil, AmbiguouslyHuman entity on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge. [[AngelUnaware Possibly]] a FallenAngel, possibly [[TheGrimReaper The Angel Of Death]], possibly [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane just a very dangerous human being]].
47	-->Well he once killed a man with a guitar string\
48	He's been seen at the table with kings\
49	He once [[PetTheDog saved a baby from drowning]]\
50	There are those that say beneath his coat there are wings
51	* AsTheGoodBookSays:
52	** "Dirt in the Ground" [[ShoutOut alludes to]] story of CainAndAbel.
53	** "Who Are You" asks:
54	--->How do your pistol and your Bible\
55	And your sleeping pills go?
56	** "Murder in the Red Barn" quotes the [[TheCommandments Ten Commandments]]:
57	--->Now thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house\
58	Or covet thy neighbor's wife
59	** "Black Wings," [[VillainProtagonist ironically]]:
60	--->Take an eye for an eye\
61	A tooth for a tooth\
62	[[LampshadeHanging Just like they say in the Bible]]
63	* AwesomeMccoolname: In "Goin' Out West", he considers changing his name to Hannibal or "[[OnlyOneName maybe just Rex]]."
64	* BadassBoast: "Goin' Out West" is one long boast by a character assured of his good looks and badassery, specifically saying he knows karate and voodoo and can handle himself in a high speed chase. He's got the [[RuggedScar scars]] and [[CarpetOfVirility chest hair]] to prove it.
65	* BarredFromTheAfterlife:
66	** "Earth Died Screaming":
67	---> Well hell doesn't want you\
68	And heaven is full
69	** [[MeaningfulEcho Echoed]] in the next track, "Dirt in the Ground":
70	--->Hell's boiling over, and heaven is full
71	* CallBack: The fifteen-year-old girl who "[had] never seen the ocean" in "A Little Rain" may well be the girl addressed by the [[DoubleMeaning secondary interpretation]] of "The Ocean Doesn't Want Me." If not, this is merely a ContinuityNod.
72	* CarefulWithThatAxe: "Such a Scream" living up to its name.
73	* CarpetOfVirility: "Goin' Out West":
74	-->I've got hair on my chest\
75	I look good without a shirt
76	* CaughtUpInTheRapture:
77	** "All Stripped Down" uses the Rapture as a metonym for death.
78	--->And all the sinners know what I'm talking about\
79	All stripped down, all stripped down\
80	When all the creatures of the world are gonna line up at the gate\
81	All stripped down, all stripped down\
82	And you better be on time, and you better not be late\
83	All stripped, all stripped down
84	** The singer of "Jesus Gonna Be Here" is very much this.
85	--->Well I'm just gonna wait here\
86	I don't have to shout\
87	I have no reason and\
88	I have no doubt\
89	I'm gonna get myself unfurled\
90	From this mortal coiled up world\
91	Because Jesus gonna be here\
92	Be here soon
93	* ComeToGawk: "In the Colosseum":
94	-->And the madness of the crowd\
95	Is an epileptic fit
96	* ConceptAlbum: Virtually every song on the album features death as a theme or explores it directly.
97	* CountingToThree: Waits does this in "Such a Scream."
98	* DarkWorld: It could be a twisted, darkly reflected version of our world that this album takes place in . . . or it could just be ours.
99	* DarkerAndEdgier: The themes and musical arrangements are far darker even than Waits's previous output. Case in point: the first track is about the apocalypse.
100	* DeadlyEuphemism:
101	-->So I will take the Marley Bone Coach\
102	And be whistlin' down the wind
103	* DeathSong: In "Whistle Down the Wind," the narrator implies that he [[DrivenToSuicide is planning to kill himself]].
104	-->I can't stay here and I'm scared to leave\
105	So kiss me once and then\
106	I'll go to hell; I might as well\
107	Be [[DeadlyEuphemism whistlin' down the wind]]
108	* DevilButNoGod: There is [[{{Satan}} most certainly]] a devil in the world of ''Bone Machine'', but if God exists at all, [[TheGodsMustBeLazy he isn't interested in you]].
109	-->Heaven is full
110	:: : To make matters worse, the Jesus the singer of "Jesus Gonna Be Here" is [[SecondComing waiting for]] is strongly implied by "Black Wings" to ''be'' the devil.
111	--->He's not there for he has risen\
112	He's not there for he has risen
113	* DoubleEntendre: The entirety of "The Ocean Doesn't Want Me": Read at face value, it's the already dark story of a man who has decided to postpone drowning himself, but consider "the ocean" a metaphor for a girl, and the lyrics take on a new dimension.
114	-->I'll open my head\
115	And let out all of my time\
116	I'd love to [[UnusualEuphemism go drowning]]\
117	And to stay and to stay\
118	But the ocean doesn't want me today\
119	I'll go in up to here\
120	It can't possibly hurt
121	:: : This reading is supported by the CallBack in "A Little Rain":
122	--->She was fifteen years old\
123	And she'd never seen the ocean\
124	She climbed into a van with a vagabond
125	* TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt: "Earth Died Screaming," interestingly enough placed as the first track of the album:
126	-->There was thunder, there was lightning\
127	Then [[TheStarsAreGoingOut the stars went out]]\
128	And the moon fell from the sky\
129	It rained mackerel, it rained trout\
130	And the great day of wrath has come\
131	And here's mud in your big red eye\
132	The poker's in the fire\
133	And the [[TheSwarm locusts take the sky]]
134	* EvilSoundsDeep: Waits's voice is at its lowest on the album in "Black Wings," which seems to be concerned with [[{{Satan}} the supreme evil being]].
135	* FaceOnTheCover: Played with; Waits's face is almost unrecognizable.
136	* GladiatorGames: "In the Colosseum," about the violent spectacle in the [[AncientRome Colosseum]].
137	* GothicCountryMusic: The album plays with this genre, though its instrumentation is a bit [[HellIsThatNoise weirder]].
138	** "Murder in the Red Barn" is an iconic example, discussing a mysterious [[MurderBallad murder]] in vague, macabre, and decidedly rural terms.
139	--->The trees are bending over and the cows are lying down\
140	The autumn's taking over, you can hear the Buckshot hounds ...\
141	Pin it on a drifter they sleep beneath the bridge\
142	One plays the violin and sleeps inside a fridge
143	** In "Whistle Down the Wind," a man dying somewhere in the Great Plains region laments that he never got to leave his small town and do all that he always imagined he would.
144	* GriefSong: "Dirt in the Ground," for [[ExaggeratedTrope all of humanity at large]].
145	* GrowingUpSucks: [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin "I Don't Wanna Grow Up"]]:
146	-->I don't wanna put no money down\
147	I don't wanna get me a big old loan\
148	Work them fingers to the bone\
149	I don't wanna float a broom\
150	Fall in and get married then boom\
151	[[WhamLine How the hell did it get here so soon]]\
152	I don't wanna grow up
153	* HellIsThatNoise: Many of the sounds on the album can make listeners wonder this. Answers range from unusual instruments to odd machines and random objects.
154	* InHarmonyWithNature: The literalist reading of "The Ocean Doesn't Want Me," where a man puts off drowning himself because he believes he can tell that the ocean isn't ready for him. He fantasizes about the further harmony the drowning will achieve:
155	-->And the [[PerfectlyCromulentWord strangels]] will take me\
156	Down deep in their brine\
157	The mischievous [[PerfectlyCromulentWord braingels]]\
158	Down into the endless blue wine
159	* {{Instrumentals}}: "Let Me Get Up On It" ''has'' lyrics, but [[TheUnintelligible they might as well be just another instrument]].
160	* JesusWasWayCool: "Jesus Gonna Be Here," where Jesus apparently drives around in a fancy car:
161	-->I got to keep my eyes open\
162	So I can see my Lord\
163	I'm gonna watch the horizon\
164	For a brand new Ford\
165	I can hear him rolling on down the lane\
166	I said [[{{Pun}} Hollywood be thy name]]\
167	Jesus gonna be, gonna be here soon.
168	* LyricalTic: Half-articulated ''Well''s at the beginnings of lines are frequent.
169	* {{Motif}}: Bones.
170	** "Earth Died Screaming":
171	--->Bring me some water, put it in this skull ...\
172	And the army ants, they leave nothin' but the bones
173	** "Dirt in the Ground":
174	--->And the wind through your bones is all that remains ...\
175	Along a river of flesh, can these dry bones live?
176	** "Such a Scream":
177	--->The plow is red, the well is full\
178	Inside the dollhouse of her skull
179	** "All Stripped Down":
180	--->Let your backbone flip and let your spirit shine through
181	** "Who Are You":
182	--->Are you still leaving nothing\
183	But bones in the way?
184	** "Black Wings":
185	--->And the fence posts in the moonlight\
186	Look like bones
187	** "Whistle Down the Wind":
188	--->So I will take the Marley Bone Coach\
189	And whistle down the wind
190	** "I Don't Wanna Grow Up":
191	--->I don't wanna get me a big old loan\
192	Work them fingers to the bone
193	* MurderBallad: "Murder in the Red Barn":
194	-->There was a murder in the red barn\
195	A murder in the red barn\
196	Now thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house\
197	Or covet thy neighbor's wife\
198	But for some murder is the only door through which they enter life
199	* MythologyGag: In "Whistle Down the Wind," to the album ''Bone Machine'' [[SpiritualSuccessor Spiritually Succeeded]]:
200	-->And the [[Music/RainDogs dog]] is tied to a wagon of [[Music/RainDogs rain]]
201	* NewSoundAlbum: More minimalistic and percussion driven--something Waits referred to as "bones rock," as in "stripped down to the bare bones"--than his previous work. Lyrically [[DarkerAndEdgier darker]] as well.
202	* NightmareFace: Waits on the album cover.
203	* NobleDemon: The subject of "Black Wings." "He broke out of every prison," and "they say he once killed a man with a guitar string," yet "he once saved a baby from drowning," and "there are those who say beneath his coat there are wings."
204	* NonAppearingTitle: The phrase "Bone Machine" never appears in any of the songs, although the word "bone" does appear in over half.
205	* OldFlameFizzle: "Who Are You" is a scathing polemic to an old lover.
206	-->Oh, well I did my time\
207	In the jail of your arms
208	* OnceKilledAManWithANoodleImplement: "Black Wings":
209	-->They say he once killed a man with a guitar string
210	* PowerGivesYouWings: "Black Wings":
211	-->Some say beneath his coat there are wings.
212	* QuestioningTitle: "Who Are You"?
213	* QuestToTheWest: "Goin' Out West" is something of a {{deconstruction}}: the singer, brainwashed by media images of idyllic Hollywood happiness, sets out for where he believes people will "appreciate" him.
214	* RainOfSomethingUnusual: "Earth Died Screaming":
215	-->There was thunder, there was lightning\
216	Then the stars went out\
217	And the moon fell from the sky\
218	It rained mackerel, it rained trout
219	* RuggedScar: "Goin' Out West":
220	-->I don't need no makeup; I got real scars
221	* {{Satan}}: The subject of "Black Wings" seems to be this, unsettlingly crossed with elements of the Jesus story.
222	-->Take an eye for an eye\
223	A tooth for a tooth\
224	[[AsTheGoodBookSays Just like they say in the Bible]]\
225	We'll never leave a trace\
226	Or forget a face\
227	Of any man at the table\
228	Any man at [[Art/TheLastSupper the table]]
229	* SecondComing: The singer of "Jesus Gonna Be Here" is waiting for this. Truth be told, [[MadOracle he sounds a little cracked]].
230	* ShoutOut:
231	** Near the end of "Earth Died Screaming," [[Music/FryderykChopin Chopin's]] ''Funeral March'' is quoted.
232	** From "Who Are You":
233	--->Now [[Theatre/{{Hamlet}} Ophelia]] wants to know\
234	Where she should turn
235	** Another to ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'' in "Jesus Gonna Be Here":
236	--->I'm gonna get myself unfurled\
237	From this mortal coiled-up world
238	* SignsOfTheEndTimes: "Earth Died Screaming" lists many classics, including [[TheSwarm locusts]] and [[TheStarsAreGoingOut the stars going out]].
239	* SmallTownBoredom: [[ExaggeratedTrope Exaggerated]] in "Whistle Down the Wind," which delves into the deep, desperate grief engendered by a life spent in a suffocating small town.
240	-->The buses at the corner\
241	The clock on the wall\
242	Broken down windmill\
243	There ain't no wind at all\
244	I've yelled and I've cursed\
245	If I stay here I'll rust\
246	I'm stuck like a shipwreck\
247	Out here in the dust
248	* SpecialGuest: Les Claypool from Music/{{Primus}} plays electric bass on "Earth Died Screaming," drummer Bryan "Brain" Mantia drums on "All Stripped Down" and "In the Colosseum," David Hidalgo from ''Los Lobos'' plays violin and accordion on "Whistle Down the Wind," and Music/KeithRichards duets along with Waits on "That Feel."
249	* {{Spoonerism}}: A clever [[LyricSwap variation on the chorus]] in "In the Colosseum":
250	-->In the Colosseum\
251	We call 'em as we see 'em
252	* TheStarsAreGoingOut: Occurs during the apocalypse in "Earth Died Screaming."
253	* SubvertedRhymeEveryOccasion: A subtle one in "Black Wings":
254	-->He can turn himself into a stranger\
255	Well they broke a lot of canes on his hide\
256	He was born away in a cornfield[[note]]not [[AwayInAManger "away in a manger"]][[/note]]\
257	A fever beats in his head like a drum inside
258	* SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: "Murder in the Red Barn":
259	-->Cause there's nothin' strange\
260	About an axe with bloodstains in the barn\
261	There's always some killin'\
262	You got to do around the farm
263	* TheSwarm: One of the SignsOfTheEndTimes in "Earth Died Screaming" is when "the locusts take the sky."
264	* TickTockTune: "Earth Died Screaming."
265	* TrueBeautyIsOnTheInside: "All Stripped Down." In a very twisted way, of course. This is Tom Waits.
266	* UnusualEuphemism: "Bone Machine" for the human body, as Waits himself explains in the press kit for the album:
267	-->What's a bone machine? Most of the principles of most machines developed in the machine age were principles that were found in the human body. Originally, I was going to take sounds of machines I'd recorded, and add a really strong rhythmic sense; I was going to try to build songs out of the rhythms. But then it didn't really develop that way. The stories kind of took over. So it's more bone than machine. Bone Machine... We're all like bone machines, I guess. We break down eventually, and we're replaced by other models. Newer models. Younger models. Bone Machine... Sounds like a superhero, doesn't it?
268	* WeAllDieSomeday: This is essentially the overall theme of the album.
269	* WhileRomeBurns:
270	-->The earth died screaming\
271	While I lay dreaming\
272	Dreaming of you
273	* WhoAreYou: One track carries this title.

Context Music / BoneMachine