The Third Eye

On this day in 1992, Island Records released Tom Waits’ eleventh studio album, Bone Machine. Garnering a Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album, this record showcases Waits at his most raw and unfiltered, with an ensemble of guest musicians including David Hidalgo, Les Claypool, Brain, and Keith Richards.

After a five-year hiatus from studio albums, Waits emerged from the shadows to record Bone Machine in an unlikely setting—a Prairie Sun Recording Studios cellar room. This space, which Waits described as “just a cement floor and a hot water heater,” became the crucible for an album that stripped music to its bare bones.

The result is a rough, percussion-driven soundscape that echoes themes of mortality, decay, and the darker sides of existence.

The album’s cover—a grainy, black-and-white close-up of Waits mid-scream, clad in a horned skullcap and protective goggles—was captured by filmmaker Jesse Dylan, son of Bob Dylan. 

The haunting image is a freeze frame from the music video for “Goin’ Out West,” directed by Dylan and Jim Jarmusch. The duo also directed the video for “I Don’t Wanna Grow Up,” a track later covered by the Ramones on their final album, ¡Adios Amigos! (1995). The sinister swagger of “Goin’ Out West” also found a fitting home in the cult classic film Fight Club (1999).

Bone Machine was brought to life within the raw, echo-filled confines of Prairie Sun Recording Studios in Cotati, California. The album was recorded and produced entirely in Studio C’s “Waits Room,” a gritty, old cement hatchery space in the building’s cellar.

Mark “Mooka” Rennick, the head of Prairie Sun Studios, reflected on the magic of the space, saying, “[Waits] gravitated toward these ‘echo’ rooms and created the Bone Machine aural landscape. What we like about Tom is that he is a musicologist with a tremendous ear. His talent is a national treasure.” The room’s natural reverb and stark atmosphere infused the album with a primal, almost otherworldly quality.

The stripped-down studio environment became integral to the album’s character, as noted in the interview segments recorded for the promotional CD release Bone Machine: The Operator’s Manual. These field recordings, blending full studio tracks with candid conversation, gave listeners a glimpse into the process behind the music.

Bone Machine also marked a turning point for Waits as he took on the role of drummer and percussionist for the first time on one of his albums. In 1992, he shared, “I like to play drums when angry. At home, I have a metal instrument called a conundrum with many things hanging off it that I’ve found—metal objects—and I like playing it with a hammer. I love it. Drumming is therapeutic. I wish I’d found it when I was younger.”

Read more about Bone Machine here.

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