Songfacts®:

• Stepping outside his usual songwriting partnership with Kathleen Brennan, Tom Waits found a kindred spirit in Keith Richards for the closing track of his album Bone Machine. Richards contributed guitar, vocals, and compositional savvy to "That Feel," a song that feels like a shared anthem for both artists.
• But there's one thing you can't lose
  Is that feel
  One thing you can't lose
  It's that feel
  
  Both drawn to the mystical and enigmatic, Waits and Richards explore the intangible nature of "that feel" and its enduring presence in our lives. Their voices intertwine as they sing about the potent emotion that permeates the song without ever being truly defined.
  
  "Really, our thing is about that feel – that's why we wrote the song" Richards told Uncut magazine. "I hope that sums it up. Things like that go unspoken, it's only in retrospect that you realize that they are there,. because you can't go around saying, 'Hey, what a great feel!' That sort of understanding that you have with some guys, it's like, 'I know you, even though we've never met before.' You click without jousting, so to speak."
• Other collaborations between Waits and Richards include three tracks on 1985's Rain Dogs - "Big Black Mariah," "Union Square" and "Blind Love" - plus "Chicago," "Satisfied," "Last Leaf," and "Hell Broke Luce" from 2011's Bad as Me.
• Produced by Tom Waits, the instrumentation blends blues, folk, and rock elements, creating a haunting atmosphere.
• Waits recorded and produced Bone Machine in the "Waits Room" at Prairie Sun Recording Studios in Cotati, California, a former cement hatchery room in the building's bowels. The title refers to Waits' concept of "bone music," with songs stripped down and reduced to their minimum.
• Bone Machine resonated with the critics, its unconventional beauty earning it a Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album. It was later included on several "Best Albums of the 1990s" lists, lauded by Pitchfork (#49) and Rolling Stone (#53).