Tag Archives: ween

#1191: Ween – She Wanted to Leave

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Before I properly dove into the world of Ween in the autumn of 2015, The Mollusk was the first album I listened to by the band a year and a bit earlier. Like many others out there, I heard ‘Ocean Man’ at the end of the SpongeBob movie, liked it and added it to the old iTunes library. (I’d already known ‘Daisies’, ‘Freedom of ’76’ and ‘Loop de Loop’ by seeing them at various points on the TV, which left me confused because they all didn’t sound they were made by the same people. But this is way besides the point.) ‘Ocean Man’ was the only Ween song sitting in that library for a while. So one day when I was chilling in my uni room, I thought “Why not?” and listened to the record in its entirety. Probably one of the best decisions I’ve made in this lifetime. I was 18 by the time this was going on, but it felt like the album should have been a longtime favourite of mine by that point. Was definitely a “Where has this been all my life?” kind of thing.

How suitable that the last song on The Mollusk is the final one from the album I’ll be talking about on here. There’s not a lot of love for ‘She Wanted to Leave’ that I’ve seen online. I’ve read other people saying that the album should have ended with ‘Ocean Man’, which I don’t understand. I like the song myself, but as an album closer? I think I’d really be wanting more. And ‘She Wanted…’ brings it all home with a sort of unexpected emotional ending. It’s a breakup song, “straight Richard Thompson” according to Dean Ween, but instead of the usual guy-girl clichés, Gene Ween sings from the perspective of a man who’s completely left out to dry and lost for words after their lady’s been wooed away by a bunch of pirates. Left broken by the whole ordeal, he goes straight to the booze and wallows in his misery. Quite the sad way to end what is an incredibly fun album. In fact, the last words “For I’m not the man I used to be/And now I’m one of them” left such a mark initially that the sentiment inspired me to make a post about the best ending lines on an album.

So you’ll notice the song really ends about 2-and-a-half minutes into the runtime. Leaves you wondering, “Well, what else is there?” And a few moments later, these whooshing synths come in – I guess meaning to sound like these ominous breezes in the middle of the quiet ocean – before a familiar melody begins to play. It’s only a slowed down reprise of ‘I’m Dancing in the Show Tonight’, the song that started the whole record off and, by that point, in the closing moments seems so long ago. The little hidden touch puts a feather in the cap of the whole package. This is the way that the album should close out, and it was always meant to be. Clicking on the ‘the mollusk’ tag below will take you to the other songs from the album I’ve written posts for. And if I’d known it when I was doing the ‘B’ section, ‘The Blarney Stone’ and ‘Buckingham Green’ would have had their own articles too. It’s just how these things go sometimes.

#1141: Ween – Roses Are Free

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Ween’s 1994 album Chocolate and Cheese is considered to be one of the band’s best albums among Ween fans. I’m partial to it, myself. There are a couple others I think are better. That’s neither here nor there. After acquiring a huge bonus via signing to the Elektra Entertainment record label, the band used it to rent out a proper studio and carefully construct the tracks that would become the 16 available on Chocolate…. A huge contrast to the 4-track, pretty-much-demo-releases of The Pod and Pure Guava that came before. It would sound like Gene and Dean Ween were taking things truly seriously this time, but the album contains just as much absurdity and humour, although packaged with tighter songs, slicker production and with some underboob on the front cover.

‘Roses Are Free’ is a song that can be found on that album and is one of the big, big highlights on there. Again, a much-beloved song in the Ween fandom, ‘Roses…’ is a massive tribute to Prince. It would apparently baffle Dean Ween that no one would ever point out the icon’s influence on the track; it seemed so obvious to him. And once you read that and listen to it, you can kind of tell. The subtly provocative way Gene Ween sings the song, the chord progression that occur throughout… that rockin’ guitar solo. All out of the Prince guidebook. The lyrics aren’t meant to mean anything in particular and were written mainly to fill the spaces in the grooves. Even so, they are known to get some of the biggest cheers at a Ween show, particularly the “Get in your car and cruise the land of the brave and free” and “Resist all the urges that make you want to go out and kill” lines. Two very poignant statements that come out of nowhere in this song about nothing.

As much as the version on the album is cool and everything, the song takes on another life when performed live. Although the song benefits from being recorded in a bright and shiny studio, its studio recording is still very much a two-man job with Gene on vocals and guitar and Dean on guitar accompanied by a drum machine and synthesized bass guitar. Could say it somewhat restricted. Though with the five-piece band that Ween eventually developed into, the track morphs into a true monster. The keyboards further fill the soundspace, the drum performance hits harder thanks to Claude Coleman Jr., and the guitar solo handled by both Gene and Dean goes on for another minute or so because they both get so into it. It’s a sight to see. It’s a marvel to hear. I’ll embed a well-known performance of it below.

#1125: Ween – Right to the ways and the rules of the world

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Maybe the best way to listen to The Pod is through the way its broken up on its vinyl releases. Split up into four sides, having the time to digest one of those at a time with some breaks in between would probably allow a new listener to at least digest the 15-20 minutes that each side of vinyl provides. I didn’t do this. When I was fully on my Ween exploration in 2015, I dove headfirst into the album on Spotify and listened to it the whole way through. All 76 minutes. That first time was a slog. I don’t know if you know, but the album is known for having extremely shitty production, even though a lot of the songs are classics. At least to us Ween fans, anyway. ‘Right to the ways and the rules of the world’ is only the seventh track on there. On that first listen, it felt like I’d been listening to the album for much longer than when the song arrived. And it also felt like it went on for a lot more than the mere five minutes it lasts for.

Now of course I’m used to it all. The track is a slow, slow one though. Coming after the little non-song of ‘Pollo Asado’ (a very popular one for Ween people), ‘Right…’ is what I believe to be a mimic of those old, melodramatic ’70s progressive rock songs by bands who would write about things like folklore or traditions of the past… myths and legends and the like. Gene and Dean Ween take on this melodramatic route, singing about nothing but a bunch of silliness – brilliant imagery though, gotta be said – all of which is crowned by the aloof harmonies that recite the song’s title phrase. “Monsters that trinkle like cats in the night/The cosmic conceiver continues his plight.” Those are just the first couple of lines.

The screeching organ that blares throughout is the melodic linchpin throughout the song, really hammering home that sort of medieval type of sound that I think the song’s going for. Something of a vocal chameleon, Gene Ween puts in another captivating performance. Increasing in intensity throughout, it culminates in the final verse where he lets out a shriek and then falls into a fit of laughter as the instrumental continues. Some people may argue that the song takes some momentum out of the album’s proceedings. Whatever “momentum” that may be, going through this album can feel like being in a state of purgatory sometimes. It’s just as essential as any other track on there, I feel. The production is so murky, you could almost choke on it. But the song at the core of it stands strong.

#1054: Ween – pork roll egg and cheese

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Ween’s second album The Pod is a notably difficult album to listen through from start to finish. The tracks all suffer from a very low-budget production quality, having all been recorded on a 4-track cassette recorder. Plus, a lot of the songs on there are quite unconventional to say the least. Ween were never ones to hold themselves in any boundaries when it came to making music, and it’s arguable that The Pod is the major exhibit of just how freaky Gene and Dean Ween could get with whatever they had at their disposal. Yet despite all this, this album’s actually really great. Sometimes it feels so wrong to like as many songs as I do on here. They have no right to be as good as they are, as murky and muddy as they all sound. To also help tie this sprawling experience together, specific lyrical themes are brought in and reintroduced during various points. One of them culminating in ‘pork roll egg and cheese’, the album’s penultimate number.

Initially mentioned in the record’s third track ‘Frank’, the ‘pork roll, egg and cheese’ combination is mentioned again in 13th track ‘Awesome sound’ (with additional bacon). It’s sort of referred to in ‘Pollo Asado’. The phrase is repeated from the beginning to end of the track ‘She fucks me’ as some sort of madness mantra. If you hadn’t by this point, you’ll definitely be wondering what this fixation with this damn sandwich is all about. And right after that last repetition of the phrase in ‘She fucks me’ ends comes the track fully dedicated to it. In comparison to the 21 songs that precede it, ‘pork roll egg and cheese’ is almost like a lullaby. It’s a really relaxing, very chilled track. I don’t think it would be wrong to say it’s actually rather cute in a way. It’a pleasant ode to the times, after having completed a hard day’s work, to just sit down, gather your thoughts and eat some good food.

Let’s say there were potential discussions of singles from this album, which there probably weren’t but just go along with me for this, I don’t think it would be wrong to put ‘pork roll egg and cheese’ as a definite contender. Sure, the subject matter’s a little out there. It may have needed to go through a rerecording/remix. But man, this song hits all the right spots even in its original form on the album. Even the little moments like the split-second clearing of the throat at the song’s start or when Gene Ween kinda cracks up during the verse before the last chorus always scratch that inner itch. Reading comments online, I’ve seen people say that this song deserved to close the album out, and it probably should have. It certainly possesses an ending-credits feel to it. Plus it’s where the ‘pork roll egg and cheese’ theme comes to a close having been introduced probably almost an hour earlier. But ‘The Stallion’ has a few last words he’d like to share before truly leaving the listeners to ponder. But really, ‘pork roll’ is one of my highlights from there and most definitely one of my favourite songs by Ween too. I’ll have to try the sandwich one day.

#1050: Ween – Polka Dot Tail

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If you were to go on Spotify and search up Ween’s The Mollusk, you’ll see that ‘Polka Dot Tail’ is the least played track out of the album’s first seven songs. Just about though, only 124 less than the next track and that one is the vaudeville/showtime-esque opening number. Actually, that’s at the time that this post is being written. That may well have changed since then. Even so, I feel like the least-played scenario has been the case for this song for quite a while. Well, I guess one song has to be listened to the least. But if it were up to me, the track would much, much higher. It’s been one of my favourite songs from that album ever since listening to it for that first time in 2014.

The fluttering keyboard from the preceding title track has just about finished fading away into the distant silence before the disorienting synths of ‘Polka’ fill the soundscape once more. The track is something of a slow, psychedelic waltz. Waltzes are usually in 3/4 time, right? On every one count is a huge kick drum whose bass hits with a massive force, while an acoustic guitar lays out the chord progression on the left channel and a synthesizer playing the root notes in the right. A double-tracked Gene Ween harmonises with himself, his voice sounding a little pitched-down due to the process of recording at a faster pace and slowing the tape down, something which was well-known feature in a lot of Ween songs. And what he sings about, whales with polka dot tails, taking flans and squishing them in hands and the rhyme schemes he adopts are very much based on the children’s song ‘Down by the Bay’. In fact, here’s a performance of that particular song by children’s music singer Raffi in which he says that lyric outright.

At points after Gene Ween sings “Tell me it ain’t so”, the synths drone on, building tension, leaving the listener to wonder what turn this track might just take next. At one of these moments Gene says ‘Billy’, which came across as random to me, as it probably would to any listener, when I first heard it. Once I found out that the bending, echoing guitar solo that follows that utterance was played by Bill Fowler, a good friend of the band’s, then it made a lot more sense. And I guess the ‘help me’ that’s said before the final solo is a call to Fowler to bring things home. I really enjoy this track. It’s woozy, pushes you from side to side. Like I said earlier, the bass kicks have an almighty weight behind them and hit real hard each time they arrive. With all the talk about whales and imagery of puppies flying and shrinking like ice cubes in the sink, the musical/lyrical combination establishes a psychedelic energy to the proceedings while also reinforcing the nautical theme that runs throughout the album. If ‘The Mollusk was the warm inviting moment, ‘Polka Dot Tail’ is the moment where the doors open and you begin to realise the party might just be a bit weirder than you thought it would be.