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GodWeenSatan: The Oneness

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GodWeenSatan: The Oneness
Studio album by
Ween
ReleasedNovember 16, 1990
Recorded1989–1990
Studio
Genre
Length76:31
LabelTwin/Tone
ProducerAndrew Weiss
Ween chronology
Axis: Bold As Boognish
(1988) 		GodWeenSatan: The Oneness
(1990) 		The Pod
(1991)

GodWeenSatan: The Oneness is the debut studio album by American rock band Ween, released on November 16, 1990, by Twin/Tone Records.[4] The album introduces several key themes for the group, including their eclecticism, gonzo sense of humor, and their demon god/mascot, the Boognish.

The album contains several tracks that are long time staples of Ween's live performances, such as "You Fucked Up", "Fat Lenny", "Marble Tulip Juicy Tree", and "L.M.L.Y.P."

Background

[edit]

Writing

[edit]

The album was written and performed by Aaron Freeman and Mickey Melchiondo, who began writing and recording together when they were 14.[5] They soon adopted the name Ween and began recording home tapes. The apparent earliest GodWeenSatan track, "I Gots A Weasel," first appeared on their 1985 Ween WAD EP in an extended form.[6]

At age 16[7] Ween released their first album-length tape, The Crucial Squeegie Lip, on Birdo'pray Records, which featured a short version of "You Fucked Up."[8]

On January 10, 1987, Ween played their earliest known live show at 'Weenstock,' a small event held in Freeman's basement. Five months later, they began playing at more prominent venues, such as City Gardens in Trenton, NJ.[9] Shortly afterward, Ween released their second album-length tape, Ween II (Axis: Bold As Boognish), which featured a slower version of "Bumblebee."[10]

Between September and November 1988, Ween recorded a home demo tape referred to as Scraping The Palm For Guava, which contained early versions of four GodWeenSatan songs, "Mushroom Festival In Hell," "Licking The Palm For Guava," "Up On The Hill" and "Don't Laugh (I Love You)."[11]

On January 2, 1989,[12] Ween played a show at Pranzatelli's Stereo and TV in Bound Brook.[13] The show featured the earliest known versions of several GodWeenSatan songs. These included fully formed versions of "Tick" and "Licking the Palm For Guava," shorter unfinished versions of "LMLYP" & "Nan," and extended versions of "Don't Laugh (I Love You)" and "El Camino."[14] An FM broadcast of Ween playing at The Rathskellar on April 18, 1989, showcases Ween performing half of the album's tracks live. The recordings notably feature the earliest known versions of "Never Squeal," "Cold and Wet," "Common Bitch,'' "Old Queen Cole," "Papa Zit," "Squelch the Weasel," and "Fat Lenny."[15]

In January 1990, Ween moved into the Pod, where they continued to record several home tapes. A majority of the released material from these tapes appeared on The Pod album, but songs like "Birthday Boy," "Squelch The Weasel," "Blackjack," & "Puffy Cloud[16] appeared on GodWeenSatan.

Dean Ween later referred to the album as a 'greatest hits' of material the duo had written during their first six years. He used a 1958 Fender Musicmaster during recording.[17]

Release

[edit]

By the time the album was released in November of 1990,[4] the duo had already recorded their second album, The Pod. GodWeenSatan would be Ween's only release on Twin/Tone.

Restless Records reissued the album on September 11, 2001,[17] jokingly referring to it as the "25th anniversary edition", despite the album only being eleven years old at the time. The reissue featured digitally remastered sound, new packaging, and the inclusion of three bonus tracks—"Bumblebee Part 2", "Stacey", and "Hippy Smell"—integrated into the original album's playlist. The band performed the album in its entirety on September 14, 2001.

In 2016, Ween released GodWeenSatan Live, a live recording from a show recorded on September 14, 2001, during which the group performed the entirety of the album.[17][18][19] It was their first live release since 2008.[20][21] The album was released near the time of The Deaner Album by The Dean Ween group.[22]

Critical reception

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Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[23]
Entertainment WeeklyB+[24]
OndaRock7/10[25]
Pitchfork9.6/10[26]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[27]
Select4/5[28]
Spin Alternative Record Guide7/10[29]
Sputnikmusic4.0/5[30]
Uncut[31]
The Village Voice(dud)[32]

David Browne, writing for Entertainment Weekly, praised the album's silliness and frequently ranting nature, writing: "As it veers uncontrollably from the stupid to the unlistenable, God Ween Satan becomes the energizing sound of two street-corner nutjobs railing as best they can against the entire world. Equal opportunity for clever morons to punish the masses with the aid of modern recording equipment — it’s truly a wonderful thing."[24] Andrew Perry of Select wrote that Ween derived their "sonic dementia" from post-hardcore, but that the band's stylistic range was much wider, including parodies of bubblegum pop and lovers rock. He concluded that the "anarchic" album was "unrealistically varied and never boring. You won't have heard the like of this before".[28]

In a retrospective review, Pitchfork's Matt LeMay wrote: "Unafraid to say 'fuck' for no apparent reason, unafraid to rock out on cheesy metal riffs, and unafraid to pick to pieces just about every variety of music, Ween managed to capture the essence of their sound on their debut as well, if not better than, on any later album."[26] Uncut describe the album as containing pastiches of "anything on the rock planet", with Ween offending and delighting the listener "in equal measure".[31] Heather Phares of AllMusic described GodWeenSatan as "almost as eclectic and inspired" as Ween's subsequent albums, with a palpable sense of fun that makes it "more than just a promising debut".[23] Less favorable was Robert Christgau in The Village Voice, who quipped of "L.M.L.Y.P." that Ween "went on about pussy for nine minutes (good idea) in a Princey blues-minstrel drawl (bad one)".[32]

In Punk News' review of The Mollusk, GodWeenSatan and The Pod were said to have carved Ween's 'expansive niche in experimental fits that had numerous great ideas, but lacked focus.[33] Far Out Magazine's retrospective on The Mollusk similarly states that the duo's first two albums featured nothing that "even hinted at anything that could be seen as ‘commercial.’"[34]

Track listing

[edit]

All tracks written by Ween except "L.M.L.Y.P.", which contains a partial cover of "Shockadelica" and elements of "Alphabet St." by Prince and “El Camino” which contains a partial cover of “White Rabbit” by Jefferson Airplane. Towards the end of "Birthday Boy", "Echoes" by Pink Floyd begins to play, due to Ween recording on cassettes which already contained material.

GodWeenSatan: The Oneness
No.TitleLength
1."You Fucked Up"1:37
2."Tick"1:53
3."I'm in the Mood to Move"1:16
4."I Gots a Weasel"1:22
5."Fat Lenny"2:07
6."Cold and Wet"1:12
7."Bumblebee"1:19
8."Bumblebee Part 2"1:23
9."Don't Laugh (I Love You)"2:49
10."Never Squeal"2:25
11."Up on the Hill"1:56
12."Wayne's Pet Youngin'"1:41
13."Nicole"9:20
14."Common Bitch"1:46
15."El Camino"2:17
16."Old Queen Cole"1:34
17."Stacey"1:58
18."Nan"2:55
19."Licking the Palm for Guava"1:07
20."Mushroom Festival in Hell"2:35
21."L.M.L.Y.P."8:48
22."Papa Zit"1:15
23."Hippy Smell"2:11
24."Old Man Thunder"0:23
25."Birthday Boy"3:31
26."Blackjack"4:36
27."Squelch the Weasel"3:11
28."Marble Tulip Juicy Tree"5:24
29."Puffy Cloud"2:40
Total length:1:16:31
  • "Bumblebee Part 2", "Stacey", and "Hippy Smell" do not appear on pressings of the album before 2001.

Personnel

[edit]

Ween

Additional musicians

  • David Williams – backing vocals on "I'm in the Mood to Move"
  • Eddie Dingle – vocals on "Nan"
  • Andrew Weiss – bass guitar[citation needed]

Technical

  • Andrew Weiss – producer, mixing
  • Theo Van Rock – mixing
  • Greg Frey – engineer (drums)

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Dean Ween Interview | Music Is My Life Podcast Episode 18 | Berklee Online. 2018 – via YouTube.
  2. ^ Phares, Heather. "AllMusic Review by Heather Phares". allmusic.com. Retrieved 5 August 2020.
  3. ^ Sterdan, Darryl (2023-03-14). "Classic Album Review: Ween | God Ween Satan: The Oneness". Tinnitist. Retrieved 2023-04-02.
  4. ^ a b "God-Ween-Satan". twintone.com. Retrieved 2018-11-07.
  5. ^ "Ween FAQ | Frequently Asked Questions | Ween.Net". www.ween.net. Retrieved 2022-07-30.
  6. ^ ween - ween wad [reconstruction], 1985, retrieved 2022-07-30
  7. ^ "Ween The Crucial Squeegie Lip | Ween Discography | Ween.Net". www.ween.net. Retrieved 2023-04-02.
  8. ^ Ween - The Crucial Squeegie Lip (1987), retrieved 2022-07-30
  9. ^ "Brownbase | Ween Setlists and Statistics | Shows". brownbase.org. Retrieved 2022-07-30.
  10. ^ Ween - Bumblebee, retrieved 2022-07-30
  11. ^ Ween - The Scraping The Palm For Guava Tape (1988), retrieved 2023-04-02
  12. ^ Broerman, Michael (2021-11-22). "Footage Of 1989 Ween Concert From New Jersey Stereo Store Surfaces On YouTube [Full Show]". L4LM. Retrieved 2023-04-02.
  13. ^ "Brownbase | Ween Setlists and Statistics | 1/2/1989 Bound Brook". brownbase.org. Retrieved 2022-07-30.
  14. ^ Ween - Instore at Pranzatellis (1989), retrieved 2022-07-30
  15. ^ "Brownbase | Ween Setlists and Statistics | 4/18/1989 Trenton". brownbase.org. Retrieved 2022-07-30.
  16. ^ Ween (2005-12-11), The Big Timmy Wasserman Tape, retrieved 2023-04-02
  17. ^ a b c "Ween to release 'GodWeenSatan' live album, recorded three days after September 11". Vanyaland. 2016-10-19. Retrieved 2023-04-02.
  18. ^ Wilkening, Matthew (28 April 2018). "How Prince Taught Dean Ween What NOT To Do". Diffuser.fm. Retrieved 2023-04-02.
  19. ^ "Ween Announces Summer 2017 Tour Dates -". mxdwn Music. 2017-03-02. Retrieved 2023-04-02.
  20. ^ "Ween To Release First Live Album Since 2008". JamBase. Retrieved 2023-04-02.
  21. ^ "Ween Detail New Live Release _GodWeenSatan: Live_". Jambands. 2016-10-19. Retrieved 2023-04-02.
  22. ^ "Ween to Release Live Album From 2001; 'The Deaner Album' Out This Week, Watch New Video". Highway 81 Revisited. 2016-10-20. Retrieved 2023-04-02.
  23. ^ a b Phares, Heather. "God Ween Satan – Ween". AllMusic. Retrieved October 31, 2018.
  24. ^ a b Browne, David (January 11, 1991). "God Ween Satan–The Oneness". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on May 5, 2020. Retrieved May 6, 2020.
  25. ^ Stefano Ferreri. "Ween". OndaRock (in Italian).
  26. ^ a b LeMay, Matt (September 20, 2001). "Ween: God Ween Satan: The Oneness". Pitchfork. Retrieved February 3, 2016.
  27. ^ Sarig, Roni (2004). "Ween". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. pp. 864–65. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
  28. ^ a b Perry, Andrew (February 1991). "Ween: God Ween Satan". Select. No. 8. p. 75.
  29. ^ Sutton, Terri (1995). "Ween". In Weisbard, Eric; Marks, Craig (eds.). Spin Alternative Record Guide. Vintage Books. p. 431. ISBN 0-679-75574-8.
  30. ^ "Ween - GodWeenSatan: The Oneness (Album review 2) | Sputnikmusic".
  31. ^ a b "Ween – God Ween Satan—The Oneness". Uncut. No. 70. March 2003. p. 118. Archived from the original on 6 September 2005. Retrieved 26 November 2020.
  32. ^ a b Christgau, Robert. "Christgau's Consumer Guide". Retrieved December 5, 2020.
  33. ^ "Ween - The Mollusk". punknews.org. 3 February 2012. Retrieved 2023-04-02.
  34. ^ "When Ween went for whimsy on 'The Mollusk'". faroutmagazine.co.uk. 2022-06-24. Retrieved 2023-04-02.
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