GodWeenSatan: The Oneness
GodWeenSatan: The Oneness is the debut studio album by American rock band Ween, released on November 16, 1990, by Twin/Tone Records.[2] The album introduces several key themes for the group, including their eclecticism, gonzo sense of humor, and their demon god/mascot, the Boognish.
| GodWeenSatan: The Oneness | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | November 16, 1990 | |||
| Recorded | 1989 | |||
| Studio |
| |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 70:59 | |||
| Label | Twin/Tone | |||
| Producer | Andrew Weiss | |||
| Ween chronology | ||||
| ||||
Restless Records reissued the album on September 11, 2001, 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 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." The band performed the album in its entirety on September 14, 2001. The performance was subsequently released on the live album GodWeenSatan Live in 2016.
Background
Writing
The album was written and performed by Aaron Freeman and Mickey Melchiondo, who had been writing and recording music together five or six years earlier after they met in a middle school typing class at age 14.[3] The duo began creating tapes of their music shortly afterward, as Ween. The apparent earliest GodWeenSatan track, 'I Gots A Weasel,' first appeared on their 1985 'Ween WAD' EP in an extended form.[4]
Around 1986 Ween released their first album-length tape, 'The Crucial Squeegie Lip,' on Birdo'pray Records. This featured a short version of 'You Fucked Up.'[5]
On January 10, 1987, Ween played their earliest known live show at 'Weenstock,' a small event held in Freeman's basement. Around five months later, they began playing at more prominent venues, such as City Gardens, in Trenton, NJ.[6] Shortly afterward, Ween released their second album-length tape, Ween II (Axis: Bold As Boognish), which featured a slower version of 'Bumblebee.'[7]
In early 1989,[8] Ween played a show at Pranzatelli's Stereo and TV in Bound Brook. The show featured the earliest known versions of several GodWeenSatan songs. These included fully formed versions of 'Tick' & 'Licking the Palm For Guava,' shorter unfinished versions of 'LMLYP' & 'Nan,' and longer versions of 'Don't Laugh (I Love You)' & 'El Camino.'[9] A FM broadcast of Ween playing at The Rathskellar on April 18, 1989, showcases Ween performing exactly half of the album's tracks live. The recording notably features the earliest known performances of 'Never Squeal,' 'Up on the Hill,' 'Cold and Wet,' 'Common Bitch,'' 'Old Queen Cole,' 'Papa Zit,' 'Squelch the Weasel,' 'Wayne's Pet Youngin' & 'Fat Lenny.'[10]
Release
By the time the album was released in November of 1990,[2] the recordings were at least 11 months old, and the duo had already recorded their second album, The Pod. GodWeenSatan would be Ween's only release on Twin/Tone.
Critical reception
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic | [11] |
| Entertainment Weekly | B+[12] |
| OndaRock | 7/10[13] |
| Pitchfork | 9.6/10[14] |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [15] |
| Select | 4/5[16] |
| Spin Alternative Record Guide | 7/10[17] |
| Sputnikmusic | 4.0/5[18] |
| Uncut | [19] |
| The Village Voice | [20] |
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."[12] 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".[16]
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."[14] Uncut describe the album as containing pastiches of "anything on the rock planet", with Ween offending and delighting the listener "in equal measure".[19] 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".[11] 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)".[20]
Track listing
All tracks written by Ween except "L.M.L.Y.P.," which contains a partial cover of "Shockadelica" and elements of "Alphabet St." (Prince).
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 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
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
- ^ Phares, Heather. "AllMusic Review by Heather Phares". allmusic.com. Retrieved 5 August 2020.
- ^ a b "God-Ween-Satan". twintone.com. Retrieved 2018-11-07.
- ^ "Ween FAQ | Frequently Asked Questions | Ween.Net". www.ween.net. Retrieved 2022-07-30.
- ^ ween - ween wad [reconstruction], 1985, retrieved 2022-07-30
- ^ Ween - The Crucial Squeegie Lip (1987), retrieved 2022-07-30
- ^ "Brownbase | Ween Setlists and Statistics | Shows". brownbase.org. Retrieved 2022-07-30.
- ^ Ween - Bumblebee, retrieved 2022-07-30
- ^ "Brownbase | Ween Setlists and Statistics | 1/2/1989 Bound Brook". brownbase.org. Retrieved 2022-07-30.
- ^ Ween - Instore at Pranzatellis (1989), retrieved 2022-07-30
- ^ "Brownbase | Ween Setlists and Statistics | 4/18/1989 Trenton". brownbase.org. Retrieved 2022-07-30.
- ^ a b Phares, Heather. "God Ween Satan – Ween". AllMusic. Retrieved October 31, 2018.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Stefano Ferreri. "Ween". OndaRock (in Italian).
- ^ a b LeMay, Matt (September 20, 2001). "Ween: God Ween Satan: The Oneness". Pitchfork. Retrieved February 3, 2016.
- ^ 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.
- ^ a b Perry, Andrew (February 1991). "Ween: God Ween Satan". Select. No. 8. p. 75.
- ^ Sutton, Terri (1995). "Ween". In Weisbard, Eric; Marks, Craig (eds.). Spin Alternative Record Guide. Vintage Books. p. 431. ISBN 0-679-75574-8.
- ^ "Ween - GodWeenSatan: The Oneness (Album review 2) | Sputnikmusic".
- ^ a b . Uncut. No. 70. March 2003. p. 118. Archived from the original on 6 September 2005. Retrieved 26 November 2020.
- ^ a b Christgau, Robert. "Christgau's Consumer Guide". Retrieved December 5, 2020.