GodWeenSatan: Live

GodWeenSatan: Live
Live album by Ween
Released	November 18, 2016
Recorded	September 14, 2001
Venue	John and Peter's
Length	77:46
Label	Chocodog Records
Ween chronology
At the Cat's Cradle, 1992 (2008) GodWeenSatan: Live (2016) Bananas and Blow (2018)

GodWeenSatan: Live is a live album by Ween, released on November 18, 2016 on Chocodog Records.

Description and History

The roughly 78-minute album is a complete recording of a single live show, from September 14, 2001 at Ween's hometown venue of John and Peter's in New Hope, PA. The show was a special event at which Ween played their first major album, 1990's GodWeenSatan: The Oneness in its entirety, in promotion of a new re-issue of that album. The date was notably just three days after the September 11, 2001 attacks, which caused the performance to be particularly emotional.

The performance features most of the standard, modern live Ween lineup, including Claude Coleman, Jr. and Dave Dreiwitz, though Glenn McClelland is seemingly absent. Andrew Weiss is additionally credited for bass, keyboards and sound effects. For the performance, Dean Ween used a 1958 Fender Musicmaster guitar, the same guitar he had used on the album.

Liner Notes

The following notes were written for the physical versions.

They say you only get one chance to make your first record, and that's very true. The thing with Ween, though, is that we had already been together for a while by the time our debut album, GodWeenSatan, was initially released, and had amassed a ton of tunes. I hadn’t thought of GWS as a new album, but more of a "greatest hits" of our first six years together.

In 1990, the year GWS was released (on Twin/Tone Records), CDs weren’t yet the format of choice but were well on the way. At the time, we thought of the album as a vinyl release, and sequenced it as such. We put a lot of thought into where the sides would break, and paid special attention to hold the heaviest shit for side 4. When the records and cassettes arrived at our apartment, lovingly called The Pod, we immediately put it on. Needless to say, we were pretty psyched.

We didn’t pay much attention to the CD version of GWS until Andrew Weiss, our producer, pointed out that it had been totally fucked in the mastering process. Back then, CDs held only 70 minutes or so of music before running into audio compression problems. Our album contained 26 songs, and went over that magic runtime of 70 minutes. The original master tapes of GWS snarled. It was really unique sounding, and way up in your face. What we heard on the CD was anything but that. You could hear background digital noise throughout its entirety, and it sounded like shit. Even GWS on tape sounded much better. It was always something that bothered us.

Fast-forward to 2001 and the impending re-release of GWS on Restless Records. We asked the label if we could re-master the album with Howie Weinberg at Masterdisk, who is possibly (no, definitely) the best mastering engineer that ever lived, and a massive Ween fan to boot. We told them that if they were willing to pay for it, we would give them additional songs that were left off the original Twin/Tone release.

Restless agreed to pay for the re-master. We called Howie, and Aaron, Andrew, and I went up to NYC with our analog tapes to see this scientific process at work, hoping GWS would finally get its sonic justice.

The original masters for GWS were recorded in the old-school way, to 2-track analog tape. Over time, tape condition can deteriorate, making them difficult to re-mix or re-master. To get tapes back into workable form, you literally have to bake them in a convection oven and then get only one chance to play the tapes back. Only one shot at resurrection.

When we met with Howie, he was very casual. He came in and had an assistant get the convection oven. We thought this was going to be a very scientific process, with guys in white lab coats and surgical gloves. Instead, Howie had coleslaw from his corned beef sandwich dripping juice on the tapes, and some guy wheeled out what looked exactly like a microwave oven on a cart. This was the true science behind "baking" analog tape. He threw everything in at once, and the four of us went out for a few hours while our masters baked on low heat.

Sure enough, when Howie threaded the tapes up and transferred them, there it was: the record that we remembered and loved so much in all of its sonic glory, sounding the best we’d ever heard it.

We joked around with the re-release, calling it the 25th Anniversary Edition when it was only 11 years old. The sticker stated that it was "state of the art 39-bit re-mastering" and was "enhanced with T-Base Pro Linear '46' phasing." Funny shit, but all that mattered was that it snarled again. GWS was now 76 minutes long, with three bonus tracks. By this time, CDs could handle the length.

GWS was re-released on September 11, 2001—a day that lives in infamy. We had planned a show at our local bar, John and Peter’s in New Hope, PA, on September 14 to celebrate the reissue.

If you are old enough to remember 9/11, you remember the feeling of dread and that things would never be the same, ever. We didn’t know whether to cancel the gig or not, but ultimately decided that we shouldn’t let the tragedy affect our plans.

There was a sense of raw emotion the night of the show. It had been only a few days since the towers had fallen, and everyone in the world had been glued to their TVs. As we walked onto the stage, the crowd was in a daze, but we came to play that night and needed to deliver in a big way. It was very cathartic on both sides of the stage, for both band and audience. Remarkably, that night, we were able to conjure up the spirit we had when we originally wrote these songs—some dating back to 1985.

I have never heard Gener sing as hard as he did that night. He was screaming, just like he did when we cut the record. I broke out my old 1958 Fender Musicmaster—the same one I had played on GWS.

Up until our reunion in 2016, this show from 2001 would be the only time we’d ever perform a lot of these tunes. Luckily enough, we had the foresight to record this night to 24-track, and in all of these years have never leaked it to the public. 9/14/01 was a very special night for Ween; a time way before it was trendy for bands to perform an album live in its entirety. It seemed like a good idea at the time, and now we’re pretty sure it was.

- Dean Ween

Track List

1	You Fucked Up
2	Tick
3	I'm in the Mood to Move
4	I Gots a Weasel
5	Fat Lenny
6	Cold and Wet
7	Bumblebee
8	Don't Laugh (I Love You)
9	Never Squeal
10	Up on the Hill
11	Wayne's Pet Youngin'
12	Nicole
13	Common Bitch
14	El Camino
15	Old Queen Cole
16	Nan
17	Licking the Palm for Guava
18	Mushroom Festival in Hell
19	L.M.L.Y.P.
20	Papa Zit
21	Old Man Thunder
22	Birthday Boy
23	Blackjack
24	Squelch the Weasel
25	Marble Tulip Juicy Tree
26	Puffy Cloud

Known Personnel

Sourced from the liner notes unless stated otherwise.

• Gene Ween - vocals, guitar
• Dean Ween - guitar, vocals
• Dave Dreiwitz - bass
• Andrew Weiss - bass, keyboards, sound effects
• Claude Coleman, Jr. - drums
• Kirk Miller - live engineer
• Tom Ruff - engineer, mixing, mastering engineer