Mister, Would You Please Help My Pony?
| "Mister, Would You Please Help My Pony?" | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Song by Ween | |||||
| from the album Chocolate and Cheese | |||||
| Released | September 27, 1994 | ||||
| Recorded | c. Fall 1993–Spring 1994 | ||||
| Length | 2:55 | ||||
| Label | Elektra | ||||
| Chocolate and Cheese track listing | |||||
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"Mister, Would You Please Help My Pony?" is a song by Ween from the 1994 album Chocolate and Cheese.
Appearances
- Chocolate and Cheese (Demo Tape) (demo, 1993)
- Chocolate and Cheese (1994)
- Paintin' the Town Brown (live, 1999)
- Live at Stubb's, 7/2000 (live, 2003)
Song Details
Recording and Composition
"Mister, Would You Please Help My Pony?" is a psychedelic pop song with slight elements of lounge. The song is, for the most part, in the key of E major, though the bridge shifts to D major. The song is one of the few Ween songs to feature a key change, with it briefly shifting up to F major near the end of the solo and then to F# major at the end of the song.
Dean Ween sings the lead vocal (though Gene Ween sings the song live) and plays the guitar solo on the album version.[1] He also plays the drums.[2]
The song idea and the phrase, "Mister, would you please help me pony? I think his lung's fucked up," were conceived by Deaner during an intense mushroom trip late at night on tour in a Seattle hotel.[3] Producer Andrew Weiss pressured Deaner to put a bridge section into the song, to add to the simpler structure most previous Ween songs had used. In response, Deaner added the "Poooo-ny" part, in which he used a guitar chord that he took from "Isn't She Lovely" by Stevie Wonder.[4]
A demo was recorded in early 1993[5] and would be included on the Chocolate and Cheese demo tape. This demo has not been heard by fans.
Live performances
"Mister, Would You Please Help My Pony?" was first played with the live band in March 1994, six months before the release of Chocolate and Cheese. Ever since, it has remained a common live song during every era of Ween. It was even adapted with country instrumentation during the 1996 country tour.[6] Ween has officially released live recordings from Mollusk tour (December 1997) and the White Pepper tour (7/7/2000), which can be heard on the albums Paintin' the Town Brown and Live at Stubb's, respectively.
In 1999, Dean Ween wrote about playing this song live:
This has always been our favorite song to play. It's a good balance between sweet and tender and totally horrible. When this song sounds bad live it's completely unlistenable; when it sounds good it sounds like this [referring to the Paintin' the Town Brown version].[7]
In addition, "Mister, Would You Please Help My Pony?" was played numerous times by the Dean Ween Group in 2015 during the Ween hiatus.[8]
Lyrics
Official lyrics were printed in the Chocolate and Cheese liner notes:
Mister, would you please help my pony?
He's over there behind the tree
He's down in the dirt, would ya help him?
I think it's his lung
Mister, would you please help my pony?
He's chewin' bark and not the leaves
He's cryin' like a baby, would you help him?
I think it's his lung
Mister, would you please help my pony?
He's down — he ain't gettin' up
He coughed up snot in the driveway
And I think his lung's fucked up
Pony, pony, pony
Mister, would you please help my pony?
He's over there lookin' at me
He can't talk because he's a pony
I think it's his lung[9]
Song Themes
Death and Injury, Profanity/Swearing, Stallion, Sung by Dean Ween
References
- ↑ H. Shteamer, Chocolate and Cheese, p.79
- ↑ H. Shteamer, Chocolate and Cheese, p.59
- ↑ H. Shteamer, Chocolate and Cheese, p.80–81
- ↑ H. Shteamer, Chocolate and Cheese, p.79
- ↑ https://archive.org/details/sim_new-york-times_the-new-york-times_1993-04-11_142_49298/page/n225
- ↑ https://brownbase.org/every_time_played.php?band=all%20bands&song_id=122
- ↑ From the Paintin' the Town Brown liner notes
- ↑ https://brownbase.org/every_time_played.php?band=all%20bands&song_id=122
- ↑ From the Chocolate and Cheese liner notes.