Nan
"Nan" is a song from the 1990 album GodWeenSatan: The Oneness.
Song Details[edit | edit source]
Recording and Composition[edit | edit source]
"Nan" is an alternative rock song with jangle pop and funk rock elements in addition to spoken word vocals. The funk-influenced sections consist of the chords E9, C9, E9 and C9 played up an octave, while the rest of the song is in the key of G major.
The lead vocals are by Gene Ween (facetiously credited in the liner notes as "guest vocals by Eddie Dingle").[1] Dean Ween plays the guitar. Like most of the songs on GodWeenSatan, the drums are played by Dean Ween and the bass is played by Andrew Weiss.
Live Performances[edit | edit source]
"Nan" is known to have been played live as early as February 1990, and has fairly consistently been a common inclusion in live sets throughout the years.[2] Gene Ween played the song on a solo-acoustic radio show in May of 1990, apparently with radio-friendly lyrics.[3] There was also another radio-friendly version played with Kramer and Claude Coleman for their February 1992 John Peel Session. The song was also played a few times by the Dean Ween Group in 2015.[4]
A 12/9/1992 recording from the Pure Guava tour can be heard on the At the Cat's Cradle album; a 9/14/2001 recording from a special anniversary show is found on GodWeenSatan: Live.
Live Spoken Intro[edit | edit source]
[From Live at Pranzatelli’s]
- Gene: This next one is a song that Mickey and I did. Or Mickey did actually.
[From February 2nd, 1990]
- Dean: This is a song we've never really played live before and we'll try do it for you now and not fuck it up too bad. It's a beautiful love song that we wrote.
Lyrics[edit | edit source]
Official lyrics, handwritten by Dean Ween, were printed in the GodWeenSatan liner notes:
What's your big secret? Could u give me a clue?
Oh silly girl, I'm so in love with u
Won'tcha tell me what's on your mind?
If u opened your head, tell me what would u find?
Are u 4 real?
What do u feel?
Finders keepers, losers weepers
If I could get the lid off, I'd look inside the jar
Is this the best thing I can do?
T'ain't done me no good so far
Mind over matter
But it seems that I don't matter at all
Nan, a party of one
Do u think I could be invited to come?[5]
Song Themes[edit | edit source]
Eddie Dingle, Love, Profanity/Swearing, Screaming, Song Title Is a Woman's Name, Sung by Gene Ween, Tape Speed Manipulation
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ GodWeenSatan liner notes
- ↑ https://brownbase.org/every_time_played.php?band=all%20bands&song_id=131
- ↑ https://brownbase.org/setlist.php?band=all%20bands&show_id=1366
- ↑ https://brownbase.org/every_time_played.php?band=all%20bands&song_id=131
- ↑ From the GodWeenSatan liner notes; lightly edited for clarity.