Ween Artistfacts

Ween song list

Ween Artistfacts

1987-2012
Dean WeenVocals, guitar
Gene WeenVocals, guitar
Dave DreiwitzBass
Claude Coleman, Jr.Drums
Glen McClellandKeyboards
Ween's first show was closing a talent show in 1987. The band played an unusual cover of Jimi Hendrix' "Purple Haze."
In 2002, Ween drummer Claude Coleman, Jr. was involved in a near-fatal car accident. Coleman was hospitalized for 35 days for multiple pelvic fractures and severe brain injuries. He was in a wheel chair for two months while he healed and was finally able to play the drums again after four months of recovery.
Ween started out as a two-person band with a drum machine. Later, following the advice of Shimmy Disc records founder Mark Kramer, they became a full band, initially performing as The Ween.
Ween guitarist Dean Ween is very good friends with Josh Homme from Queens Of The Stone Age. Ween actually plays guitar on three tracks on QOTSA's Songs for the Deaf album, "Mosquito Song," "Gonna Leave You," and "Six Shooter."
Jam band Phish has been known to cover Ween's "Roses Are Free" in concert since 1997. When asked about the cover, singer Gene Ween told Now magazine "I like (Phish frontman) Trey Anastasio as a person, but as far as the music goes, all that jam band s--t makes me want to puke."
Gene Ween (real name Aaron Freeman) married his long time girlfriend Sarah Poten 1996. The couple had a daughter named Ana in 1999 but divorced a couple years later. Most of Ween's 2003 album Quebec is about Freeman's dealing with the divorce.
Ween guitarist Dean Ween says the band writes around 50 songs for every album they make. Ween says it's been that way since the band first started when he was just 14 years old. When asked by The A.V. Club how many songs he's written over the years, Ween said: "I have no way to know. I tried transferring just our four track tapes and I couldn't do it. It was just such a massive undertaking."
Ween drummer Claude Coleman, Jr.'s dad is a very well respected police officer. After rising to the position of director of Newark, New Jersey's police and fire departments, Coleman Jr.'s dad became a judge.
Ween was signed to Twin/Tone Records after opening for another band on the label, Skunk, at a showcase for the label's A&R guy. The concert was held in the basement of Skunk's bass player's mother's house. Skunk's drummer, Claude Coleman, Jr. would later become a full-time member of Ween.
Following the breakup of Ween and his own divorce, Claude Coleman, Jr. relocated from New Jersey to Asheville, North Carolina. He began performing and touring with several bands, including the Dean Ween Group, and Amandla. "Ween was like every band in the world, so when Ween broke up, when that ended, I need like seven bands to make up for that," he said in his Songfacts interview. "I need a country band, I need a heavy band, I need my soul funky jazz band, I just need it all."
Ween are known for their eclectic and genre-defying style. The only album they've recorded on which they played only one specific genre was 12 Golden Country Greats, released in 1996. The music on the record was pure country, featuring fiddle, banjo, mandolin, and pedal steel guitar, combined with Ween's trademark tongue-in-cheek lyrics.
In 2012, Ween parted ways, but the band came back together for an epic reunion in early 2016. In an interview with Songfacts, founding member Dean Ween talked about the reunion: "The music means so much to so many people, and I think that when we got back together this year, the realization of it - I was getting the love, and Aaron [Gene Ween] was getting the love, solo, but nothing compared to the love we got when we started loving each other again."

In a separate Songfacts interview, drummer Claude Coleman, Jr. shared his thoughts about the band, post-reunion. "We'd been doing it for so long, you know? Then we took three-and-a-half years off and when we got back together, it was just like, 'Hey, what's up?' and then we were playing again. It wasn't much different than that, just the way we went about it was a lot more careful, more considerate and thoughtful. It's a more purposeful thing now, and it's good. It's a great thing. That's not to say that we take ourselves seriously, but we take ourselves a little more seriously now."

Comments: 1

Okie Not from MuskogeeTheir high skoo band was
SYNTHETIC SOCKS
...not bad mang, not bad, really...

see more comments

More Songfacts:

Big Yellow TaxiJoni Mitchell

Joni Mitchell's "Big Yellow Taxi" is about the commercialization of Hawaii. On her first trip to the islands, she looked out of her hotel window and saw a parking lot as far as the eye could see.

We're Not Gonna Take ItTwisted Sister

Musically, the Twisted Sister song "We're Not Gonna Take It" is based on the Christmas tune "O Come All Ye Faithful."

The FlameCheap Trick

Cheap Trick hated the ballad "The Flame" but recorded it because they needed a hit, and the song delivered, going to #1.

The BestTina Turner

"The Best" by Tina Turner was originally recorded by Bonnie Tyler; Turner's hit version added a bridge and a saxophone solo by Edgar Winter.

RoyalsLorde

Lorde was 16 years and 11 months old when "Royals" topped the Hot 100. In doing so she became the youngest ever solo artist to write and perform a #1 hit.