12 Golden Country Greats is the fifth studio album by the Americanrock bandWeen, and their third on Elektra Records. The album marked the first time Ween limited themselves to a specific genre of music, in this case, country music. According to producer and friend of the bandBen Vaughn, Ween asked him to produce the album as he had already been working with musicians on the Nashville country scene, having produced Arthur Alexander's Lonely Just Like Me album and co-written songs with Rodney Crowell and Gary Nicholson. Although they managed to get many highly regarded country musicians to play on the album, some, such as keyboardist Bobby Emmons and Danny Davis, turned them down due to the "blue" nature of much of their material. The session musicians were responsible for almost all instrumentation on the album: the only instrumental parts recorded by the core members of the band were guitar solos by Dean and Gene on "I Don't Wanna Leave You on the Farm" and "Fluffy" respectively. The legendary Bradley's Barn was chosen for recording the album. Later, Ween would assemble some of the session musicians again into a touring band dubbed The Shit Creek Boys.
Album title
Despite the album's name suggesting a number of 12 songs, 12 Golden Country Greats contains only 10 tracks, as the songs “I’ve Got No Darkside” and “So Long Jerry” were omitted after the artwork for the album was completed. Ween later claimed “12” represents the number of musicians that appear on the record, but afterward admitted it was merely an attempt to cover up the mismatch.
Singles
"Piss Up a Rope" was released as a single by Elektra and features the tracks "You Were the Fool" and "So Long, Jerry" "Piss Up a Rope" was also released as a 7-inch single on Diesel Only Records, featuring another non-album track recorded during the 12 Golden Country Greats sessions – "Sweet Texas Fire".
Reception
Reviews for the album were mostly positive. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic called it "as satisfying as any of their records, and gutsier, too", despite interpreting "Mister Richard Smoker" as being homophobic. He awarded the album 4 stars out of 5. Ethan Smith of Entertainment Weekly railed against the album, describing the entire album as having songs "notable more for their homophobia, misogyny, and racism than for anything funny", and gave the album a C−. Sputnikmusic's Zachary Powell gave the album 4 and a half stars out of 5 and claimed that "Writing songs about similar themes to what country songs have been written about but including their personal brown touch is what the band does best." Another writer of the same site, Bill Thomas, gave the album 4 out of 5. In a 2011 interview, Vaughn remarked that when the album was released many Ween fans were confused by the radical break with the band's previous sound, comparing it to the fan reception given to Neil Young's album Trans.
Track listing
All tracks written by Ween. In the tradition of country music, during the song "Powder Blue" Gene introduces each member of the band who then plays a short solo on their instrument. The original version runs for 4:16 and ends with a sample from Muhammad Ali. Ween were denied permission to use the sample by Ali's lawyers, but Elektra pressed the album accidentally. Repressings of the album contain a cut version, causing the song to abruptly end after the introduction "Ladies & Gentlemen, I'd like to present Muhammad Ali". Gene sings every song except "Piss up a Rope" and "Help me Scrape the Mucus off my Brain," which feature Dean on vocals. The melody of "Japanese Cowboy" closely resembles that of "Chariots of Fire" by Vangelis: the band has played the two songs as a medley in live shows. "Help Me Scrape the Mucus Off My Brain" is a riff on Merle Haggard's "If We Make It Through December", featuring a nearly identical melody but played much faster than Haggard's much more somber original.
