12 Golden Country Greats

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12 Golden Country Greats
File:Ween-12GoldenCountryGreats.jpg
Studio album by Ween
Released July 16, 1996 (1996-07-16)
Recorded November 2-November 8, 1995
Genre Country[1]
Length 33:40
Label Elektra
Producer Ben Vaughn
Ween chronology
Chocolate and Cheese
(1994)Chocolate and Cheese1994		 12 Golden Country Greats
(1996)		 The Mollusk
(1997)The Mollusk1997
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic 4/5 stars[1]
Sputnikmusic 4.5/5 stars[2]
Pitchfork Media 8.5/10[3]
Entertainment Weekly C-[4]

12 Golden Country Greats is Ween's fifth album, and third on Elektra Records.

This album marked the first time Ween limited themselves to a specific genre of music. Bringing in a wide variety of seasoned (and sometimes legendary) Nashville musicians (including Charlie McCoy, Buddy Spicher, Bobby Ogdin and The Jordanaires), the album sought to recreate the sound of golden-age country music with a great amount of success, while also combining this sound with classic Ween on such tracks as "Piss Up a Rope." 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.

Track listing

No. Title Length
1. "I'm Holding You"   4:02
2. "Japanese Cowboy"   3:01
3. "Piss Up a Rope"   3:33
4. "I Don't Wanna Leave You on the Farm"   2:44
5. "Pretty Girl"   2:35
6. "Powder Blue" (3:13 on repressed versions of the album) 4:16
7. "Mister Richard Smoker"   2:42
8. "Help Me Scrape the Mucus off My Brain"   2:45
9. "You Were the Fool"   4:26
10. "Fluffy"   3:31

The original version of "Powder Blue" 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.

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.

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 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.

Singles

"Piss Up a Rope" was released as a single by Elektra and features the tracks "You Were the Fool" and "So Long, Jerry" (a tribute to Jerry Garcia, recorded during the 12 Golden Country Greats sessions but not used on the album.)

"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".

Personnel

References

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