‘Transdermal Celebration’ and Carlos Santana’s stolen gear: Ween’s finest guitar moment
Ween stand out as total musical outliers, blurring lines long before it was fashionable to do so, and their career has been nothing short of remarkable. Despite experiencing some turbulent moments, Dean Ween and Gene Ween – Mickey Melchiondo and Aaron Freeman, respectively – have remained intrepid school friends who have been involved in numerous memorable musical escapades. Among these, perhaps their most memorable feat was performing an exceptional lick with one of Carlos Santana’s stolen guitars.
Dean Ween himself revealed this subterfuge in a Facebook post in 2014, where he opened his account by saying: “I think enough time has passed where I can finally tell my favourite Ween story of all time. The businesses and the people involved have long since closed their doors and moved on for good and hopefully the people involved (and Carlos himself, if it comes to that) will have a good sense of humour about this story.”
It was the early 2000s, and Ween were taking a long time to record what would eventually become their 2003 masterpiece, Quebec. The cult duo worked on the album for two years, and it was far form a simple process. Freeman’s divorce and Melchiondo’s general hellraising meant the duo brought Quebec to life in many different locations as they searched to find the right environment amid the mire. They eventually wrote over six dozen songs before whittling it down to the 15 that made the cut. Recalling the nature of the period and how it affected the record, Melchiondo said: “It was some dark shit. The record is one of my favourites, but it is a depressing album lyrically.”
Melchiondo said that they were working in producer Andrew Weiss’s living room on ‘Transdermal Celebration’, which would be the final single from Quebec when drummer Claude Coleman was involved in a terrible car crash. It left the group without a percussionist for the recording or the tour. In the meantime, drumming on most of the album was left to Melchiondo, Josh Freese and Sim Cain.
At that point, ‘Transdermal Celebration’ had been recorded three times, one featuring Coleman, another with a drum machine, and then the final take with Freese. But there was one phone call which would change the tone of the track forever.
In the middle of the session at Weiss’ house, Melchiondo received a call from his roadie, who worked for an unnamed backline company that provided gear to bands touring the northeast. He told him that Carlos Santana’s equipment – including guitars – had arrived via truck haulage that night. The psychedelic rock pioneer was due to record a performance on Good Morning America the next morning, and his equipment was to be delivered to New York City in the ensuing hours.
Melchiondo is a noted fan of Santana and as well as labelling him “one of my favourite guitarists of all-time”, but also claimed that he is “ageing like a fine wine,” something which “Only Neil Young, Prince, and a small handful of others can make that claim as they become members of the AARP”. As the call about Santana’s gear reached Melchiondo’s phone, there was only one thing to do.
“What needed to be done was immediately clear to me,” explained the guitarist, “I had an opportunity to play the solo on ‘Transdermal Celebration’ through Carlos Santana’s amplifier and guitar. I had one shot at it, it meant taking a hard disk recorder to a storage space where all of Carlos’ stuff was sitting in transit. I arrived at 2am.”
If that sounds like the kind of covert operation usually left in the hands of Special Forces, then you’d be right. In fact, it would seem all Melchiondo was missing was a pair of night vision glasses. He continued: “We (very carefully) unpacked his equipment and set up his stage gear, and in one take, I recorded the guitar solo for ‘Transdermal Celebration’ (the one that appears on the album), playing through Carlos Santana’s guitar, pedalboard and amplifier.”
Though such an operation was completed in “ten minutes and we were terrified,” it delivered one of Ween’s finest moments on record. The solo, in particular, is one of Ween’s best. It is sticky with golden honey and the kind of tonal brilliance that can only be achieved in the dark during a musical equipment heist. While ‘Transdermal Celebration’ has long been regarded as one of Ween’s better songs, this unique fact adds even more gravitas.
