Listen To This Shit: Stella Brown?

With classy songs like Mister Richard Smoker, The HIV Song and Help Me Scrape the Mucus Off My Brain, casual fans of Ween could never guess the band holds some tenuous affiliation to the silly hippies from the Grateful Dead. Although, part of me can actually visualize that notorious cut-up Jerome Garcia singing “You can wash my balls with a warm wet rag” with a mischievously wry smile.

But Ween has certainly found ways to honor the Dead through the years, in their own Only Ween style of course. The duo penned a sweet, sincere ballad called So Long, Jerry that failed to make the 12 Golden Country Greats album, so it wound up as a B-side on the Piss Up A Rope single. Perfect combo.

Ween’s also performed righteous covers of the Dead’s Stella Blue, but again, while they stay true to the music, they do it on their terms. They’ve even sandwiched it between Booze Me Up And Get Me High and You Fucked Up, like they did at Ziggy’s in April 2001. The Stella Blue cover is as bona fide as can be, beautiful in its delivery and lacking in its irony — and it’s really damn good. It’s time to listen.

• Ween’s cover of Grateful Dead’s Stella Blue [date unknown]