Wealth & Money Quote by Gene Ween

The sting here is how calmly Gene Ween narrates a classic label breakup as if he were describing a busted refrigerator. “A certain, steady amount of product” is deliberately unromantic language for something that’s supposed to be art. He’s ventriloquizing the record-industry mindset: bands aren’t voices, they’re units. The phrase “they could count on it” carries the real accusation. Ween wasn’t being nurtured; they were being harvested for predictability, a dependable line item until the moment the band asked to be treated like a growth proposition instead of a maintenance account.

“When it came time to ask for the money for this new record, they dropped us” sketches the power dynamic in one clean beat. Labels love reliability right up until reliability requires investment. The subtext is that loyalty in the music business is conditional and usually one-directional: you deliver revenue; they deliver optional support.

Then comes the pivot: “It was fine with us.” That’s not indifference, it’s posture - a refusal to grant the label the pleasure of seeming essential. It reframes the firing as mutual, even liberating.

“It was a dead fish” is the quote’s killer tag because it’s gross, blunt, and final. Not “a bad relationship,” not “a creative difference” - a thing already rotting, beyond salvage. Ween’s intent isn’t to plead their case; it’s to puncture the myth that major-label affiliation equals legitimacy. If the system can’t fund the next record, it’s not a partnership. It’s a corpse you stop pretending to carry.