One More (?) Go Around: A Hundred Songs I Absolutely Must Have With Me on 1/48/50

#307) "Shake Hands With Beef" by Primus - I have to admit, it took 20 years, but I finally get it. For a long, long time - too long - Primus was just "that guy", the one who plays the bass and wears...what, like a blue Sgt. Pepper uniform and dark glasses...er, right?  I never cared much, never listened, and routinely chose other bands over them to fill out the soundtrack of my life - Guns and Roses, Metallica, Alice in Chains, Black Sabbath, etc.

But this spring, in my mid-40s, I simply started listening, decided to get crazy with my Napster one Saturday morning, and now, the story of how Les Claypool auditioned to replace Cliff Burton in Metallica in the mid 1980s, and was rejected because, according to James Hetfield, Claypool was "too good", makes perfect sense. A better way to describe it: Les Claypool isn't Metallica....he's Primus. Make no mistake, there's absolutely nothing wrong with Metallica. But Les Claypool isn't Metallica.

He's fucking Primus. 

Of course, it's also true that Primus isn't just Claypool playing lead on bass. Where would the singularity that is the band's musical phrasing, the airtight intonation, innovation, the humor, the fright, the astonishing live performances, be without Larry LaLonde? Seriously, sometimes I'm not sure what language his guitar work is speaking...less a language, more like tongue.  The drumming is also top notch (would have to be), although they've switched drummers over the years, gone back and forth, even, between Tim Alexander and Jay Lane, the original drummer, among others, which begs the question, what must it be like to audition for Primus? To go before LaLonde and Claypool knowing all you can do is play the best you can...?

"Shake Hands With Beef" is ferocious, but the good sexy kind of ferocious, not the self-indulgent aggression that leads some performers to screaming out like the asshole in the bar I wish only to avoid at all cost. In the real world, I've spent most of my adult life doing everything I can to avoid anyone screaming, and I certainly don't find it entertaining.

This I find entertaining, wholly rousing, funny and a little retarded...as all great rock and roll should be.




#308) "Puddin' Taine" by Primus - "I will not be jumping out into the audience this evening, for one very good reason...I am a pussy." - Les Claypool, 1997




#309) "Jilly's on Smack" by Primus - Live version, Bonnaroo, 2011. (Mind bending, seriously, all of their 2011 performance at Bonnaroo)

I could go on and on, spanning three decades..."Mr. Krinkle", "Kalamazoo", "Lee Van Cleef", "American Life", "Winona's Big Brown Beaver", "Poetry and Prose", "Jerry Was a Racecar Driver", "Southbound Pachyderm", "Silly Putty", "Frizzle Fry", "Tommy the Cat", "Groundhog's Day", "Over the Electric Grapevine", "My Name Is Mud" ...

My name is Primus Fan.