Shake Hands with Beef

"Shake Hands with Beef"
Song

Shake Hands With Beef is the first of two singles off the Brown Album by the band Primus.

Music Video

The video, directed by Les Claypool, features him, Larry LaLonde, and new drummer Bryan Mantia dressed in orange and brown playing atop a garbage can, while a family grills up a dinner of hamburgers in front of their trailer home. At certain points, Claypool and LaLonde grow insect wings and buzz around the barbecue, only to get swatted at by the family members.

The video was recorded at a slower pace and sped up, making the band members appear to be making strange, jerky motions.

Meanings

It has been presumed that to "shake hands with beef" is to give a handjob to a man. However, Claypool claimed that he wrote the song in an attempt to get a few laughs out of some vegetarian friends.

The song was performed live for the first time with Bryan "Brain" Mantia on drums on Late Night with Conan O'Brien in 1997. An extended version of this song appears on Primus' "best of" album, They Can't All Be Zingers. All the extended version includes is the music that faded out on the Brown Album, yet ends with a coda, total time being 4:20