Shake Hands with Beef

Infobox Single
Name = Shake Hands With Beef


Artist = Primus
from Album = Brown Album
B-side =
Released = 1997
Format =
Recorded =
Genre = Alternative rock Funk metal Alternative metal
Length = 4:02
Label = Interscope Records
Writer = Claypool/LaLonde/Mantia
Producer = Primus
Certification =
Chart position =
Last single = Southbound Pachyderm 1995
This single = Shake Hands With Beef 1997
Next single = Over the Falls 1997
Misc = Shake Hands With Beef is the name of a single off of the "Brown Album" by the alternative rock band Primus.

Track listing

#"Shake Hands with Beef" - 4:02

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 "shake hands with beef" is a term for masturbation or the act of giving a handjob to a man. Another possibility is confronting someone you don't like, as in shaking hands with someone you have a "beef" with.

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