Music / Sailing the Seas of Cheese

Heheheheh! Dog will hunt!

When the going gets tough

And the stomach acids flow

The cold wind of conformity

Is nipping at your nose

When some trendy new atrocity

Has brought you to your knees

Come with us we'll sail the

Seas of Cheese

— The first track of the album "Seas of Cheese".

Sailing the Seas of Cheese is the second studio album and major-label debut by the band Primus, released in 1991. The band's breakout album, it gained a lot of attention for its weird and funny (but also serious at some point) themes and Les' style of bass playing.

Tracklist:

1. "Seas of Cheese" (0:42)
2. "Here Come the Bastards" (2:55)
3. "Sgt. Baker" (4:16)
4. "American Life" (4:32)
5. "Jerry Was a Race Car Driver" (3:11)
6. "Eleven" (4:19)
7. "Is It Luck?"(3:27)
8. "Grandad's Little Ditty" (0:37)
9. "Tommy the Cat" (4:15)
10. "Sathington Waltz" (1:42)
11. "Those Damned Blue-Collar Tweekers" (5:20)
12. "Fish On (Fisherman Chronicles, Chapter II)" (7:45)
13. "Los Bastardos" (2:39)

Principal Members:

• Les Claypool - vocals, electric bass, string bass, six-string fretless bass, clarinet
• Larry LaLonde - electric guitar, six-string banjo
• Tim Alexander - drums, percussion, water jug
• Tom Waits - vocals for "Tommy The Cat"

Sailing the Seas of Tropes:

• Album Intro Track: "Seas of Cheese", showcasing the weird genre bending sounds of Primus.
• Animated Music Video: "Tommy The Cat" has this with an old-timey aesthetic. Also, the final part of the "Jerry Was a Race Car Driver" music video shows an animated version of the album cover depicted in Claymation style.
• Book Ends: If you don't count "Seas of Cheese", the album starts with "Here Come the Bastards" and ends with a reprise with it.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: "Those Damn Blue Collared Tweakers" has this line:

  My eyes are growing weary

  As I finalize this song

  • "Fish On (Fisherman Chronicles, Chapter II) has this as well:
    I was so danged impressed I had
    To write this song called
    Fish on
• Broken Record:
  • "Tommy The Cat": "Say baby, do you wanna lay down with me?"
  • "Los Bastardos": "HERE THEY COME!"
• The Cameo: Tom Waits voices Tommy the Cat.
• Concept Video: "Jerry Was a Racecar Driver" and "Tommy The Cat".
  • "Jerry Was a Racecar Driver" has a man (played by Adam Gates) ordering nachos from a shirtless man, and then spilling it accidentally by colliding into a skateboarder (played by Larry La Londe). At the end, it zooms into the spilled nachos to reveal the stuff from the cover art, and then a pitbull sniffs at it.
  • "Tommy The Cat" has an Animated Music Video to describe the lyrics, and a milk-bar with Les as the bartender.
• Deliberately Monochrome: The video for "Tommy The Cat".
• Design Student's Orgasm: For the cover art, they actually had to hire a cheese coordinator and sculptor for the ship.
• Drill Sergeant Nasty: "Sgt. Baker" is his name, he will teach you how to play the game... of warfare.
• Epic Rocking: "Fish On (Fisherman Chronicles, Chapter II), whopping in at seven minutes and forty-five seconds!
• Instrumental: "Sathington Waltz"
• Miniscule Rocking: "Grandad's Little Ditty" which clocks in at 37 seconds. Beats out "Seas of Cheese" which is 42 seconds, and "Sathington Waltz" which is a minute and forty-two seconds.
• Motor Mouth: "Is it Luck?" has Les say this really fast:

  Said she wanted my body, not my mind

  So, I showed her my dictionary

  Showed her the words that I know

  Not quite desiring to

  And how loquacious I can be

  When I set my mind down to it

  But she wasn't impressed

  Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!

  She wasn't impressed at all

  She whispered in my ear

  She whispered in my ear and she said

  "Do you want to get lucky, little boy?"

  Well, I smiled

  Smiled and I said

  • "Tommy The Cat" famously has this too.
• One-Man Song: "Sgt. Baker".
• Performance Video: "Jerry Was a Racecar Driver" is half of this, it was recorded in the Phoenix Theater in California.
• Punny Name: "Tommy The Cat" is a pun on tomcat.
• Questioning Title?: "Is It Luck?"
• Sampling: "Jerry Was A Racecar Driver" has Chop Top from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 say the line in the image quote.
  • "Los Bastardos" also has this, with Vyvvyan and Rick from the UK sitcom The Young Ones saying "Shut up, you bastards!" and "You just called me a bastard, didn't you?" respectively.
• Rapid-Fire "No!": Les does this in "Is It Luck?".
• Spoken Word: "Is It Luck?" and "Tommy The Cat" have this in a really fast way.
• Title-Only Chorus: "Fish On"
• Undignified Death: The titular protagonist of "Jerry Was a Race Car Driver" meets his demise through a car crash while drunk-driving. Considering he was, well, a racing driver, he really should've known better than to drink and drive.
  Jerry was a race car driver, 22 years old
  One too many cold beers one night, and wrapped himself 'round a telephone pole
• Uncommon Time: "Eleven" has... an 11/8 time signature.