My Name Is Mud

In the book Primus: Over the Electric Grapevine, when discussing "My Name Is Mud", bassist Les Claypool explained that "the whole notion of the ... song is basically about a couple of tweekers"—one of whom is the titular Mud[1]—"who are hanging out, and they get in a fight over something stupid, and one of them kills the other one. Kind of a River’s Edge–type vibe."[2]

"My Name Is Mud" (like the rest of Pork Soda) was recorded in the band's rehearsal space, which was a series of UltraSound Audio-owned warehouses located in San Rafael. According to Claypool: "We ended up taking over three [of UltraSound's] spaces—we stuck [guitarist Larry LaLonde] in one, [drummer Tim Alexander] in one, and me in another. And we set up video cameras, so we could see each other. And we tracked Pork Soda through a Gamble console, which is our live console, onto [Alesis Digital Audio Tape (ADAT)]. It was one of the first ADAT records."[3] "My Name Is Mud" was produced by the band themselves.[4]

The music video for "My Name Is Mud" was directed by Mark Kohr (who would also helm the videos for two other Primus singles: "DMV" and "Mr. Krinkle").[5] According to Les Claypool, the video is composed of three distinct visual threads: The first is the band performing the song in silhouette. The second is Claypool, in character as Aloysius Devadander Abercrombie A.K.A. Mud, burying a dead body while spitting chewing tobacco and singing at the camera. The third is set in a spa "where ... beauty is voluptuous. Where big people are beauty, and skinny people are not."[6]

The outdoor scenes were filmed around the Palo Alto area, near Interstate 280. During the first day of shooting, the band was caught in a massive rainstorm. "We ended up having to actually bag it," Claypool later noted, "which was a big deal ... scrapping the day almost killed the entire thing. It was freezing-ass cold, and the generator kept dying because somebody put diesel into a gas generator."[6] Larry LaLonde noted something similar: "I remember it being super cold and raining [when we filmed the outdoor scenes]—just standing on the field, freezing to death. That was a tough one to make. It was pretty uncomfortable."[7] The mud bath scenes were shot in Calistoga, California, and the graphic designer and musician Bob C. Cock (who also appears in the music video for Jerry Was a Racecar Driver) cameos in this portion of the video, where he drinks soda containing the pig head from the cover.[6]

During Primus's Woodstock '94 performance of "My Name Is Mud", the band was pelted with mud,[8] which band drummer Tim Alexander noted was done "not in a mean way, but kind of a rock ’n’ roll way."[9] About a minute into the song, the band stopped playing and Les Claypool told the crowd, "Well I opened a big-ass can of worms with that one, didn't I? The song is called 'My Name Is Mud' but keep the mud to yourselves, you son-of-a-bitch." He also told them that throwing mud was a "sign of small and insignificant genitalia".[10] At that point "we got them to stop," Claypool explained in a 2014 interview with Greg Prato, "and we were able to continue and do our show."[9] In the same interview, Claypool joked that he "still [has] mud in those speaker cabinets."[9]

1. "Pork Chop's Little Ditty" – 0:21
2. "My Name Is Mud" – 4:46

• Les Claypool – vocals, bass
• Larry LaLonde – guitar
• Tim Alexander – drums