“Jerry Was a Race Car Driver” is a song by the rock band Primus. It was released in 1991 as the first single from their second album, Sailing the Seas of Cheese, and reached number 23 on the U.S. Alternative Songs chart. The song tells the stories of two characters, Jerry, an ill-fated race car driver who collides with a telephone pole while driving intoxicated (hence the use of “was”, in the title) and Captain Pearce, a retired fireman.
The music video for Jerry Was a Race Car Driver begins with Bob Cock getting an order of nachos at an arcade, only to drop them after a collision with Larry LaLonde on a skateboard once outside. The rest of the video cuts between scenes of the band playing an out-of-control gig in a small club (Phoenix Theater in Petaluma, California), closeup shots of the fallen nachos, and race car footage. Some of the early race car footage was filmed at the Petaluma Speedway, a few blocks away from the Phoenix Theater. At the end, the camera zooms in on the cheese, and there is a claymation segment which features many of the creatures on the cover of the Sailing the Seas of Cheese album, then zooms back out to the cheese, where a pit bull eats/sniffs it, closing the video. The band would return to claymation for the “My Name Is Mud” and “Southbound Pachyderm” videos years later.
Tracklist:
- Jerry Was a Race Car Driver
Primus
Les Claypool: vocals, bass, string bass, six-string fretless bass, clarinet, production
Larry LaLonde: guitar, six-string banjo, production
Tim “Herb” Alexander: drums, percussion, water jug, production
