FEATURE:
Groovelines
Violent Femmes - Blister in the Sun
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THE first track…
from the Violent Femmes’ eponymous debut album of 1983, I wanted to spend a bit of time with Blister in the Sun. If the title doesn’t ring any bells, then the track will become known to you once you hear it. Although the song has been part of some animosity in the band – “In August 2007, Gordon Gano was the subject of a lawsuit brought by bassist Brian Ritchie. The lawsuit stems partly from Gano's authorization of the use of "Blister" in a Wendy's commercial” -, it has not dented its magic and legacy. With founding members Gano and Ritchie still in the band, they don’t seem to get that sick of playing their best-known song. I would encourage people to check of Violent Femmes’ catalogue and albums like their eponymous debut. That album especially is a majestic work. I really love Blister in the Sun. I am going to bring in a few articles regarding the song. In 2019, Rolling Stone ran an article regarding their series, The Breakdown. We get an insight into the story and meaning of Blister in the Sun:
“Everyone remembers the scene in My So Called Life where Angela celebrates getting over Jordan Catalano by dancing to the Violent Femmes’ “Blister in the Sun” in her bedroom, or when the song was prominently featured in Gross Pointe Blank. (The band even made a new video for the film that starred a puppet version of Bill Clinton’s cat, Socks.)
Now, in the latest installment of Rolling Stone‘s “The Breakdown” series, Femmes frontman Gordan Gano and bassist Brian Ritchie discuss the making of their 1983 hit — and its long misinterpreted meaning. Gano describes a conversation that took place nearly 20 years after the song’s release, where someone claimed it was about masturbation. “I was really surprised,” says Gano. “When you say ‘I stained my sheets,'” replies Ritchie, “if it’s not about masturbation, then what was it about?”
Gano says he initially wrote the song with a female singer in mind. “I just thought of big hands because mine are small,” he says of the line “Big hands I know you’re the one.” Original drummer Victor DeLorenzo spontaneously created the song’s signature drum lick, making it the first song he played with the band.
Elsewhere in the clip, the duo discuss the song’s long-lasting popularity, despite the fact that it was never put out as a single (the record company decided against it because it didn’t have a bass drum). The song has taken on a life of its own, constantly playing in pubs, sports stadiums and in the media. “Through a long process of word of mouth, playing the gigs, other people doing covers of it, radio stations going rogue and playing it anyway even though the record company didn’t want them to,” says Ritchie, “it became a standard before it was a hit.”
36 years later, Gano says he hasn’t grown wary of playing “Blister in the Sun.” “We’re never tired of doing it for an audience or for people because there’s such joy,” he says. Adds Ritchie: “It’s wonderful to be able to incite such enthusiasm by simply doing what we do and having a song that has that impact”.
I am going to shift back and forwards regarding the chronology of the articles. There has been misconception regarding the lyrical inspiration of Blister in the Sun. This interview from The Village Voice of 2013 brought together Brian Ritchie and Gordon Gano. Again, we get some clarification regarding Blister in the Sun’s truth:
“Do you have fond memories of playing New York early on?
(Brian) Ritchie: We came out of the punk era and the best of that music came from New York, so some of our favorite bands were people like Television, Richard Hell and the Voidoids, Ramones, Talking Heads, that whole scene. And that was still relatively recent. New York is the musical capital of the entire world.
The first gig we did was opening for Richard Hell at the Bottom Line and at CBGBs. It was his comeback, sort of. And The New York Times‘ Robert Palmer wrote a review where he basically gave a paragraph to Richard Hell and wrote the whole rest of the article about how great we were. So we felt like that really put us on the map. And after that when we came back, the word had spread and there were people lined up around the block. Even before we had our first album out, there was a buzz on us in New York City.
It really made us feel special, because coming from Milwaukee where everybody takes everything for granted and doesn’t really appreciate the local talent, to go someplace like New York, which is more significant than Milwaukee obviously and achieve acclaim like that, really helped our self-confidence. Gordon moved to New York in 1984, in between the release of the first album and when we recorded Hallowed Ground, and I moved to New York in 1995.
In recent years, Kenny Chesney and Keith Urban have been covering “Blister in the Sun” in concert. Do you think they understand the lyrics?
(Gardon) Gano: I don’t think there’s a whole lot to understand with the lyrics. In fact, it was maybe 10 or 15 years later, when somebody was asking me about that song and said something like, “Well, you know… You know what that song’s about.” I’m like, “No. What are you talking about?” “Well everybody knows. You wrote it.” I’m like, “What?” And they told me the song was about masturbation. I had never thought of that.
So it’s not about masturbation?
Gano: Not to me! [Laughs] But I can see where people could get that idea. I just hadn’t thought of that. [Laughs] I don’t think anybody likes that song because they think the lyrics are deep.
Do you ever get sick of playing “Blister in the Sun”?
Ritchie: When we played Coachella, we could see the panorama of the entire festival. There are a number of different stages, and as soon as we started out the set with “Blister in the Sun,” when that riff hit, it was like a swarm of insects coming towards our stage. They all started running from the other stages. [Laughs] When you can get that kind of reaction–I guess it would be like if the Rolling Stones started playing “Satisfaction”–it really never gets old”.
I am going to finish soon. There is an another article – this one from 2014 -, where Tash Reith-Banks wrote for The Guardian regarding her exposure of and experiences with the song:
“It was Blister in the Sun by the Violent Femmes, and when I heard it it was already nearly a decade old. But it took me at least another year to find out what it was. We had no interwebs in those days, children, and the man in the local music shop looked at me like I was speaking Swahili standing on my head when I tried to explain the song without the title or band name. I left with a copy of New Kids’ Step by Step, though, which seemed like a victory of sorts. It sounded thin and fake in comparison. It was thin and fake in comparison.
We moved back to England at the end of 1992. I still didn’t know the name of my song. But in January, wandering around Camden market trying to acclimatise, I heard it. A guy with a CD stall was playing it and dealt pretty well with my slightly incoherent demand to know what it was (I was still working on my new London accent). I bought the CD. It cost all of my Christmas money. The CD guy said to come back if I liked it – he had more stuff I might be into.
I liked it. I loved it. I mainlined the whole album, and the Violent Femmes and their aggressive, whinging, humorous post-punk, outsider rock became my gateway drug for punk and indie. I went back to that stall time and time again and was introduced to Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Buzzcocks, the Undertones, Rufus Wainwright and more. With the help of the Violent Femmes I sidestepped Take That, the Spice Girls and all manner of R Kelly 90s chart-toppers and came out smiling on the other side”.
Almost forty years after its release, Violent Femmes’ debut album still resounds and impacts. One big reason is the brilliant opening track. I wanted to explore it a little more and get some details and recollections (from the minds behind the music) about a classic. Blister in the Sun is surely…
ONE of the best tracks of the 1980s.