Violent Femmes in concert, 2006. Photo: GothEric, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Three strummed chords, a stop, then that snare. You know the one before the singing even starts. ‘Blister in the sun’ opened the Violent Femmes’ first album in 1983 and it still gets people up at every fortieth birthday party in the country.
People have also been arguing about what it means for about as long. So we went back to what the band have actually said.
What is ‘Blister in the sun’ about?
Gordon Gano, who wrote it, doesn’t go in for big explanations. In a 2013 Village Voice interview he said he didn’t think there was a whole lot to understand in the lyrics.
The reading you’ll see most often is drug use, and the twitchy, strung-out feeling that goes with it. The song’s Wikipedia entry says the lyrics refer to drug use, and both American Songwriter and Songfacts describe Gano explaining it that way.
So it’s not about the other thing?
Every schoolyard in the eighties had someone who swore it was about masturbation. Gano says that never crossed his mind. He told the Village Voice he only heard the theory years after the record came out, and his answer was “Not to me!” He did laugh and say he could see how people got there.
It was meant for someone else
According to American Songwriter, Gano wrote the song for a woman he’d met who wanted to start a band like the Plasmatics. It never came together. As he put it, he heard she “joined a cult and moved to Canada”. The song stayed with him.
Who are the Violent Femmes?
A three-piece from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, put together in 1981. Gano sang and played guitar, Brian Ritchie played acoustic bass and Victor DeLorenzo played a stripped-back kit built around a snare. The drum lick on ‘Blister in the sun’ was DeLorenzo’s, and the song was his first performance with the band.
Their break is one of the great street-corner stories. On 23 August 1981 they were busking outside the Oriental Theatre in Milwaukee when James Honeyman-Scott of The Pretenders walked past and liked what he heard. Chrissie Hynde asked them to play a short acoustic set at The Pretenders’ show that night.
When did ‘Blister in the sun’ come out?
It’s track one on the debut album Violent Femmes, released by Slash Records on 13 April 1983. They’d recorded it in July 1982 at Castle Recording Studios in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.
Gano wrote most of the album’s songs in high school in Milwaukee, when he was around 18, and Mark Van Hecke produced it. ‘Blister in the sun’ sits alongside ‘Kiss off’, ‘Add it up’ and ‘Gone daddy gone’, which carries a Willie Dixon co-writing credit. If you owned the record you probably wore out side one.
The album never had a hit single to push it along. It sold by word of mouth and college radio for years, went platinum in the US in February 1991, and only then made the Billboard 200, peaking at No. 171 that August. By 2016 it had sold about three million copies in America. It’s in the 1001 albums you must hear before you die book, and in 2012 Slant Magazine ranked it No. 21 among the best albums of the 1980s. The three of them had been playing on a Milwaukee footpath only a year before they made it.
Why Australia loved the Violent Femmes
Australians got the Femmes early. The debut album reached No. 31 here, stayed on the charts for seven months and has gone double platinum with ARIA (the Australian Recording Industry Association). Four of their albums made the Australian Top 40, according to their discography.
One of them even moved here. Brian Ritchie settled in Hobart in 2008, became an Australian citizen on Australia Day 2012 and curated the Mona Foma festival from its start in 2009 until 2024, as his biography notes. He’s also a licensed teacher of the shakuhachi, the Japanese bamboo flute. The band played the Sydney Opera House, Woodford Folk Festival and Mona Foma around the start of 2015.
A second life on screen
In 1997 the song turned up in the John Cusack film Grosse Pointe Blank. Cusack wanted an updated version too, so the band recorded a slower take with saxophones and strings, and both went out on a promo CD single. That was the first time ‘Blister in the sun’ was released as a single at all.
The 2007 Wendy’s advert didn’t go down so well. Gano had approved it, Ritchie took legal action over the jointly owned song, and the row split the band until they got back together in 2013.
If there’s an eighties track you’d like to hear on the show, request a song, or have a look at what we’ve found around the web.
Where were you the first time you heard it? Uni bar, school social, someone’s backyard? Tell us in the comments.
Frequently asked questions
What is ‘Blister in the sun’ about?
Gordon Gano has never given a line-by-line explanation and says there isn’t a whole lot to understand in the lyrics. The most widely reported reading, from American Songwriter, Songfacts and others, is that it’s about drug use and the jittery feeling that comes with it.
Is ‘Blister in the sun’ about masturbation?
Not according to the man who wrote it. Gano told the Village Voice in 2013 that he only heard that theory years after the song came out, and it had never occurred to him. He did laugh and admit he could see how people got there.
When was ‘Blister in the sun’ released?
It’s the first track on the Violent Femmes’ self-titled debut album, released by Slash Records on 13 April 1983. It was recorded in July 1982 in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, and wasn’t issued as a single until a promotional CD in 1997.
Who sings ‘Blister in the sun’?
The Violent Femmes, from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Gordon Gano wrote and sang it, Brian Ritchie played acoustic bass and Victor DeLorenzo played drums. DeLorenzo came up with the drum lick, and the song was his first performance with the band.
Was ‘Blister in the sun’ a hit?
Not on the charts. The debut album was certified platinum in the US in February 1991 before it had ever entered the Billboard 200, where it peaked at No. 171 that August. In Australia the album reached No. 31 and went double platinum.
What movie is ‘Blister in the sun’ in?
It features in the 1997 John Cusack film Grosse Pointe Blank. Cusack asked for an updated version, so the band also recorded a slower arrangement with saxophones and strings. Both versions went on a promotional CD single.
Who was ‘Blister in the sun’ written for?
Gano told American Songwriter he wrote it for a woman he’d met who wanted to form a band like the Plasmatics. The band never happened, and he kept the song himself.
Does a member of the Violent Femmes live in Australia?
Yes. Bassist Brian Ritchie moved to Hobart, Tasmania, in 2008 and became an Australian citizen on Australia Day 2012. He curated the Mona Foma festival from its first year in 2009 until 2024.
Find more stories behind the songs you grew up with on Jukebox Saturday Night.
Disclaimer: The information provided is for educational and entertainment purposes only. While we strive for accuracy, music history is often based on available documentation and interpretation.
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