American Music Blister In The Sun Color Me Once Violent Femmes

American Music Album: Why Do Birds Sing? (1991)
Blister In The Sun Album: Violent Femmes (1982)
Color Me Once Album: The Crow: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1994)
by Violent Femmes

In 1991, "American Music" reached No. 2 on Billboard's alternative rock chart, making it the most commercially successful single ever for the Violent Femmes. Gordon Gano populated the song with dozens of lyrical couplets that sound familiar, but are largely nonsensical when strung together — sections about being born too late, lamenting the lack of a prom date, and having done too many drugs, for example. Taken altogether, "American Music" is an elaborate pastiche of subtle homages to American music — it's a '60s-style pop song about pop music written and produced to sound like a slick, '60s-style pop song.

In its first form, "American Music" was a typical Violent Femmes loud-acoustic number inspired by the Ramones, a punk band with a sound alluding to that of '60s girl groups. "But [drummer] Victor [DeLorenzo] thought that Ramones approach wasn't right for the song and said, 'Why don't we do it as a shuffle?'" bassist Brian Ritchie told Radio Milwaukee. Then the band got to work. "There is a lot of arranging on that song. We put many, many pop music and rock references into the melody of that song," Ritchie said. There are some Beach Boys motifs, and the use of sleigh bells was taken from the production work of Phil Spector. The rapid tempo escalation at the song's end is a nod to "Heroin" by the Velvet Underground.

Blister In The Sun was Written by Violent Femmes lead singer Gordan Gano.

Body and beats
I stain my sheets
I don't even know why
My girlfriend, she's at the end
She is starting to cry

Gano says it isn't, and that he didn't hear that interpretation until years later. "I don't think there's a whole lot to understand with the lyrics," he told the Village Voice. "But I can see where people could get that idea."

Gano is coy in discussing Blister In The Sun, but he has explained that it's about the strung out feeling that comes from drug abuse. The girlfriend is at her wit's end because he keeps staining the sheets, as he lacks sexual control.

Blister In The Sun is the first song on the first Violent Femmes album, introducing the band with the famous guitar riff and snare hits. The band made inroads with songs like this one about adolescent insecurities delivered in a deprecating tone. Gordon Gano was just 19 when the album was released.

Blister In The Sun had a cult following and was favorite on American college radio in the '80s. In the early '90s, as "alternative" and "modern rock" radio stations went on the air, it got a lot of airplay because it was considered a classic of the genre. The album gradually sold over one million copies and earned the Violent Femmes a formidable fan base.

The line, "Big hands I know you're the one" is in the song because Gano has small hands. In the song, he's in a self-loathing state where he knows the girl is just going to take up with some big-handed guy.

In 2007, Blister In The Sun was used in commercials for the fast food purveyor Wendy's. Gordon Gano authorized its use, which triggered a lawsuit by the group's bass player Brian Ritchie, who stated: "I don't like having my sound misappropriated to sell harmful products, such as fast food… that's not why we made the music. It should not be hijacked." Ritchie cited misappropriation of jointly owned intellectual property as the basis for his suit.

Ritchie also blasted Gano in the publication OnMilwaukee, where he wrote, "When you see dubious or in this case disgusting uses of our music you can thank the greed, insensitivity and poor taste of Gordon Gano, it is his karma that he lost his songwriting ability many years ago, probably due to his own lack of self-respect as his willingness to prostitute our songs demonstrates. Neither Gordon (vegetarian) nor me (gourmet) eat garbage like Wendy's burgers."

The band was still touring when this went down, but they broke up soon after. They didn't return to action until 2013, when they played the Coachella festival.

Blister In The Sun was featured in the 1997 John Cusack film Grosse Pointe Blank. The soundtrack includes two versions of the song, the original 1982 release and a remake entitled "Blister 2000." The remake is slower and has kind of a funky instrumental sax solo in the middle.

A multi-instrumental cover of Blister In The Sun was used in a 2012 television commercial for the Hewlett-Packard DV6T notebook. In the ad, the song in played in various styles, including gospel, Mariachi and metal.

The barefoot child peeking into an old building on the album cover is three-year-old Billie Jo Campbell, who photographer Ron Hugo spotted walking with her mother in Los Angeles. Speaking to MTV News in 2007, Campbell recalled: "I remember looking into that building, and they kept telling me there are animals in there. I had no idea there were photographers there. I was pissed off that I couldn't see the animals."

The Violent Femmes album went Gold four years after its release and reached Platinum sales status four years later, despite never reaching the top 150 of the Billboard 200 album chart.

Gordon Gano wrote Blister In The Sun for a woman he met at a poetry reading. "She wanted to form a band like The Plasmatics, and maybe I'd play guitar, and I wanted a song I could offer," he told Mojo magazine. "But the rehearsal got canceled and I never heard from her again. I hear she joined a cult and moved to Canada."

Color Me Once (1994) Color Me Once was released as part of The Crow: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack and is one of the more mellow Violent Femmes tracks. The song reflects on a relationship that's lost its color and features some great slide guitar work from Gordon Gano. It is about as close to a country song as the Femmes ever got and is a welcome change of pace from some of their more frantic material.