{"id":973480,"date":"2019-11-13T14:27:14","date_gmt":"2019-11-13T21:27:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=911740"},"modified":"2019-11-13T14:27:14","modified_gmt":"2019-11-13T21:27:14","slug":"the-breakdown-violent-femmes-blister-in-the-sun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kfmu\/music-news\/the-breakdown-violent-femmes-blister-in-the-sun\/","title":{"rendered":"The Breakdown: Violent Femmes\u2019 \u2018Blister in the Sun\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Everyone remembers the scene in My So Called Life<\/em><\/a> where Angela celebrates getting over Jordan Catalano by dancing to the Violent Femmes<\/a>\u2019 \u201cBlister in the Sun\u201d in her bedroom, or when the song was prominently featured in Gross Pointe Blank<\/em><\/a>. (The band even made a new video<\/a> for the film that starred a puppet version of Bill Clinton\u2019s cat, Socks.)<\/p>\n

Now, in the latest installment of Rolling Stone<\/em>\u2018s \u201cThe Breakdown\u201d series, Femmes frontman Gordan Gano and bassist Brian Ritchie discuss the making of their 1983 hit \u2014 and its long misinterpreted meaning. Gano describes a conversation that took place nearly 20 years after the song\u2019s release, where someone claimed it was about masturbation. \u201cI was really<\/em> surprised,\u201d says Gano. \u201cWhen you say \u2018I stained my sheets,’\u201d replies Ritchie, \u201cif it\u2019s not about masturbation, then what was it about?\u201d<\/p>\n

Gano says he initially wrote the song with a female singer in mind. \u201cI just thought of big hands because mine are small,\u201d he says of the line \u201cBig hands I know you\u2019re the one.\u201d Original drummer Victor DeLorenzo spontaneously created the song\u2019s signature drum lick, making it the first song he played with the band.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere in the clip, the duo discuss the song\u2019s long-lasting popularity, despite the fact that it was never put out as a single (the record company decided against it because it didn\u2019t have a bass drum). The song has taken on a life of its own, constantly playing in pubs, sports stadiums and in the media. \u201cThrough 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\u2019t want them to,\u201d says Ritchie, \u201cit became a standard before it was a hit.\u201d<\/p>\n

36 years later, Gano says he hasn\u2019t grown wary of playing \u201cBlister in the Sun.\u201d \u201cWe\u2019re never tired of doing it for an audience or for people because there\u2019s such joy,\u201d he says. Adds Ritchie: \u201cIt\u2019s wonderful to be able to incite such enthusiasm by simply doing what we do and having a song that has that impact.\u201d<\/p>\n