Today’s SOTD is one I’ll always associate with my college years, the early 90s, even though it was released nearly a decade earlier.
For one thing, that’s when I first heard it. But I also just can’t lump Violent Femmes’ ‘Blister in the Sun’ in with more typical 80s fare. It has a punk spirit more in line with the early 90s. I see the band that recorded this song on a double bill with Exile in Guyville-era Liz Phair.
Violent Femmes recorded off and on for 28 years, starting with their 1983 self-titled debut (still their most famous collection) and officially hanging it up in 2009, eight albums later. I briefly owned their second record, Hallowed Ground, but it really starts and stops with this first album.
‘Blister in the Sun’ is the blockbuster track on this platinum album, but the whole record is worth hearing. ‘Add it Up,’ ‘Gone Daddy Gone’ and ‘Good Feeling’ are other standout tracks. But this is the only one that showed up in a Wendy’s commercial, to the consternation of at least one band member.
It appears that fans are split on the song’s meaning… it’s either about heroin or masturbation. Come on, guys, can’t it be both?
I strut my stuff
And I’m so strung out
I’m high as a kite
I just might
Stop to check you out
Let me go on like I
Blister in the sun
Let me go on
Big hands, I know you’re the one
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
Let me go on like I
Blister in the sun
Let me go on
Big hands, I know you’re the one
When I’m out walking
I strut my stuff
And I’m so strung out
I’m high as a kite
I just might
Stop to check you out
When I’m out walking
I strut my stuff
And I’m so strung out
I’m high as a kite
I just might
Stop to check you out
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
When I’m out walking
I strut my stuff
And I’m so strung out
I’m high as a kite
I just might
Stop to check you out
Let me go on like I
Blister in the sun
Let me go on
Big hands, I know you’re the one
Meet Me In Montauk 
I never really cared much for this song, but that’s not all that surprising since I’m not a big fan of punk. I do like, though, that it has a less cluttered sound than you will find with most punk. And I think it is more of a throwback to the late 70’s rather than the early 90’s.
I, too, associate this song with college, as I first heard it during my freshman year, in the dorm room of a high school friend, whose roommate was blasting it from her stereo. I immediately liked both the roommate and the song, and I can’t ever hear this song without transporting to that dorm room in Gainesville. Didn’t know or care what it was about then, but I certainly wouldn’t have guessed either of the two topics you’ve proposed today. Regardless, it’s a blast to the past, so thanks!