Wendy’s: The fast food chain that broke up the Violent Femmes
The politics of punk used to really matter to people; isn’t that wild?! I don’t mean the “speaking out against the system” part, as the protest part of punk rock should always be an inherent part of the art form. I mean the internal politics of the punk scene. Entire bands used to live and die based on whether they were acting with integrity or “selling out”. Those were the stakes, too, as the Violent Femmes learned the hard way.
To me, it’s just a sign of how good bands had it. For a long time, a group of kids could earn a living playing intense, aggressive guitar music however they pleased if they were committed enough. Not a good living, to be clear, as noted in the seminal book Get in the Van by Henry Rollins. You may have to scarf some dog food sandwiches, trying not to taste them on the way down. Nevertheless, it was possible.
That 1980s hardcore scene was, surprisingly enough, where the Violent Femmes cut their teeth. It’s true; this quintessentially 1990s band was actually formed in 1981 by bassist Brian Ritchie and percussionist Victor Delorenzo, with singer and guitarist Gordon Gano arriving shortly afterwards.
Their self-titled debut album, Violent Femmes, came out in 1983. Despite not being officially released as a single until nearly 15 years later, its opening track ‘Blister in the Sun’ became the band’s signature tune and is the centrepiece of this story. Just by existing, the band flew in the face of the punk rock dogma they grew up in.
After all, the Violent Femmes were huge at their 1990s peak. Hundreds of thousands of records sold, radio hits to spare and a slightly bizarre guest spot on Sabrina the Teenage Witch, if you can, Adam and Eve it. For years, the band were comfortable releasing records and touring for their die-hard cult fanbase, and that was it. Then, something happened in 2007 that changed everything.
What split up the Violent Femmes?
Specifically, the aforementioned ‘Blister in the Sun’ popped up in an advert for the fast food restaurant Wendy’s. The band’s fanbase was absolutely furious, and what’s more, the band were, too. This seems strange as the band surely must have OK’d this, right? Well… sort of. Ritchie posted a strongly worded explanation of what happened to the band’s official forum.
His post, in its Shakespeare-besting full, is as follows. “For the fans who rightfully are complaining about the Wendy’s burger advertisement featuring ‘Blister in the Sun’, Gordon Gano is the publisher of the song, and Warners is the record company. When they agree to use it, there’s nothing the rest of the band can do about it because we don’t own the song or the recording. That’s showbiz.”
Adding: “Therefore, 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.”
“I can’t endorse them because I disagree with corporate food on culinary, political, health, economic and environmental grounds. However, I see my life’s work trivialised at the hands of my business partner over and over again, although I have raised my objections numerous times. As disgusted as you are, I am more so.”
Ritchie wasn’t just talking the talk, either. He took Gano to court over misappropriating the band’s intellectual property and withholding their rightful royalties. After two years, the case was settled out of court. Needless to say, the Violent Femmes split up shortly afterwards. In a way, that kind of gatekeeping makes sense when you think of the era they came up in.
Theoretically, you could make a living only playing your music and selling your records. Anyone who was doing anything else was a careerist hack trying to get rich. Today, there’s basically no other way of making any damn money in this industry other than being featured in commercials, especially for a band. These days, we look at attitudes like that with the same slightly condescending note of fondness we look at audiences who ran from the theatre when they saw The Arrival of a Train. “How cute,” we think, “they have no idea what’s coming next.”
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