Touch Me I'm Sick
Encyclopedia
"Touch Me I'm Sick" is a song by the American alternative rock
band Mudhoney
. It was recorded in March 1988 at Seattle's Reciprocal Recording
studio with producer
Jack Endino
. "Touch Me I'm Sick" was released as Mudhoney's debut single by independent record label
Sub Pop
on August 1, 1988. The song's lyrics, which feature dark humor, are a sarcastic take on issues such as disease and violent sex.
When it was first released, "Touch Me I'm Sick" was a hit on the indie circuit, and is still the band's most recognizable song. The heavily distorted
and fuzzy guitars, snarling vocals, blunt bass line and energetic drumming contributed to a dirty sound that influenced many local musicians, and helped develop the nascent Seattle grunge
scene. According to Allmusic, "the song's raw, primal energy made it an instant anthem which still stands as one of [grunge's] all-time classics".
, "Touch Me I'm Sick" originated from a discussion with Sub Pop
owner Bruce Pavitt
, "[Pavitt] said: 'Hey, you sing about dogs. You sing about being sick. You got a shtick, it'll take you to the top.' And he basically gave us five chords, but he said don't use more than three within one song." Arm also states that "Touch Me I'm Sick" was a catchphrase around which the band built a song.
Mudhoney recorded the song at Seattle's Reciprocal Recording
studio in March 1988, three months after the band's formation. Producer Jack Endino
was surprised by how noisy the sessions were and how dirty the band wanted the guitars to sound; "for the most part, I just sort of stood back and let them go at it". Guitarist Steve Turner
said that the band selected two of their "grungiest" songs for the single. Initially, "Sweet Young Thing Ain't Sweet No More" was to be the A-side
of the single and "Touch Me I'm Sick" the B-side, before—in drummer Dan Peters
's words—"that all got flipped around".
structure with a simple repeating power chord
riff
played at a high tempo
. This is accompanied by a blunt bass line and frenetic drumming. The song's dirty sound was produced using an Electro-Harmonix Big Muff
distortion pedal, which is augmented by a second guitar providing more distortion
. Music writer Brian J. Barr referred to this noisy sound as "the sonic equivalent of an amplified comb scraping against paper".
Critics have noted a Stooges
influence in "Touch Me I'm Sick", typical of Mudhoney's early material. Turner said: "In retrospect, it's The Yardbirds
' 'Happenings Ten Years Time Ago' by way of The Stooges' 'Sick of You'. At the time I was trying for the stuttering R&B guitar of The Nights and Days." The song is also reminiscent of the hardcore punk
of Black Flag
. In his book Loser: The Real Seattle Music Story, Clark Humphrey accuses the song of being a copy of "The Witch" by The Sonics
. The band have dismissed this claim, and questioned the writer's knowledge of music.
Arm's lyrics, according to critic Steve Huey, are a rant about "disease, self-loathing, angst, and dirty sex". In an essay called "'Touch Me I'm Sick': Contagion as Critique in Punk and Performance Art", Catherine J. Creswell suggests that some of the lyrics refer to AIDS
. According to Creswell, "In declaring 'Well, I'm diseased and I don't mind' and changing the final refrain to 'Fuck Me, I'm Sick!' the speaker declares himself to be the viral, 'AIDS-bearing,' 'polluting' person of contemporary fantasy". Creswell, who also believes the song parodies the theme of seduction in contemporary rock music, points to lyrics that refer to impotence ("If you don't come, if you don't come, if you don't come, you'll die alone!") and violent possession or forcing ("I'll make you love me till the day you die!"). However, Arm says that he had not put much thought into the lyrics; while performing the song in concerts, he sometimes changes them to amuse himself.
Another feature of "Touch Me I'm Sick" that has been commented upon is Arm's vocals. Huey refers to them as a "hysterical screech", and "snarling, demonic howls". Journalist Joe Ehrbar says that Arm begins the song with a "burp", before singing with a "nasally howl". Creswell considers Arm's "overboard" vocals to mock a variety of rock stereotypes: the punk snarl, the "woozy slur" of hard rock
, garage rock
"yea-ahs", R&B-style wails and a "Jerry Lee Lewis
shudder".
"Touch Me I'm Sick" was released on August 1, 1988, as a 7" vinyl. It was Mudhoney's debut release. Initially, Sub Pop
released 800 clear coffee-brown vinyl copies, 200 black vinyl copies and a few assorted vinyl color copies of the single. The limited release numbers were inspired by another indie label, Amphetamine Reptile. Sub Pop owners Bruce Pavitt
and Jonathan Poneman reasoned the limited supply would increase demand, and utilized different colors of vinyl in order to rationalize further limited pressings and to increase the single's allure as a collectible item. The record, which came in a white paper bag without a picture sleeve, had an inscription on the A-side: "What does the word 'crack' mean to you?". The B-side sticker featured the toilet picture that later became the cover art of the sleeved second edition of the single.
According to Pavitt, "It was just a limited edition, maybe 800 pieces, but people all over America started raving about it. People that we really respected."
The single was an indie hit in Seattle, and "Touch Me I'm Sick" became Mudhoney's most recognizable song. When asked in an interview about the sales figures of the single, Turner replied, "The first [pressing sold] 1,000, then 3,000 of the reissue, then it was out of print for a while; then they made 2,000 more and those are probably gone." The single's success caught the band by surprise; Arm had initially dismissed the song as a "B-side toss off". "Touch Me I'm Sick" and B-side "Sweet Young Thing Ain't Sweet No More" were later included on the Mudhoney compilation albums Superfuzz Bigmuff Plus Early Singles
(1990) and March to Fuzz
(2000).
band Sonic Youth
for the members' opinions. Sonic Youth immediately proposed a split single
where each band covered
the other. Sonic Youth covered "Touch Me I'm Sick" while Mudhoney covered Sonic Youth's "Halloween". "Touch Me I'm Sick/Halloween
" was released as a limited edition 7" vinyl by Sub Pop in December 1988. The cover was included in the deluxe edition of Daydream Nation
(2007), and offers a female perspective of the song with bassist Kim Gordon
handling the vocals.
of Nirvana
. In a few years, many Seattle grunge bands signed to major labels and broke into the mainstream, achieving mass popularity. Although Mudhoney never attained this level of mainstream acceptance, according to Allmusic's Mark Deming, the band's "indie-scene success laid the groundwork for the movement that would (briefly) make Seattle, WA, the new capital of the rock & roll universe".
Since its release, "Touch Me I'm Sick" has been accorded classic status within the grunge genre. Writing for Allmusic, Steve Huey described the song as "the ultimate grunge anthem", and wrote that it "was a crucial and vastly influential touchstone in the evolution of the grunge movement, virtually defining the term". For its North-Western rock exhibit, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
requested the song's original lyrics sheet. Since it did not exist—Arm briefly considered making a fake one by writing down the lyrics, crumpling the sheet, and then burning the edges—the band instead donated Turner's old Big Muff
pedals.
"Touch Me I'm Sick" remains Mudhoney's most popular song. Joe Ehrbar called it "the song most of us would come to know [the band] by". Arm considers the track to be Mudhoney's highwater mark,
The song was referenced in the 1992 film Singles, which is set against the backdrop of the Seattle grunge scene. The fictional band in the film, Citizen Dick, perform a song called "Touch Me I'm Dick"—a wordplay on Mudhoney's song. In 2003, Charles Peterson published a book of photography titled Touch Me I'm Sick. It features black-and-white photographs of bands (including Mudhoney) and concerts, and focuses on the alternative music scene of the 1980s and 1990s.
* denotes an unordered list
Both songs credited to Mark Arm
, Steve Turner
, Dan Peters
and Matt Lukin
.
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
band Mudhoney
Mudhoney
Mudhoney is an American alternative rock band. Formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1988 following the demise of Green River, Mudhoney's members are vocalist and rhythm guitarist Mark Arm, lead guitarist Steve Turner, bassist Guy Maddison, and drummer Dan Peters. Original bassist Matt Lukin left the...
. It was recorded in March 1988 at Seattle's Reciprocal Recording
Reciprocal Recording
Reciprocal Recording was the name of a recording studio in Seattle, Washington, USA, that was founded in 1984 and officially closed in July 1991.-History:Chris Hanzsek and Tina Casale opened Reciprocal Recording in Seattle in 1984...
studio with producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
Jack Endino
Jack Endino
Jack Endino is a producer and musician based in Seattle. Long associated with Seattle label Sub Pop and the grunge movement, Endino worked on seminal albums from bands such as Mudhoney, Soundgarden, and Nirvana...
. "Touch Me I'm Sick" was released as Mudhoney's debut single by independent record label
Independent record label
An independent record label is a record label operating without the funding of or outside the organizations of the major record labels. A great number of bands and musical acts begin on independent labels.-Overview:...
Sub Pop
Sub Pop
Sub Pop is a record label founded in 1986 by Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman in Seattle, Washington. Sub Pop achieved fame in the late 1980s for first signing Nirvana, Soundgarden, Mudhoney and many other bands from the Seattle music scene...
on August 1, 1988. The song's lyrics, which feature dark humor, are a sarcastic take on issues such as disease and violent sex.
When it was first released, "Touch Me I'm Sick" was a hit on the indie circuit, and is still the band's most recognizable song. The heavily distorted
Distortion (guitar)
Distortion effects create "warm", "dirty" and "fuzzy" sounds by compressing the peaks of a musical instrument's sound wave and adding overtones. The three principal types of distortion effects are overdrive, distortion and fuzz. Distortion effects are sometimes called “gain” effects, as distorted...
and fuzzy guitars, snarling vocals, blunt bass line and energetic drumming contributed to a dirty sound that influenced many local musicians, and helped develop the nascent Seattle grunge
Grunge
Grunge is a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged during the mid-1980s in the American state of Washington, particularly in the Seattle area. Inspired by hardcore punk, heavy metal, and indie rock, grunge is generally characterized by heavily distorted electric guitars, contrasting song...
scene. According to Allmusic, "the song's raw, primal energy made it an instant anthem which still stands as one of [grunge's] all-time classics".
Origins and recording
According to Mudhoney vocalist Mark ArmMark Arm
Mark Arm is the vocalist for the grunge band Mudhoney. He is also credited with coining the term "grunge" to describe his style of rock music...
, "Touch Me I'm Sick" originated from a discussion with Sub Pop
Sub Pop
Sub Pop is a record label founded in 1986 by Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman in Seattle, Washington. Sub Pop achieved fame in the late 1980s for first signing Nirvana, Soundgarden, Mudhoney and many other bands from the Seattle music scene...
owner Bruce Pavitt
Bruce Pavitt
-History:After briefly attending Blackburn College in Carlinville, Illinois and subsequently transferring to The Evergreen State College in Washington State, Pavitt started a fanzine entitled Subterranean Pop in Olympia, Washington in 1980, about American independent rock bands. Three cassette...
, "[Pavitt] said: 'Hey, you sing about dogs. You sing about being sick. You got a shtick, it'll take you to the top.' And he basically gave us five chords, but he said don't use more than three within one song." Arm also states that "Touch Me I'm Sick" was a catchphrase around which the band built a song.
Mudhoney recorded the song at Seattle's Reciprocal Recording
Reciprocal Recording
Reciprocal Recording was the name of a recording studio in Seattle, Washington, USA, that was founded in 1984 and officially closed in July 1991.-History:Chris Hanzsek and Tina Casale opened Reciprocal Recording in Seattle in 1984...
studio in March 1988, three months after the band's formation. Producer Jack Endino
Jack Endino
Jack Endino is a producer and musician based in Seattle. Long associated with Seattle label Sub Pop and the grunge movement, Endino worked on seminal albums from bands such as Mudhoney, Soundgarden, and Nirvana...
was surprised by how noisy the sessions were and how dirty the band wanted the guitars to sound; "for the most part, I just sort of stood back and let them go at it". Guitarist Steve Turner
Steve Turner (guitarist)
Steve Turner is an American guitarist, most famous for his work with Seattle band Mudhoney.-Biography:Turner was born in 1965 in Houston, Texas. His first band was called The Ducky Boys. The line up included future Pearl Jam member Stone Gossard. The Ducky Boys split around 1983.Turner later found...
said that the band selected two of their "grungiest" songs for the single. Initially, "Sweet Young Thing Ain't Sweet No More" was to be the A-side
A-side and B-side
A-side and B-side originally referred to the two sides of gramophone records on which singles were released beginning in the 1950s. The terms have come to refer to the types of song conventionally placed on each side of the record, with the A-side being the featured song , while the B-side, or...
of the single and "Touch Me I'm Sick" the B-side, before—in drummer Dan Peters
Dan Peters
Daniel Joe Peters is the drummer for Mudhoney. He joined Bundle of Hiss when he was fifteen years old. He also played drums for Nirvana, appearing on one single, "Sliver". Peters' only live appearance with Nirvana was on September 22, 1990, in Seattle, Washington, at the Motor Sports International...
's words—"that all got flipped around".
Music and lyrics
"Touch Me I'm Sick" has a straightforward garage punkGarage punk
Garage punk is a fusion of garage rock and punk rock. It is fast-paced lo-fi music characterized by a dirty, choppy guitar sound—usually played by bands who are on independent record labels or who are unsigned...
structure with a simple repeating power chord
Power chord
In music, a power chord is a chord consisting of only the root note of the chord and the fifth interval, usually played on electric guitar, and typically through an amplification process that imparts distortion...
riff
RIFF
The Resource Interchange File Format is a generic file container format for storing data in tagged chunks. It is primarily used to store multimedia such as sound and video, though it may also be used to store any arbitrary data....
played at a high tempo
Tempo
In musical terminology, tempo is the speed or pace of a given piece. Tempo is a crucial element of any musical composition, as it can affect the mood and difficulty of a piece.-Measuring tempo:...
. This is accompanied by a blunt bass line and frenetic drumming. The song's dirty sound was produced using an Electro-Harmonix Big Muff
Big Muff
The Big Muff is a fuzzbox produced in New York City by the Electro-Harmonix company, along with their Russian sister company Sovtek, primarily for use with the electric guitar...
distortion pedal, which is augmented by a second guitar providing more distortion
Distortion (guitar)
Distortion effects create "warm", "dirty" and "fuzzy" sounds by compressing the peaks of a musical instrument's sound wave and adding overtones. The three principal types of distortion effects are overdrive, distortion and fuzz. Distortion effects are sometimes called “gain” effects, as distorted...
. Music writer Brian J. Barr referred to this noisy sound as "the sonic equivalent of an amplified comb scraping against paper".
Critics have noted a Stooges
The Stooges
The Stooges are an American rock band from Ann Arbor, Michigan first active from 1967 to 1974, and later reformed in 2003...
influence in "Touch Me I'm Sick", typical of Mudhoney's early material. Turner said: "In retrospect, it's The Yardbirds
The Yardbirds
- Current :* Chris Dreja - rhythm guitar, backing vocals * Jim McCarty - drums, backing vocals * Ben King - lead guitar * David Smale - bass, backing vocals...
' 'Happenings Ten Years Time Ago' by way of The Stooges' 'Sick of You'. At the time I was trying for the stuttering R&B guitar of The Nights and Days." The song is also reminiscent of the hardcore punk
Hardcore punk
Hardcore punk is an underground music genre that originated in the late 1970s, following the mainstream success of punk rock. Hardcore is generally faster, thicker, and heavier than earlier punk rock. The origin of the term "hardcore punk" is uncertain. The Vancouver-based band D.O.A...
of Black Flag
Black Flag (band)
Black Flag was an American punk rock band formed in 1976 in Hermosa Beach, California. The band was established by Greg Ginn, the guitarist, primary songwriter and sole continuous member through multiple personnel changes in the band...
. In his book Loser: The Real Seattle Music Story, Clark Humphrey accuses the song of being a copy of "The Witch" by The Sonics
The Sonics
The Sonics are an American garage rock band from Tacoma, Washington, originating from the early and mid-1960s. Among The Sonics' contemporaries were The Kingsmen, The Wailers, The Dynamics, The Regents, and Paul Revere & the Raiders...
. The band have dismissed this claim, and questioned the writer's knowledge of music.
Arm's lyrics, according to critic Steve Huey, are a rant about "disease, self-loathing, angst, and dirty sex". In an essay called "'Touch Me I'm Sick': Contagion as Critique in Punk and Performance Art", Catherine J. Creswell suggests that some of the lyrics refer to AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
. According to Creswell, "In declaring 'Well, I'm diseased and I don't mind' and changing the final refrain to 'Fuck Me, I'm Sick!' the speaker declares himself to be the viral, 'AIDS-bearing,' 'polluting' person of contemporary fantasy". Creswell, who also believes the song parodies the theme of seduction in contemporary rock music, points to lyrics that refer to impotence ("If you don't come, if you don't come, if you don't come, you'll die alone!") and violent possession or forcing ("I'll make you love me till the day you die!"). However, Arm says that he had not put much thought into the lyrics; while performing the song in concerts, he sometimes changes them to amuse himself.
Another feature of "Touch Me I'm Sick" that has been commented upon is Arm's vocals. Huey refers to them as a "hysterical screech", and "snarling, demonic howls". Journalist Joe Ehrbar says that Arm begins the song with a "burp", before singing with a "nasally howl". Creswell considers Arm's "overboard" vocals to mock a variety of rock stereotypes: the punk snarl, the "woozy slur" of hard rock
Hard rock
Hard rock is a loosely defined genre of rock music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage rock, blues rock and psychedelic rock...
, garage rock
Garage rock
Garage rock is a raw form of rock and roll that was first popular in the United States and Canada from about 1963 to 1967. During the 1960s, it was not recognized as a separate music genre and had no specific name...
"yea-ahs", R&B-style wails and a "Jerry Lee Lewis
Jerry Lee Lewis
Jerry Lee Lewis is an American rock and roll and country music singer-songwriter and pianist. An early pioneer of rock and roll music, Lewis's career faltered after he married his young cousin, and he afterwards made a career extension to country and western music. He is known by the nickname 'The...
shudder".
Release and reception
Sub Pop
Sub Pop is a record label founded in 1986 by Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman in Seattle, Washington. Sub Pop achieved fame in the late 1980s for first signing Nirvana, Soundgarden, Mudhoney and many other bands from the Seattle music scene...
released 800 clear coffee-brown vinyl copies, 200 black vinyl copies and a few assorted vinyl color copies of the single. The limited release numbers were inspired by another indie label, Amphetamine Reptile. Sub Pop owners Bruce Pavitt
Bruce Pavitt
-History:After briefly attending Blackburn College in Carlinville, Illinois and subsequently transferring to The Evergreen State College in Washington State, Pavitt started a fanzine entitled Subterranean Pop in Olympia, Washington in 1980, about American independent rock bands. Three cassette...
and Jonathan Poneman reasoned the limited supply would increase demand, and utilized different colors of vinyl in order to rationalize further limited pressings and to increase the single's allure as a collectible item. The record, which came in a white paper bag without a picture sleeve, had an inscription on the A-side: "What does the word 'crack' mean to you?". The B-side sticker featured the toilet picture that later became the cover art of the sleeved second edition of the single.
According to Pavitt, "It was just a limited edition, maybe 800 pieces, but people all over America started raving about it. People that we really respected."
The single was an indie hit in Seattle, and "Touch Me I'm Sick" became Mudhoney's most recognizable song. When asked in an interview about the sales figures of the single, Turner replied, "The first [pressing sold] 1,000, then 3,000 of the reissue, then it was out of print for a while; then they made 2,000 more and those are probably gone." The single's success caught the band by surprise; Arm had initially dismissed the song as a "B-side toss off". "Touch Me I'm Sick" and B-side "Sweet Young Thing Ain't Sweet No More" were later included on the Mudhoney compilation albums Superfuzz Bigmuff Plus Early Singles
Superfuzz Bigmuff Plus Early Singles
Superfuzz Bigmuff Plus Early Singles is a compilation album by the grunge band Mudhoney. The album contains the entire Superfuzz Bigmuff EP, the A-sides and B-sides of 2 singles, and 2 covers from split singles with Sonic Youth and The Dicks. It was released by Sub Pop Records in October 1990...
(1990) and March to Fuzz
March to Fuzz
March to Fuzz is a two-disc compilation album by grunge band Mudhoney. It was released in January 2000 by Sub Pop Records. Disc 1 is a collection of the band's most popular songs, such as "Here Comes Sickness" and "Sweet Young Thing Ain't Sweet No More." Disc 2 is a collection of rare tracks,...
(2000).
Sonic Youth cover
Prior to the release of the "Touch Me I'm Sick" single, Pavitt sent a five-song Mudhoney tape to New York alternative rockAlternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
band Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth is an American alternative rock band from New York City, formed in 1981. The current lineup consists of Thurston Moore , Kim Gordon , Lee Ranaldo , Steve Shelley , and Mark Ibold .In their early career, Sonic Youth was associated with the No Wave art and music scene in New York City...
for the members' opinions. Sonic Youth immediately proposed a split single
Split album
A split album is a music album which includes tracks by two or more separate artists. There have been singles and EPs released in the same nature, which can be referred to as split singles and split EPs respectively...
where each band covered
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
the other. Sonic Youth covered "Touch Me I'm Sick" while Mudhoney covered Sonic Youth's "Halloween". "Touch Me I'm Sick/Halloween
Touch Me I'm Sick/Halloween
"Touch Me I'm Sick/Halloween" is a split single by American alternative rock bands Sonic Youth and Mudhoney, released in December 1988 by the independent record label Sub Pop....
" was released as a limited edition 7" vinyl by Sub Pop in December 1988. The cover was included in the deluxe edition of Daydream Nation
Daydream Nation
Daydream Nation is the fifth studio album by the American alternative rock band Sonic Youth. It was released in October 1988 by Enigma Records in the United States, and by Blast First in the United Kingdom....
(2007), and offers a female perspective of the song with bassist Kim Gordon
Kim Gordon
Kim Althea Gordon is an American musician, vocalist, artist, record producer, video director and actress. She has sung and played bass and guitar in the alternative rock band Sonic Youth, and in Free Kitten with Julia Cafritz...
handling the vocals.
Legacy
Following the success of the "Touch Me I'm Sick" single in the Seattle area, Sub Pop positioned Mudhoney as the flagship band of their roster and undertook heavy promotion for the group. The band's early material received airplay on college radio and influenced many local musicians, including Kurt CobainKurt Cobain
Kurt Donald Cobain was an American singer-songwriter, musician and artist, best known as the lead singer and guitarist of the grunge band Nirvana...
of Nirvana
Nirvana (band)
Nirvana was an American rock band that was formed by singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington in 1987...
. In a few years, many Seattle grunge bands signed to major labels and broke into the mainstream, achieving mass popularity. Although Mudhoney never attained this level of mainstream acceptance, according to Allmusic's Mark Deming, the band's "indie-scene success laid the groundwork for the movement that would (briefly) make Seattle, WA, the new capital of the rock & roll universe".
Since its release, "Touch Me I'm Sick" has been accorded classic status within the grunge genre. Writing for Allmusic, Steve Huey described the song as "the ultimate grunge anthem", and wrote that it "was a crucial and vastly influential touchstone in the evolution of the grunge movement, virtually defining the term". For its North-Western rock exhibit, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is a museum located on the shore of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is dedicated to archiving the history of some of the best-known and most influential artists, producers, engineers and others who have, in some major way,...
requested the song's original lyrics sheet. Since it did not exist—Arm briefly considered making a fake one by writing down the lyrics, crumpling the sheet, and then burning the edges—the band instead donated Turner's old Big Muff
Big Muff
The Big Muff is a fuzzbox produced in New York City by the Electro-Harmonix company, along with their Russian sister company Sovtek, primarily for use with the electric guitar...
pedals.
"Touch Me I'm Sick" remains Mudhoney's most popular song. Joe Ehrbar called it "the song most of us would come to know [the band] by". Arm considers the track to be Mudhoney's highwater mark,
There's something special about that first single, we were never quite able to recapture that sound. I don't know if it was the guitars or the recording. It was just a really gnarly, gnarly guitar sound. We've gotten some since, but they've been a different kind. I think it had more to do with the actual electromagnetic chemistry of what was going through our amps that day. It was just a cool, fried-out sound.
The song was referenced in the 1992 film Singles, which is set against the backdrop of the Seattle grunge scene. The fictional band in the film, Citizen Dick, perform a song called "Touch Me I'm Dick"—a wordplay on Mudhoney's song. In 2003, Charles Peterson published a book of photography titled Touch Me I'm Sick. It features black-and-white photographs of bands (including Mudhoney) and concerts, and focuses on the alternative music scene of the 1980s and 1990s.
Accolades
| Year | Publication/ author |
Country | Accolade | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | NME NME The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles... |
United Kingdom | 100 Greatest Singles Of All Time | 99 |
| 2004 | Kerrang! Kerrang! Kerrang! is a UK-based magazine devoted to rock music published by Bauer Media Group. It was first published on June 6, 1981 as a one-off supplement in the Sounds newspaper... |
United Kingdom | 666 Songs You Must Own (Grunge) | 5 |
| 2005 | Blender | United States | The 500 Greatest Songs Since You Were Born (1981–2005) | 396 |
| 2006 | Toby Creswell Toby Creswell Toby Creswell is an Australian music journalist and pop-culture writer. He was editor of Rolling Stone and a founding editor of Juice. In 1986 he co-wrote, with Martin Fabinyi, his first book Too Much Ain't Enough a biography of pub rocker and former Cold Chisel vocalist Jimmy Barnes... |
Australia | 1001 Songs: The Great Songs of All Time | * |
Track listing
7" single (SP18)Both songs credited to Mark Arm
Mark Arm
Mark Arm is the vocalist for the grunge band Mudhoney. He is also credited with coining the term "grunge" to describe his style of rock music...
, Steve Turner
Steve Turner (guitarist)
Steve Turner is an American guitarist, most famous for his work with Seattle band Mudhoney.-Biography:Turner was born in 1965 in Houston, Texas. His first band was called The Ducky Boys. The line up included future Pearl Jam member Stone Gossard. The Ducky Boys split around 1983.Turner later found...
, Dan Peters
Dan Peters
Daniel Joe Peters is the drummer for Mudhoney. He joined Bundle of Hiss when he was fifteen years old. He also played drums for Nirvana, appearing on one single, "Sliver". Peters' only live appearance with Nirvana was on September 22, 1990, in Seattle, Washington, at the Motor Sports International...
and Matt Lukin
Matt Lukin
Matt Lukin is an American musician, best known as a bassist and founding member of the Melvins and Mudhoney.-The Melvins :...
.
- "Touch Me I'm Sick" – 2:23
- "Sweet Young Thing Ain't Sweet No More" – 3:35