The Blind Leading the Naked

The band said Leo Kottke and Fred Frith were both persuaded to appear on the album after approaching them at their concerts. "I just went along and asked him if he'd like to come down and try something out in the studio," Ritchie said of Frith. Members of the band said they were unhappy with the choice of Harrison as producer, with Ritchie saying, "We knew Jerry and he'd seen us live and, uh, he didn't like it... And when I heard the reasons that he didn't like it, well, they were the reasons why we do like it! We didn't think he was right to produce music as weird as ours." Gano further claimed that Harrison had been suggested by Warners "solely on the basis that he lives in Milwaukee, because we'd stipulated to them that we had to record there. This was outrageous from their point of view." Elsewhere, Gano added, "We've always been really sloppy. On this album we tried to clean it up a little bit. That's what Jerry's into. He's interested in what would be considered technically a good sound." ==Reception==

AllMusic gave the album a positive review, stating the album was a "more mainstream effort" that "rocks harder" than previous albums. However, in a retrospective of their debut album, The Atlantic mentions The Blind Leading the Naked as "their first unmitigated disaster, a crassly commercial piece of pandering." Spin said, "This is a great album, one that may finally earn the Violent Femmes the attention they deserve. If you already like them, swell, but if you've never heard them before, you might play the second side a few times first before hitting the less accessible side one." ==Track listing==

Violent Femmes • Gordon Gano – lead vocals, acoustic and electric guitars • Brian Ritchie – acoustic and electric bass guitars, electric guitar, jaw harp, slide whistle, vocals • Victor DeLorenzo – drums, percussion, tortoise, vocals Additional musicians • Jerry Harrison – keyboards, guitar, melodica • Fred Frith – homemade instruments, guitar • Leo Kottke – acoustic 10-string guitar • Sigmund Snopek III – keyboards • Peter Balestrieri – alto saxophone • Steve Mackay – saxophone • Steve Scales – percussion • Abdulhamid Alwan – tabla, daf • Junior Brantley – keyboards • Jim Liban – harmonica • Bill Schaefgen – trombone • Drake Scott – vocalizing ==Charts==