Songfacts®:

• We usually think of blood staining things, but in this track, Paul Westerberg devised a way to reverse the process. The strange turn of phrase may have poetic significance or it may result from the way Westerberg's brain functions. In Trouble Boys by Bob Mehr, Westerberg explains that his mind naturally flips things around: "If [someone says,] 'White sheet rain,' I think Black blanket sun."
  
  Whichever the case, "Stain Yer Blood" is a slippery song to get a hold of. The beginning implies that a love interest is cheating on Westerberg, but he's cool with it (or pretending to be cool with it as a way to cope).
  
  It ain't no big deal that
  I feel you are layin' him
  I see you lain against the floor
  It ain't nobody's business
  Who you see or who you kiss
  I feel you breathing in the hall
  
  The rest of the song is about him getting into a relationship because it'll draw attention that they've never had before.
  
  They're gonna talk about us
  They're gonna stare when we walk by
  They're gonna talk about us
  For the first time in our lives
• Listeners have noted this song's similarity with "Stay With Me" by the Faces. Westerberg was a fan of that band throughout his life. A November 1975 Faces show at the Labor Temple in Minneapolis was a formative moment in his young life (he was about 15). It was the last show the Faces ever performed together.
• The song was used in the 1996 Friends episode "The One with the Two Parties" and included on the first soundtrack album from the show. The version includes some dialogue from the show where the characters debate the importance of kissing. Westerberg's cover of Jonathan Edwards' "Sunshine" is also on the soundtrack.