Cold Chisel Teenage Love, 2011 remaster

Teenage Love is a collection of demos and songs that somehow didnt make it onto their studio albums in their first decade. Most bands would love to have the songs that Cold Chisel threw away. The Partys Over was a live favourite that appeared only on Swingshift, Mona and the Preacher only appeared on the live ep Youre 13 Youre Beautiful and Youre Mine. We have the Springsteenish F-111 which is one of the first songs the band recorded. Most of the tracks reflect their early lifestyle hanging around the Largs Pier Hotel at Port Adelaide Payday In the Pub, the delightful Drinkin’ in Port Lincoln and Metho Blues all great songs. The spiritual It Ain’t Wrong hints at the gospel theme that ran through Chisels repertoire until the end. But the two standout tracks are Hands Out of My Pocket one of the first and still one of the best songs Jimmy Barnes ever wrote and A Little Bit of Daylight which found its way onto Jimmys first solo album.

Most of these versions are demos so they have the freshness of musicians coming to material for the first time. According to Don Walker, “It’s just the band in the studio slamming down a new song. For a certain number of them, it’s the only time we ever played the song.” It may be a collection of orphans but this album stands proudly in the canon.