Teenage Love (Collector's Edition CD)

Cold Chisel Teenage Love, 2011 remaster

Teenage Love is a collection of demos and songs that somehow didn’t make it onto their studio albums in their first decade. Most bands would love to have the songs that Cold Chisel threw away. “The Party’s Over” was a live favourite that appeared only on Swingshift, “Mona and the Preacher” only appeared on the live ep You’re 13 You’re Beautiful and You’re 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 Chisel’s 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 Jimmy’s 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.