— Johnny Black
Smash Hits was in its infancy as a top pop mag in the autumn of 1978 when along came a single from little-known Ulster punks The Undertones. It didn't exactly set the UK charts ablaze but it would eventually take on a life of its own, particularly as its reputation grew due to the endorsement of a national treasure. DJ John Peel would admit that "Teenage Kicks" delighted him so much the first time he heard it that cried and he went to his grave a quarter of a century later still rating it as the greatest single of all time. No record even enjoyed such a credible recommendation but it remains a favourite of many who have that fondness for old school punk.
It's a fine recording even if I personally don't think it quite lives up to Peel's tears of joy. Like other punk classics — The Sex Pistols' "Pretty Vacant", The Clash's "White Riot", The Damned's "New Rose" — I find that it typically sounds better when it bounces around in my head than when I actually listen to it. The iconic riff tends to be caticher and more vigourously played, the pace is faster and the vocals are screamed in appropriate punk fashion rather than using Feargal Sharkey's much more restrained approach. I've heard played by Asian bar bands and at open mic nights and even in those circumstances it tends to be more thrilling than the actual recording. I have no ear for melody and misfit amateurs don't know what they're doing but, hey, that's the punk ideal, isn't it?
"Teenage Kicks" ended up overshadowing the rest of The Undertones' stellar run of late-seventies' singles. Records such as "Jimmy Jimmy", "My Perfect Cousin" and "Wednesday Week" may not have caused Britain's hippest DJ to go all dewy-eyed but they are every bit as good as their much ballyhooed debut. The streak of Top 40 hits kept going into 1981 with the jubilant "It's Going to Happen!". An obvious throwback to sixties pop, it is one of their most confident and irresistible recordings. Yet, it stands alone on their third album Positive Touch and it must have been a struggle to come up with a potential second single from a cohesive LP lacking in standouts. It seems like deep cuts like "When Saturday Comes" or "You're Welcome" would have been more sensible options for their next 7" but someone thought otherwise. That simple and delicate number that clocks in under two minutes was chosen instead.
Johnny Black seems impressed with what The Undertones managed to do with "Julie Ocean" and, in a sense, he's absolutely right. There's not much to the original LP version but the additions pad things out enough that it was given a new life. More than doubled in length, it nevertheless avoids being repetitive. Sharkey shouts "That's typical girl!" a few times and the always tight musical unit stretches out towards the end; if you didn't know any better, you'd swear it was meant to sound this way all along.
An admirable effort but my chief sentiment towards it remains indifference. Even with the extras and longer running time it smacks of an album cut. It's possible they wanted something that wasn't "typical Undertones country" but then they shouldn't have been surprised by it placing outside of "typical Undertones chart territory". Positive Touch seemed set to establish them as an albums act to match The Clash, Elvis Costello & The Attractions and The Jam — Ian Cranna in ver Hits argued that it was their first LP to do them "justice" — but at the price of their abilities as an exquisite singles band. Some manage to make the transition from one to the other (though the best groups are able to be both at the same time) but it eluded The Undertones. They no longer made DJ's cry and no longer made the charts on a regular basis. Nice try though.
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Also Reviewed This Fortnight
Stevie Wonder: "Happy Birthday"
"A million miles from his best", concludes Black. The twin hit single follies of "Ebony and Ivory" and "I Just Called to Say I Love You" are generally cited as Stevie Wonder bottoming out as a creative force (even if Macca is usually given most of the blame for the former) but the artist of the seventies was already in decline as the start of the eighties. It's hard to find fault in a campaign to get Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday recognized as a national holiday in the US but this limp track just about manages to do so. 1980's Hotter Than July is highly regarded in spite of it being a bit of a drop off from the heights of his '72-'76 peak to end all peaks but it lacks the heartbreaking melancholy of his best work. Now, I don't expect a celebratory composition such as this to be weighed down by Wonder's sorrow but there's little of the attention to detail in his earlier, much more effective tribute to an idol of his "Sir Duke". Basic as it is, it's remarkable that it is so forgettable. Still, kudos to Stevie for his good intentions and successful result even if bland songs always seem to capture the public's attention.
(See my original review here)
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