The anthem that refused to grow up
Though it is over in two minutes and twenty-eight seconds, it could well be the most flawless two minutes and twenty-eight seconds in pop music history. Like a gleeful confession scribbled on a school desk, Teenage Kicks explodes from the speakers. From that opening guitar jangle to the last breathless chorus, it catches the raw, euphoric agony of adolescence in a way no one had quite achieved before or since.
Originating in Derry, Northern Ireland, The Undertones were not included in the metropolitan punk circles around Manchester or London. They lacked the political sting of The Clash or the abrasiveness of The Sex Pistols. What they had instead was something far more rebellious in its honesty: heart. Teenage Kicks, their 1978 debut single, was first and best declaration of this.
John O’Neill’s guitar riff is pure sweetness and saliva, a chainsaw coated in sunlight. And when Feargal Sharkey sings “I wanna hold her, wanna hold her tight / Get teenage kicks right through the night,” it seems like a want. Though his tremulous, somewhat erratic voice wasn’t smooth, it was genuine, and that rendered it invincible. Through want, this was insurgency. The uprising of emotions too massive for your body, too urgent for discretion.
It doesn’t get much better than this.
(John Peel, BBC Radio 1, 1978)
Legendary BBC DJ John Peel noticed the track and famously proclaimed it his all-time favourite song. So much so that his headstone bears those lyrics after he died. Such respect is earned with honesty. Teenage Kicks is pop in spirit even if it is punk rock in nature. It drools, not sneers. It pines not protest.
Teenage Kicks felt like a hand on your shoulder and a smile through a fringe in an age drenched with posturing and posture. Fast, strong, and gorgeous, it provided the misfits and the romantics something to sing along to. And maybe that explains why it still rings today: because the adolescent emotion never quite goes away. It just conceals under suits, deadlines, and tax returns. But hit play on this tune and for two and a half wonderful minutes everything comes speeding back.
