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“I’ve always wanted to do something with [Marky Ramone] — play or record — because he obviously understands this kind of music,” says Teenage Head guitarist Gord Lewis. The band’s latest effort, Teenage Head With Marky Ramone, finds the punks reworking some of their earliest output with help from the notorious Ramones skinsman.
“Originally, Ramone was coming to Canada with his band the Speed Kings and the offer was made to me to be a part of that band,” Lewis continues, explaining the origins of the collaboration. “That didn’t happen, so he opted to do a spoken-word presentation. At the end of it, he’d bang off some Ramones songs with local musicians. Steve [Marshall, bass] and I were asked to be a part of that. That’s how we met. We made sure to put out that offer to record not even knowing what we wanted to document.”
Creators of infamous party anthems including “Let’s Shake,” “Teenage Beer Drinkin’ Party” and “Some Kinda Fun,” Teenage Head (Lewis, Marshall, singer Frankie Venom and drummer Jack Pedler) are revered as one of Canada’s unsung punk rock heroes, banging off their four-chord, ’50s rock-influenced punk for some three decades. Releasing their eponymous debut mere months after The Ramones’ own 1976 self-titled effort, the Head’s upbeat, rebellious nature and their embrace of what was then a misunderstood underground phenomenon quickly established the Hamilton, Ontario quartet as the strongest Canadian contingent in the world of early punk rock.
However, despite a devout national fan base, success always seemed out of reach for Teenage Head. Even their last studio effort, 1996’s Head Disorder, only made minor waves in punk circles, despite a warm critical reception. Struggling to re-establish themselves as a productive ensemble over the past five years, Lewis seized the opportunity to approach Ramone about a one-off partnership. Ramone responded with surprising enthusiasm, and things came together too quickly for the band to pen any new tunes. In the interest of expediency, they opted to give Ramone free reign over their 10-album catalogue, throwing in a few personal preferences for good measure.
The end result finds the likes of “Lucy Potato,” “Top Down” and “Some Kinda Fun” updated with improved production courtesy of Daniel Rey (Ramones, Misfits) and Ramone’s own inimitable rhythmic style keeping up the pace. Lewis feels the modernized sound is perfect, giving new life to “classic punk songs interpreted by the original artist.”
“We didn’t have any new songs, so we gave a sampling of tunes and he picked his favourites,” he says. “That went well, so we decided to do 10 more. When we were choosing songs, we just thought, let’s do the loudest, fastest songs — the most Ramones-related. Let’s do rockers. Apparently it worked well.”
Despite the band’s Canadian notoriety, Lewis admits Teenage Head have never truly broken — or tried to break — outside the Great White North. While initially pleased just to document a working relationship with one of his personal heroes, Lewis hopes this new effort will finally provide the band with international recognition, even while it reinvigorates the classic tracks for longtime fans.
“There are select cults of people who know who Teenage Head is after so long, but we’ve never really broached anything outside of Canada,” Lewis says. “They’ve heard about us through underground channels or through the Internet, yet the opportunity has never arisen where we could get out and play for those markets. Hopefully now, with our own collection of fans and the notoriety of Marky, people will be more open to checking us out. It’s 30 years in the making, but as the saying goes, better late than never.”
