REVIEW: Thunderclap Newman, Hollywood Dream (Track/Touchwood)
- Al Muzer
A studio outfit put together by producer Pete Townshend more or less as a way of thanking John "Speedy" Keen for his 1967 contribution ("Aremenia City In The Sky") to The Who Sell Out ; Thunderclap Newman's odd-man-in lineup featured 16 year-old future wings guitarist/eventual suicide victim Jimmy McCulloch, an unaccredited Townshend (listed as Bijou Drains) on bass, vocalist/drummer/songwriter/former John Mayall roadie Keen (whose nose rivaled the prominence of his mentor's) and former postman/traditional jazz keyboardist/woodwind player Andy Newsman.
A reminder of the Summer Of Love some two years later or, perhaps, a Tommy outtake deemed somehow inappropriate for that particular album, "Something In The Air" was a brilliant AM radio single as well as a dead-ringer for classic Who and, as a result, spent two weeks in the lower rungs of the American Top 40 in the latter half of 1969.
That, however, proved to be it for Thunderclap Newman. Despite a couple of potential singles, a touch of Traffic-like jazz, Small Faces psychedelia, a few hints at Badfinger-style pop, McCulloch's wonderful "Hollywood Dream (Instrumental)," a nine minute bit of existential spaceout and Speedy's Who Came First Pete Townshend-ish vocals and songwriting ability; nothing else on Hollywood Dream managed to catch radio's attention quite like "Something In The Air" and the band self-destructed while on tour in 1970.
A "must have" for Who fans, the reissue of this semi-operatic (indeed, Hollywood Dream fits quite nicely between Tommy parts one and two) album includes the single versions of "Something In The Air," "Accidents" and "The Reason," as well as two strange slabs of Bix Beiderbecke beerhall jazz penned by Newman and another slice of tasty period pop by McCulloch.
