Hollywood Dream: The Thunderclap Newman Story by Mark Ian Wilkerson
Thunderclap Newman was the oddest band, a trio hastily tossed together by The Who’s Pete Townshend in his A&R role for Track Records. He originally intended solo albums for guitarist Jimmy McCulloch, drummer Speedy Keen and pianist Andy Newman but combined disparate musicians into one group. British rock historian Mark Ian Wilkerson pens a fascinating account of the ins and outs of late ‘60s Swinging London and how creative exploration a well as profit oiled the wheels of the music business.
Keen and McCulloch were wanna-be rock stars while Newman, older, was largely oblivious to rock, rooted instead in Jelly Roll Morton and Bix Beiderbecke and with a love of electrical engineering. Townshend was a fan of Newman, who taught him the rudiments of multitrack recording. Thunderclap Newman proved a flash in the pan, the flash being an odd hit, a clumsy call to the revolution that never came, “Something in the Air,” elevated to near sublimity by Keen’s wistful melody and a Newman piano solo unlike any heard in rock. Wilkerson’s research is copious in detailing goings-on at the pinnacle of rock music’s cultural ascendence.
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