Thunder & Lightning: Thunderclap Newman

 

Thunderclap Newman: Something In The Air
[purchase] 

I suggested this theme during a summer thunderstorm, but when I started brainstorming ideas for a post, the band Thunderclap Newman jumped into my brain and wouldn’t leave, so there are no (other) storm references here. 

Like most people, I bet, I could name exactly one song by Thunderclap Newman, the wonderful “Something In The Air,” but no others. I’ve mentioned before the “classic rock radio” syndrome (although I’ve never called it that), where bands are remembered only for a handful of songs—or even in this case, for one song—and the rest of their discography gets forgotten. I’m sure you have your favorites, and I’ve even used “Something In The Air” as an example in an earlier post. I also knew that Pete Townshend produced their album, and that he played on it, under a pseudonym, although I didn’t know what that was (Bijou Drains). But that’s pretty much it. 

The band was assembled by Townshend in 1969 as a vehicle to support the songwriting and other talents of John “Speedy” Keen, who wrote “Something In The Air.” It was an unlikely crew: Keen, who had been a friend of Townshend's and a driver for the Who, had written “Armenia City in the Sky,” the opening track on The Who Sell Out. Townsend enlisted Andrew “Thunderclap” Newman, a postal worker and piano player, and 15-year-old guitarist Jimmy “No Nickname” McCulloch. They met at Townshend’s home studio, and the four recorded a single, with Townshend producing. 

It was a big hit in England, was in a couple of movie soundtracks, and was a minor success in the US, initially. Followup singles were less popular, but the success of “Something” led to the band having to do live performances, augmented by a drummer and bass player who was not Pete Townshend. The band’s album, Hollywood Dream, was released in 1970, to excellent reviews, but only modest sales. After some more touring, the band broke up in the spring of 1971. As Wikipedia noted, “The members of the band had little in common. In a 1972 NME interview, Newman said that he got on with Keen's music but not with Keen personally, while the exact opposite was true with regard to McCulloch.” 

Apparently, Hollywood Dreams is now considered a forgotten classic, with Allmusic stating, “So many bands have been hauled out of obscurity to be tagged the greatest secret you've never been told. Thunderclap Newman are one of the few who actually deserve that epithet.” I admit to only sampling a few tracks, and I have trouble getting past Keen’s reedy voice and the excessive music hall influences, but maybe it takes a few solid listens before the genius is revealed. And that’s why I’ve perpetuated the “classic rock radio syndrome” here, focusing on the one song we all know. 

McCullough went on to play with John Mayall, Stone the Crows, and, most famously, Wings, but died from heroin-induced cardiac arrest in 1979 at the age of 26. Keen’s solo career went nowhere, and became a producer, helming Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers’ debut, L.A.M.F. and Motõrhead’s first album (and appears on one of that band’s live albums) and was a session musician before leaving the music industry. Keen died of a heart attack in 2002 at the age of 56. 

Newman recorded an unsuccessful solo album and was a studio musician before retiring until 2002, when he formed the Thunderclap Newman Band, which toured until it disbanded in 2010. Newman formed a new band (which included Pete Townshend’s nephew Josh and the former drummer of Big Country), billed simply as Thunderclap Newman. In 2010 this group released an album, Beyond Hollywood, and toured from 2010-2012, with their last gig at the Isle of Wight Festival. Newman died in 2016 at the age of 73. 

And I’ve made you wait to the end to know why Andy Newman was known as “Thunderclap”—it was a nickname he received in school because of his playing technique.

Revolution: Children of the Revolution

Violent Femmes: Children of the Revolution
[purchase]

No matter how much you think you may know about music (or anything), you don’t know everything. Not even me. (Cue loud guffawing from my wife and kids). One of the great things about caring about music, like I assume you do if you are reading this, is that you are always learning something new. Over on the other blog I write for, Cover Me, they just published a group post in which a bunch of the writers wrote about songs that they didn’t know were covers. I wrote about “Ring of Fire,” which was not originally done by Johnny Cash, but by his future sister-in-law, Anita Carter (and written by his future wife, June Carter). This song, “Children of the Revolution” is another one that fits into that category, because when I first heard the Violent Femmes’ version, back in the mists of the 1980s, I had no idea that it was originally by T. Rex. None, whatsoever.

I wish I could remember when I discovered this fact (among the many, many things that I wish I could remember), but I don’t. It is on my “covers” iPod playlist (along with a nice cover by Lloyd Cole), and I have a version of the original, but this knowledge really could have been learned at any time. And one of the great things about writing about music, even just for fun like I do, is that I (sometimes) research my pieces and (usually) learn something I didn’t already know. And you, the reader, are the beneficiary!

Violent Femmes are one of those bands who have one song that pretty much anyone knows, “Blister in the Sun,” and a couple of others that a few people know, but it is a shame that the rest of their output is mostly forgotten. This is, of course, a common thing—I was listening to the radio the other day and heard “Something in the Air” by Thunderclap Newman, and you could probably listen to every channel of Sirius/SM for a month and never hear another song by Thunderclap Newman (even though Pete Townshend is the bass player on the recording, under a pseudonym)  (and, of course the thing that is “in the air” in that song? Revolution!! But I digress, again.)

“Children of the Revolution” appeared on Violent Femmes' third album, The Blind Leading the Naked, and it was produced by Jerry Harrison of The Talking Heads (and before that, the Modern Lovers, whose singer, Jonathan Richman was often referenced as an influence on Femmes’ singer Gordon Gano, which apparently pissed Gano off). The album is maybe a touch more commercial than their first two records, but it was by no means a “commercial” record. It did, however, break into the Billboard charts.

But “Children of the Revolution” was originally by T. Rex (a band that was very popular, but I bet you haven’t heard any song of theirs other than “Get It On (Bang a Gong)" recently). It is about the kind of teenage rebellion that was, at the time of its original release in 1972, a pretty common thing, as the youth culture became ascendant. It was not “Commie propaganda,” but in 1972, there were a lot of people who thought a lot of things were “Commie propaganda.” (Although in 1996, an interesting movie with the same name was made in Australia about the life of a fictional illegitimate son of Joseph Stalin, and it used the T. Rex version over the credits.)

Not only that, in doing my research, I found that there is an incredible version of the song, featuring T. Rex with Elton John and Ringo Starr, from a 1972 documentary about T. Rex, Born to Boogie, which was directed by Ringo. Here is the clip from the film, and if the production (and Ringo’s hair) seems a bit dated (as is the video for the Violent Femmes version), the performance is great, especially by Elton on the piano.