Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Something Magical In The Air, November 9, 2003
I'm among millions of music fans that were mesmerized by the song "Something In The Air". That led me to looking up the band Thunderclap Newman and getting a copy of Hollywood Dream. The CD starts out like something from a wonderful dream. Like a dream you wish you could go back to and continue dreaming. With enthusiastic interest as I listened to the rest of the CD, much of it seemed so anti-climactic as compared with the opening tune. Yet some of my favorite music of all time I did not like so much the first time I heard it. My favorite songs are ones I got to know in the same sort of way as when you meet someone that ultimately becomes your best friend. Had to get to know them a bit and then they came across as great. Hollywood Dream was like that to me. Something In The Air, one of the all time great songs, would have anyone buying Hollywood Dream thinking there must be some other great tunes on the CD. At first impression I thought many of the accompanying tracks were just so much fill to produce an album, but upon further listening, I began to discover other songs that began to impress me more as I got to know them. Hollywood Dream turned out to be quite a gem indeed. The musicianship is excellent. Andy Newman's piano playing tapped into childhood memories of my Grandmother teaching me piano in the basement. Andy inspires me to want to go back to the keyboard and play all day. Jimmy McCulloch (just a kid at the time and shortly thereafter with Paul McCartney's Wings) on guitar shows he was quite good at his craft. Hollywood Dream has some great psychadelics in a few tunes, humour in others. Though Thunderclap Newman could be rightly dubbed a One Album Wonder, Hollywood Dream proves they were much more than a One Hit Wonder. Songs like The Reason, Accidents, Hollywood #1, When I Think, I Don't Know and I See It All contain interesting lyrics and music. The tune Hollywood Dream is an Instrumental with Jimmy showing off some of his great guitar work. After getting to know the overall CD it turns out my favorite tune is the song Wild Country, which soars to the heights of Thunderclap Newman Psychadelics.
I rate Hollywood Dream as excellent. I read recently that Speedy Keene and Jimmy McCulloch are no longer with us. Maybe Andy Newman is still playing piano somewhere. At any rate, my copy of Thunderclap Newman's CD Hollywood Dream is kept among my all-time favorites. Thunderclap Newman seems to me to be a perfect example of the essence of life itself, i.e., most of us such as me, living ordinary lives: Here for a short time and barely noticed if noticed at all.
(To the tune of Row, Row, Row Your Boat):
Merrily Merrily Merrily Magicly, Life Is But A Dream. Dream On.
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Its Something in the Air! , May 24, 2005
This is a brillant album that grows on you with each listening, and one of the few that stand out after years, (even decades, ya?) Being partial to stride piano, I LOVE the presence here of Andrew Newman, and will never forget hearing Something in the Air for the first time while driving to the dentist. That voice! That piano! compelled me to switch directions, and head immediately for my musical maven at the local music store. Despite my inept attempts to sing the lyrics, my friend at Mr B's for Music instantly identified Thunderclap Newman and sent me home with Hollywood Dream, toothache forgotten. Even with Something in the Air's anthem status, the rest of the album definitely holds up. Hollywood Dream is a solid musical experience which gets under your skin as the tunes roll along, with all the musicians contributing to *flow* and continuity. As its name suggests, this album conveys a reel Hollywood Story; one to be enjoyed repeatedly over time.
I don't know that Something in the Air was in Magic Christian, but it most assuredly was featured in the film Strawberry Statement, an OUTSTANDING soundtrack that is all but impossible to get these days. After seeing a used tape of it on Amazon for an amazing 89 bucks, I finally found my CD on eBay. Today, the SS CD is offered on Amazon at a pricey $49 bucks for a water damaged copy; $60 bucks for a decent one, and worth it! Both CDs are great and both are highly recommended.
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Even after all this time, there's still Something In The Air, September 8, 2000
Thunderclap Newman was probably the greatest one-off band in rock history. This, their only album, is the proverbial minor masterpiece. The three bandmates--a songwriter known only to Pete Townshend, a postal clerk turned jazz pianist, and a sixteen-year-old guitarist--caught some kind of British late-Sixties "zeitgeist", for this record is a perfect evocation of that time and place. Fire, charm, cleverness, and some downright silliness are compounded in this strange brew of...well, you'll just have to hear it.Of particular interest is the interplay of child guitarist Jimmy McCulloch and jazz pianist Andy Newman. McCulloch's hot licks sizzle and steam against Newman's arch, hepcat piano figures, especially on the long track "Accidents". On the single, "Something In The Air", their roles are reversed, with Jimmy playing with an ethereal, barely-there tone, and Newman adding some pianistic force, as well as a great french horn figure. If you've heard Tom Petty's fine version of this song, you owe it to yourself to hear the original as well. And it just keeps getting better! We're all tired of hipper-than-thou people who rave over some obscurity, to show off their own knowledge. But this gem really deserves all the praise that it gets. The two title tracks (yes, two), "Hollywood #1" and "Hollywood #2" are sly and rockin', respectively. The instrumental "Hollywood Dream" features some great slide guitar work. "Accidents" is a black comedy with an explosive climax. And, of all things, there's a lushly arranged singalong of "Open the Door, Homer", a Dylan song from the then-unreleased _Basement Tapes_. Pete Townshend produced it, and also played bass, though he's uncredited. However, in the photo insert, you can see him sitting in his recording studio, wearing a coy smile, with Who bandmate John Entwistle's old lyre-body bass in the foreground. If you like "Something In The Air", don't settle for _The Magic Christian_ soundtrack! Take the time to seek this out. "Life is just a game; you fly a paper plane; there is no end..."
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by Thunderclap Newman 
