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Pete Townshend on the ‘Magic’ Era of Thunderclap Newman, ‘Tommy,’ and 1969, the Year That Saved the Who
In this expansive interview, Pete Townshend talks about his Thunderclap Newman project, creating 'Tommy,' and why 1969 was the year that saved the Who.
Yet both of those things happened: The group’s Townshend-produced first single and only hit, the generational anthem “Something in the Air,” topped the British charts in July of 1969, at the same time the Who ’s “Tommy” and “Pinball Wizard” were also making their first impact; and “ Hollywood Dream, the Thunderclap Newman Story: Pete Townshend, a Band of Outsiders, and the Birth of British Indie Music,” an exhaustive history of the band, its members and its milieu by Mark Ian Wilkerson, was released last month on Jack White’s Third Man Books. Thunderclap Newman, which struggled through its live performances, released “Hollywood Dream,” an excellent Townshend-helmed album, the following year, but any momentum from the single had long since passed and the group dissolved. On the Thunderclap Newman, album, there’s a cover of “Open the Door, Richard” from the legendary “Basement Tapes” by Bob Dylan and the Band, which wouldn’t be officially released until years later.
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