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    Call out the instigators...

    Thunderclap Newman dies. The ultimate one-hit-wonder?

    #2
    Call out the instigators...

    Half hit wonder, even: I just listened through the whole song and, given how familiar the main refrain is, was surprised to have no memory of the piano bit at all.

    I must know it more from advert and soundtrack use than from hearing the whole thing on the radio or similar.

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      #3
      Call out the instigators...

      I mentioned it HERE.

      This means that all three of Thunderclap Newman's three official members are now dead. Pete Townshend, who played bass under a pseudonyum, is still around though.

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        #4
        Call out the instigators...

        I noticed when I was looking for a specific thread. I decided that he was worthy of his own thread.

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          #5
          Call out the instigators...

          If you hurry up and write his Wikipedia page, you can be the person who records his death.

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            #6
            Call out the instigators...

            Oh, I think an artist whose record topped the charts for three weeks - at a time when such things actually mattered - can count as a 'whole'-hit-wonder.

            RIP, Thunderclap.

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              #7
              Call out the instigators...

              Decent song, that.

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                #8
                Call out the instigators...

                Jah Womble wrote: Oh, I think an artist whose record topped the charts for three weeks - at a time when such things actually mattered - can count as a 'whole'-hit-wonder.RIP, Thunderclap.
                I might have chosen my words better, Jah - I just couldn't remember the extended instrumental break at all.

                It is a good record and, as GO suggested, could well be the ultimate one hit wonder where the wonder is why they never did much else rather than the, perhaps more common, examples that leave you you wondering how on earth they got into the charts in the first place*.

                * - A rhetorical question. Obviously people will buy any old shit when certain factors align.

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                  #9
                  Call out the instigators...

                  Ah, so that song isn't by the Beatles then?

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                    #10
                    Call out the instigators...

                    Brilliant song, brilliant record. They left it quite spare and simple, didn't overdo it.

                    That "... and you know that it's right" is quite dramatic, and speaks to everyone on an emotional level.

                    RIP, fellow Hounslowite.

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                      #11
                      Call out the instigators...

                      He looked so much older than everyone — ie: me, my friends, and people whose music we listened to at the time — so I'm startled to discover he was only six years my senior. Of course that isn't much now, but it was like eons back then.

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                        #12
                        Call out the instigators...

                        I remember seeing an interview with Andy Newman in which he said that he got the nickname "Thunderclap" because he had hands like hams and was incapable of playing anything subtle on the piano, just these big old chords like a thunderclap. He seemed like a lovely chap, a big ole' hippie with a sharp line in self-depreciation.

                        The song was originally going to be called "Revolution", but they changed it because they didn't want people thinking it was a version of the Beatles song, which had come out a few months earlier.

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                          #13
                          Call out the instigators...

                          Benjm wrote:
                          Originally posted by Jah Womble
                          Oh, I think an artist whose record topped the charts for three weeks - at a time when such things actually mattered - can count as a 'whole'-hit-wonder.RIP, Thunderclap.
                          I might have chosen my words better, Jah - I just couldn't remember the extended instrumental break at all.

                          It is a good record and, as GO suggested, could well be the ultimate one hit wonder where the wonder is why they never did much else rather than the, perhaps more common, examples that leave you you wondering how on earth they got into the charts in the first place*.

                          * - A rhetorical question. Obviously people will buy any old shit when certain factors align.
                          Sure, but there were a fair few of those about at the time: Zager & Evans' In the Year 2525 and Matthews Southern Comfort's take on Woodstock are others that come to mind.

                          Something in the Air was a rather special moment, however.

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