Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
57. 'Frampton Comes Alive!' - Peter Frampton (1976)
149 Plays1 year ago
‘All I Want To Be (Is At Your Gig)’
In the mid-70s, when the novelty of your favourite rock band releasing a live album was still fresh and exciting, standing out from the rest was Peter Frampton’s ‘Frampton Comes Alive!’!
Boasting a host of fantastic attributes - such as excellent production, fantastic performances and accessible music - this album is one of the best selling live albums of all time - registering a staggering 20,000,000 sales!
Laz & Felipe analyse how and why this album was so successful!
- Episode Playlist: https://spotify.link/WY3Pp4Fl3Db
- Follow the Podcast on Social Media: https://linktr.ee/longlivernrpod
- Get in touch and/or leave us a review: longliverocknrollpodcast@gmail.com
- Podcast Music Track: "Bring The Pain" Music provided by https://Slip.stream Free Download/Stream: https://get.slip.stream/2njAKT
- Podcast Art by Ross Davidson (@ross_feelshame)
LONG LIVE ROCK ‘N’ ROLL
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Banter
00:00:01
Speaker
Hello and welcome back to the Long Live Rock and Roll podcast with your hosts, Mr. Lasmy Kalinis and Mr. Felipe Amorim. Felipe, how are you doing, man? Doing great, man, and you? Yeah, very well. Thank you very well. I'm a bit tired today. You know, just one of those days you're just a little tired. Things catch up to you. How about you? You must always be tired in Soho. Yeah, I'm always been playing six gigs a week and teaching all day.
00:00:25
Speaker
Yeah. What have I got to complain about? Yeah, I'm not complaining either. It's a hectic lifestyle here, but it's worth it. I like it. Yeah, X and X. And she jumped straight in, as usual. She jumped straight in, but I want to start with a cup of tea. Oh, there we go. That's the drink of the...
00:00:49
Speaker
of tea. If you can hear it, I'm just, you know, it's just a cup of tea. Oh, we're doing a video now, isn't it? I say yes. So the viewers can actually see that is a can of Stella. Yeah, anyway, they're not sponsoring me yet. But if I show this, maybe I get some. Anyway, we'll see.
Introducing 'Frampton Comes Alive'
00:01:06
Speaker
Anyway, we're doing an album today, as usual. And the album we're doing is a bit different this one, we're doing a live album.
00:01:12
Speaker
and the live album we're doing is Frampton Comes Alive by Peter Frampton. Now it was released January 6th 1976 but five weeks later in the UK actually, which I thought was quite funny, recorded across four American shows I believe at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco, Long Island Arena New York and the SUNY Club in New York as well. They call it a rock genre album and it lasts about 78 minutes long
00:01:39
Speaker
This is another album that you chose Felipe and I want to know why you chose this one. Well, I chose for one simple reason. We haven't done a live album yet. We did talk a lot about live performances. We did a few episodes talking about how different it is when people play live and playing studio.
00:01:59
Speaker
But we never actually talked about a whole live album. And therefore there's loads of interesting live material out there, but this was kind of like really, really important, groundbreaking.
00:02:13
Speaker
album and maybe the most famous live album or definitely one of the best selling live albums of all time. And it was released in 1976 or my favorite decade, the 70s. I wasn't there. I wasn't around. But he's older than me. He's not that old. Not that old. That was like a good eight years before I was born.
Musical Style and Songwriting
00:02:41
Speaker
But I think the historic importance of this album, I think it has to be mentioned, also the songs are great and I think Peter Frampton is one of those legendary guitar players who is more than a guitar player.
00:02:58
Speaker
He's a great composer, songwriter. And I think just like we did the episode about Flipwood Mac, this is one of those albums where you basically have pop music performed by rock artists. And I'm a big fan of pop music, but this is a rock show, isn't it? We're here to talk about all things rock and roll. But sometimes the lines between rock and pop have really blurred. What do you think?
00:03:25
Speaker
Yeah, no, I agree. I mean, in the album, I can hear lots of stuff, really. I mean, I thought I actually had quite a progressive element to it. You know, not progressive, you know, two weeks ago, we spoke about Dream Theater. I'm not talking about that kind of progressive. It's not like time signature changes everywhere. But you've got things like key changes. You've got unusual atmospheric and, yeah, effecty effects on the guitars.
00:03:50
Speaker
just to pull you into an atmosphere more than like being just loose rock and roll where the guitars are loud and distorted there's more care has been taken with the tone of the instrument i think um so yeah in that sense it was a bit progressive but yeah pop music uh done in a rock setting right
00:04:07
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. So again, it's one of those songs, if you play, you know, any of those songs on acoustic guitar and just sing on top of it, they sound like any radio friendly pop songs, not like any, they sound like some of the best radio friendly kind of pop songs. But the way it's arranged and played makes it rock music for me. Yeah, and I agree.
00:04:31
Speaker
I think what we're going to do is we're going to kind of do the same thing we did with the Dream Theater album, which is because it's such a long album, to go song by song, I think it's going to be too long and there's going to be too much to say. And there are similar aspects in the songs. So we've broken this down into several categories. And the first one I want to talk about, let's go with what you were saying, which is the songwriting. And the thing I want to pick up from straight away is the accessibility of the album and the appeal of music to a wider audience.
Album Accessibility and Success
00:04:59
Speaker
because you are right in saying that this is one of the most famous live albums ever and I have no problem admitting that I'd never heard of it, I'd never heard of a song off it and I'd heard Peter Frampton in name but that's it, didn't know what he looked like, didn't know he was a guitarist. So this is completely new to me, everything about this album is new to me.
00:05:21
Speaker
But to hear that it's like one of the best-selling live albums of all time, I thought, how can that be? Not that I know, not that I'm the be-all and end-all of music knowledge and everything, but I thought, how can, you know, everyone's heard of Thriller by Michael Jackson, you know, but I just, I found it odd that I didn't know this one. And what I found was that each and every song was so easy to listen to, so easy to sway your head to, you know, like you can imagine getting the lighters out on some of the songs,
00:05:50
Speaker
the rocky ones it was nice to sort of you know a couple of driving songs you just bang your head very easy to listen to pleasant melodies agreeable progressions not overly long songs i mean some of them are a bit um a bit extended but not not stupidly uh and i think this you can tell this from the success of the album that it's spent so long on the billboard charts there is music for everyone in there
00:06:14
Speaker
And the singles are great. They've made the perfect choices for singles, isn't it? Just making sure I'm not talking shit here yet. Show me the way. Baby I Love Your Way and Do You Feel Like We Do? Those are the three singles.
00:06:29
Speaker
Two of them are really short songs, the first two. And do you feel like we do? It's 14 minutes long, but the single edit version of it is like seven minutes and 40 something seconds. It's still longer than Hey Dude by The Beatles.
00:06:47
Speaker
So yeah, it's a really, really long one. But it's a great live performance is where you can hear the band. Everyone takes a little bit of improvisation in there. And you can hear how good they are as a band and as individual musicians. And you have all the atmosphere from the 70s. It's a bit psychedelic and it's not so predictable as a pop album would be. So that's the rock side of it.
00:07:14
Speaker
And yeah, I believe in terms of songwriting, I agree with you. I love that you said agreeable chord progressions is a really good word. It doesn't shock you, is it? There's never that chord they think, well, why is that chord there? Exactly. And I come from a heavy metal background where, you know, the whole invention of heavy metal came from two notes by Black Sabbath.
00:07:37
Speaker
that are completely disagreeable. So I thought agreeable is a good word to describe anything that's not normal metal. Everything's pleasant. There's not, as you said, there's not a moment in the album where even let's get away from like, you know, notes that sound heavy mentally. Let's talk about disagreeableness in terms of jazz, where sometimes, you know, as you and me know, we've played in jazz bands together. The whole point of jazz is tension and release.
00:08:06
Speaker
You create the tension by playing chords that don't necessarily work together, or you play one note over a chord that creates a little bit of tension. And then how do you do that? You release the chord, you release the tension by resolving one of the notes or something.
Melody and Guitar Techniques
00:08:21
Speaker
And there wasn't even that in the album, yet it doesn't get boring. I think when you hear some stuff, I think it was, we're an American band where I said,
00:08:36
Speaker
one of the songs, the guitar, is purposely playing something really dissonant. And it just works as a nice little contrast and a nice little balance to all the nice rock music we've been hearing. And that kind of tells you how they're structuring the album. But to have nothing in a live album, not even like a jazz solo jam, where they said everyone just went into five minutes, everyone takes a one minute solo, play whatever you want, but show off.
00:09:01
Speaker
That's normally the part where audiences can be like, all right, let's just take a chill a minute. Oh, I'm going to play some avant-garde stuff. Or I give it to me then. Nothing. When you think about Frampton as a guitar player.
00:09:13
Speaker
probably guessed that he sees himself more as a songwriter because we said the same about Mark Knopfler when we were talking about Brods and Arms. It takes like half of the album for the first guitar solo to actually happen in the album and this he takes a solo in every song but it's more riff based, he's more interested in creating melodies with the guitar and riffs
00:09:36
Speaker
And you can hear that in pretty much every song. But it takes a while for him to take a long solo. Most of the solos are short. It's kind of interesting. I think the first one
00:09:48
Speaker
Yeah, I want to go to The Sun. That's the first kind of long solo in the album, not really, but the song is really groovy. So it doesn't sound like guitar wanking, never sounds like that. Oh no, very far from that, very far from that. It's tasteful, very, very tasteful as well. Yeah, his influences were quite diverse, like from Beatles and Hendrix and
00:10:13
Speaker
Buddy Holly. So he wasn't a guy who was only interested in playing the guitar.
00:10:20
Speaker
He wanted to create melodies and I think this is a big part of his music. One of my favorite songs is Penny for Your Thoughts. It's like a minute and 23 seconds or something like that. The shortest song in the album. So my two favorites are the shortest and the longest song in the album. It's Penny for Your Thoughts and Do You Feel Like We Do with 14 Minutes Long. So Penny for Your Thoughts, the classical guitar piece, pretty much.
00:10:48
Speaker
So that's him saying, okay, you know, I'm a guitar player, I can do some stuff. And that's that's classical composition, really. And then you have a bit all of your way, which is totally like radio-friendly pop song with catchy chorus. Is that his song?
00:11:05
Speaker
Yeah, I think yeah, I think he wrote down. That's a good question. That's a song I've heard before. Yeah, that's a song I've heard before. You hear that song on the radio. Oh, no. Yeah, that's yeah. He wrote that song. Do you know what? I'll double check that if he wrote with someone else. But I'm pretty sure it's. Yeah, it doesn't sound like one of those songs that a rock musician comes up with on his own. Yeah, he might. Yeah, he might have.
00:11:28
Speaker
You might have a co-writer for that one. Google should know. No, it is written by him and released initially in 1975 as a singer. You have four albums before the live album. That's the other interesting thing about this album is I think the first time a musician became famous for that live album rather than the studio albums. Probably, you know, Made in Japan by Deep Purple was really big, but they
00:11:58
Speaker
they already released a machine by the time so you can't really claim that the album actually made their career so in this case Frampton had four albums he didn't have hits like to the point he was internationally well known and it's like his career wasn't going anywhere until this album and then and then boom you know eight million copies sold in the US alone
00:12:24
Speaker
Yeah, let's talk then about the hits because another big aspect of this album is the set list and the song choice because it's been renowned and lauded by critics and fans that this was one of the fantastic things. So we'll do a checklist, right? The accessibility, there is something for everyone on the album and each song you could class as easy listening rock. Fair?
00:12:54
Speaker
Next up, we've got the setlist. Fans and critics have praised this because it is a hit machine. The setlist, again, I don't know Frampton, so I can't comment on this, but the setlist is apparently everything Frampton's fans could have wanted. He's literally picked the three best songs from each of his four albums and put them in the setlist. Now, that in itself... No fillers. No fillers. No fillers. When audiences
00:13:20
Speaker
get performances of songs they like and songs they know to be of quality, then it's almost like it takes the show up 10% on its own, isn't it? Just getting the right set list. Yeah, exactly. And also for a live concert, you want to keep people interested from start to finish. And the obvious choice would be to play your hits. But you know, musicians sometimes, they just want to
00:13:44
Speaker
sell the next album. You will make the artistic choice, you know, I like the song because, you know, I wrote a song for my mum, whatever. If people don't want to hear it, it's not good for the gig. And again, I think if you if you have never listened to any of his songs and it turned out for the gig, you would love it. That's I think that's how good
00:14:04
Speaker
the whole thing is and there's no even even when they take long solos I think in the live context it works there's that I think there's nothing in the album that is there for the sake of going off or for the sake of artistic ego it's not there is it? No there's a single free album for sure in my opinion and it's what makes it big it's what makes it accessible so if you're not rock fan you can listen to it and if you
00:14:33
Speaker
If you are a rock fan, but you don't dislike pop music completely, there's no way you're going to dislike this album. And there's no way you're not going to end up singing along after you hear the chorus for the first time, because then you just learn the lyrics. It's one of those things.
00:14:50
Speaker
Throw Me The Way and Baby I Love You Away. Those songs, when you listen to them for the first time, you are going to sing along with the second chorus. It's as simple as that. You can learn the melody and the lyrics straight away the first time you listen to them. I've listened to those songs on the radio for like a long time, but they've played a million times on the radio back in Brazil. But I only knew those two songs until I got into the album.
00:15:19
Speaker
until I started to listen to the other things he did. He also worked as a composer for soundtracks. He did almost famous. So the songs by that fake band, he is the songwriter.
00:15:37
Speaker
Wow. I think he wrote every single song. What's the name of the band? Steel Water or something like that. I've only watched it once and I was with you. Frank Tom is a songwriter so basically he probably was told to write in the style of Led Zeppelin, The Who and those guys and he did an amazing job writing those songs.
00:15:58
Speaker
So the other thing, you mentioned the set list. I want to say something that I found when I listened to this carefully.
Pacing and Consistency
00:16:05
Speaker
There's no actual fast songs.
00:16:09
Speaker
They're not too slow. There's a certain pace throughout the whole album. Never gets too fast. Never stays too slow for too long. So that's a really interesting thing. That's a great point. Yeah. One thing that really surprised me, something's happening in the first song. Something's happening. It's just an uplifting rock and roll song, cheesy backing vocals, kind of catchy chorus.
00:16:36
Speaker
The guitar solo is short in melodic classic Frampton style, but it's not an explosive opening song, isn't it? No, it isn't. And I actually thought that as well. I don't know if I would start to give you a song that is not really loud and fast and straight to the chorus. That's not a predictable song to open a gig, but I think it just works, doesn't it?
00:17:01
Speaker
Can I tell, yeah, I wanted to tell you what I thought of the comparisons. And actually, maybe we can take this onto the next section. So yeah, appeal and accessibility, set list.
00:17:19
Speaker
And the next point is the timing. So in the mid-70s, we had a plethora of live albums coming from your favorite rock bands, didn't we? Zeppelin, Ratiff, Thin Lizzy, Kiss. Those are just some to name but a few. Deep Purple. But one album that I felt this most compares to, and I wonder if you'll agree with me here, and it's because of the reasons you've said, which is that it doesn't really feel like they've gone
00:17:49
Speaker
OK, we're going to we're going to put this song here to get a tremendous amount of energy. Just feels like they have done the setlist the way they want, showcasing their favorite songs. I felt this set, this album was very much like Simon and Garfunkel in Central Park. Central Park, yeah. You know how they just also have, you know, they've got some songs that are a bit more uptempo, but then they just have this general
00:18:18
Speaker
uh speed don't they where it's just you know yeah and i feel that this is what they got here as well with Peter Frampton because i was expecting when you said when i read that it's rock's biggest selling live album i'm thinking right let's hit play and i'm waiting for like an onslaught of speed soloing if not sort of showing off stuff if it was still poppy i'd expect it to be fast yeah none of that
00:18:46
Speaker
none of that but it didn't disappoint because then it takes you to the next song which is like a kind of funky the dooby-wah isn't it whatever it's called
00:18:54
Speaker
I'm brilliant, man. Yeah, it's a funk song, and it's like that funky guitar all the way. But again, it's not like James Brown funk. It's not fast. No, no, no, no. There's that pace. I think he just creates an atmosphere, the last for the whole album. And it feels like it might have been one of the most pleasant experiences in the 70s, to go to a pit of Frampton gig. Just enjoy that vibe all the way through the show to the end. So basically,
00:19:24
Speaker
Yeah, and as you mentioned that song, Do Be What, there's a line in the lyrics that are really like, do what everybody says is wrong. So basically, you know, think about this, do what everybody says is wrong. It's rock and roll. It's a funky song, but that's the rock and rollness of the lyrics. You don't need to be like everyone else. We keep talking about how this comes up in rock.
00:19:45
Speaker
lyrics all the time, this sort of subject, don't do what people expect you to do. And yeah, super cool. I love that song. So again, the gig starts with something's happening, not too fast. Doobie Wah, a light kind of, you know, not so fast funk. And then you have Show Me The Way with the talk box, which is the
00:20:09
Speaker
phenomenal pedal that creates the most amazing guitar effect and it's a pop song and everyone knows the chorus, that's brilliant, it's a brilliant way to start a gig. There's another thing, so again about this pace of the gig, after like four songs, yeah after four songs they go into an acoustic section of the set, so he plays one song on its own
00:20:34
Speaker
uh i think two songs yeah two songs on his own so it's uh all i want to be is by your side and wind of change yeah and then the band joins him again for baby i love your way and that's another massive hit but then you have that mix see how interesting it is like band and then solo acoustic and then acoustic with the band because they join him but he's still playing acoustic for that song so textures
00:20:59
Speaker
textures they're going for. Exactly, it eliminates layers of instruments and then brings them back in. I feel you've always said something along the lines of it's a good song if you take away all the extras and just have an acoustic guitar and a vocals and if the song works like that then you can put anything else you want on top and it will still be good. It's kind of like that here isn't it?
00:21:27
Speaker
It would be like that for every song, but then he actually does it.
Vocal and Instrumental Performance
00:21:30
Speaker
He plays a couple of songs with no other instruments, just acoustic guitar. And that's, I think, where he shows how good his vocals are. Because, you know, everyone talks about Peter Frampton, the guitar player. His vocal technique is super cool. And it's like he's not overdoing like most modern pop singers do.
00:21:52
Speaker
It's very natural. He goes to the high pitched notes when they are necessary to the song, I guess. Let's move on to one of my next points, which is the musicianship. Brilliant. I mean, I just thought that that band, without showing off in any way, sounded so tight and so together, they went from
00:22:21
Speaker
I just feel that they have the interchangeability to go from performing like a very easy going rock and roll tune to then something way more disciplined. And I mentioned the word prog and I don't mean it as like Genesis or Emerson, Aiken Palmer. But there are some sections of this album and some sections in certain songs which require discipline, require the band to be really tight with each other.
00:22:46
Speaker
Peter Frampton's soloing over a certain chord progression, you've got to make sure you match those chords when he moves. It's not a three chord song like a rock and roll song or something. And the way they just switched from being like a really loose band to then suddenly really tight in the next song, or the band,
00:23:04
Speaker
And just to credit them actually, I've got the names of them. So obviously you've got Peter Frampton on vocals and lead guitar, Bob Mayo on rhythm guitar, piano, electric piano, Hammond Organ and backing vocals, Stanley Sheldon on bass and backing vocals, and John Sionos on drums and percussion. And I mean, the band sounds bigger than four men, doesn't it?
00:23:28
Speaker
Oh yeah and I feel it feels like a six piece band. For me this is the classic 70s lineup which is normally four or five piece. Five piece when you have a solo singer like I was not actually playing an instrument just singing. Two guitars, bass, drums, vocals. Well in this case guitar, keyboards. Yeah yeah yeah. So it's the classic you either have two guitars or guitar and keyboards and well talking about keyboards
00:23:57
Speaker
When the band comes back and they play it a lovely way, it's where the keyboards actually take the lead. The keyboard sounds louder in the mix and it plays the riff and it plays a solo. So you see how he's using the musicians
00:24:14
Speaker
and the exact part of the song that they have most needed. And I think this is one of the best features of the album. It's like, yeah, everyone can play really well. No one is over playing at any point. And when they need to take the lead and do something, you know, you see how good they are. So again, it's a live album that sounds like a live album. One thing that most people don't understand is nowadays,
00:24:41
Speaker
I would say that 99% of live albums are fake.
Live Recording Authenticity
00:24:46
Speaker
Hold on, before you go there, cause I know where you're going and this is just going to go into my next point, production. So go on, take it away. So in terms of production, I'll tell you what I actually thought when I first started listening to this again, like this week, not when I listened to it for the first time, when I started listening to it again,
00:25:09
Speaker
wasn't really happy with the sound quality of the album. Sounds a bit, you know, it's, you can't quite hear every instrument. There's a bit echoey. I don't know. It's from a live recording. I found that, you know, that was, that was the issue. But you get used to it after two songs, my opinion. So just get used to the fact that it's not as crystal clear as a studio recording. Well,
00:25:34
Speaker
Oh so wait, you're comparing it to a studio? True studio recordings. Oh, let's see. Yeah, it's a great sounding album, but you can clearly tell it's a live album. Let's say you're playing bass in a live gig, and your bass is lightly distorted.
00:25:55
Speaker
the bass amp wasn't set up properly maybe the microphone is in the wrong position maybe the cable has an issue whatever if your bass sounds slightly distorted that's how it's going to come out on the album there's not much you can do to fix when you're capturing the sound and it's and there's some some
00:26:11
Speaker
some issues with that. Nowadays, people just go and fix it by re-recording the whole thing. So they re-record the bass. So most live albums you have now, the vocals are not live, maybe the drums are going to be, but the guitar solos are all overdubbed. So you don't even know. I think they did some overdubs on this album.
00:26:32
Speaker
But Frampton said they only overdubbed, like I think it was one of the talk box parts that they missed the tape or the recording. Something went wrong and they didn't have the actual recording. So it was necessary to do it.
00:26:48
Speaker
So it was necessary. Yeah, it was necessary. The song wouldn't have been complete without overdubbing it. Exactly. But just when you have something that really failed and like the microphone was like pointing to the wrong direction because someone hit it or whatever. So they had a few issues that they had to fix. But not like most people do, just like rerecord everything. So the vocals are 100% live.
00:27:11
Speaker
The star solos are 100% live. That's what I love, especially about Deep Purple's Made in Japan, is that you can hear when Richie Blackmore fucks up, and I love it. I love it. There's one of them where he's on the highway star solo, and he's going... And he goes... I just love it. Every time that part comes, I love it because it's raw, it's authentic. That's how it happened on the night.
00:27:38
Speaker
And to give credit to Frampton, he didn't fuck up with any soldiers. But then again, none are as fast as Highway Stars. Oh yeah, exactly. They sound really tight, the temples.
00:27:55
Speaker
They're not playing to a click track as most people do nowadays as well. So the tempos are solid, the band is tight and they're really good with dynamics. Again, I'm going to mention the last song, Do You Feel Like We Do, because they go down like a lot and then bring it up again and it's a great ending. But in terms of production, I think they made the right choices. Number one, not adding musicians.
00:28:23
Speaker
That's a four-piece band. Most solo artists, they have maybe a 10-piece band live.
00:28:28
Speaker
can have as many musicians as they want, you know, and reproduce every single layer that you've done in studio. Every track you're recording studio can go and do it live. If there's four guitars, you can have two, three guitar players on stage and pick the main lines and play all of the most of them. Whilst when you have just him as a guitar player, he has to actually play the solos perfectly and go back to the riff perfectly. And I think, yeah, I think it was the right choice for production, which is stick to
00:28:56
Speaker
a four-piece band playing live and not extending the songs too much apart from a couple of songs. And indeed the last song had to be extended just to get the audience going and everything. With regards to production, I'm completely great, excellent production
Production and Audience Interaction
00:29:11
Speaker
value. I think it still sounds good. If I got a live recording from a band I went to see last week that sounded that good, I'd still be happy.
00:29:19
Speaker
I think the sound is so fantastically balanced that you still capture the audience and the energy and the atmosphere but without sacrificing quality of the audio. And with that, we'll go on to the next point I have, which is about the audience interaction.
00:29:38
Speaker
Oh yeah, you can hear the hand claps. Which is such a big part. You can hear everything. This is what I'm saying about that production. You can hear when one woman screams in the middle of a song, a good scream, not like a fatal scream, like when she screams on her favorite chorus. And you can hear that on its own. And yet at the end of the song, you get all the claps coming in. And I don't know, man, it's just that the audience, it felt like, I felt
00:30:05
Speaker
happy for them that they were there. You know what I mean? Sometimes you get gigs where you like, you might even have a hint of jealousy where you're like, oh, fucking, I wish I was, oh, this, this sounds so good to like Deep Purple. I wish I was there back in 78 or whatever. And other times you might, you might be like, um, I don't know if the sound wasn't good, you might say, I'm glad I wasn't at that one. But
00:30:27
Speaker
this one I was just so happy I was like oh those bastards they must have had a great evening and I just have to say quickly I like this album as a live album and as what I got delivered if I paid £10 for a CD and I just want some good easy listening rock music in a live scenario but it's not my favorite ever music I don't know if I'd go and listen to the songs individually
00:30:51
Speaker
yet still I come away from it thinking I'd have loved to have been there that night just to have seen that. That's what a good gig should be. Like please your fans and stay connected with every person who is there, even if they're not familiar with all your material. So that's like, think about it, he had four albums, which is like a really good catalog so far. And
00:31:17
Speaker
the breakthrough album was a live one. This is insane. I don't think it has happened before this one. Maybe he's one of those artists that his live performances are really special and they're better than any studio album he could possibly make. It's still his best selling album and probably the best.
00:31:40
Speaker
and yeah I agree with you that the connection with the audience is amazing. I love that point in every song when people recognize a song and you can hear people just like clapping because they know this is my favorite song or I know what's going to happen now. So if you check any footage of Frampton playing live with any like you can find something more recent or something he did in the 70s 80s or 90s whatever
00:32:09
Speaker
Everything he does live, he does with pleasure and you can see he loves interacting with the audience and he's always a great gig.
00:32:17
Speaker
Yeah, talking to them, letting them finish the phrases, you know, there's I don't know what song he is, but there's one way, literally, he says the line and you can just hear in his voice, he steps away from the microphone as if to say to the audience, go on, you do it. And that's just that's the next thing that makes a fantastic gig, isn't it, is that just being acknowledged. I mean, there are moments, you know, I went to see a band, a metal band called Mastodon, who are one of my favorite bands.
00:32:44
Speaker
But their whole thing is get on, play as many songs as we can, and go away. I don't want to say it in case I make them sound like dicks, but I don't remember them saying, thanks for coming tonight. Great to see you here. So many of you. We're mastered on from America. None of that. Just song after song. Thank you. Next song. Next song. Next song. Thanks a lot. That's it. I think that comes more with Heavy Metal. You're playing a character. You've got to be dark and dreary.
00:33:14
Speaker
he welcomed the fans with open arms and said listen this is an evening for all of us come and get involved it's like you're having a party at your flat isn't it and someone brings a guitar but they are actually good because every time that happens the guy who brings the guitar can't fucking play he wants someone else to play though um do you know what in terms of my um
00:33:38
Speaker
In terms of my points, I'm done. I didn't really, I felt, so just to recap, I felt that these were the key factors of what, for me, what made this album so good. The exceptional musical performances, the set list, the audience interaction, the quality of production and the sound, the era and the year it came out, and the accessibility and the appeal that it had to wider audiences.
00:34:03
Speaker
I mean, I kind of made all my points with only half an hour gone, but I still feel that these are the keys to any live album. And I wonder if, you know, all these other live albums, I think of, you know, what else came out? The song remains the same. Now, what the song remains the same did have is it had a bit of a looser feel to it. It was a bit jammy in places. It's Zeppelin, we know this.
00:34:27
Speaker
but for that reason it sacrificed some quality. Robert Plant's vocals aren't all fantastic in song remains the same. G Page's guitar playing isn't all fantastic and whilst they're still exceptional musicians in that scenario, so maybe you could argue that for me the song remains the same, the performance is lacking compared to the others. I just feel this has everything. Although you compare
00:34:51
Speaker
Maybe all you're doing there is like if you compare some of those sapling live versions to the studio ones, that is not a, you know,
00:35:03
Speaker
There's no way some of those live versions would win in a competition against the studio ones, because of all those imperfections. Although a live album has to have imperfections, otherwise it's just like studio. I think the difference between, if you're comparing those two albums, the difference for me between the song remains the same and Frampton Comes Alive is the song remains the same, happened after the airplane. What do I mean? They had an airplane.
00:35:32
Speaker
so they had nothing to prove anymore. When your band owns an airplane, so all they were doing is to get completely smashed and go on stage thinking we're rock gods, we don't give a fuck. Whilst Frampton was like okay I've released four albums
00:35:50
Speaker
I'm still not as famous as I deserve to be. The next one has to be the best one. I've got something to prove. And maybe then he realized that he could do on stage something that could never be reproduced in studio, I guess. It's usually the other way around, isn't it? What you're doing in studio, you can't do it live. What he did live could never be done in studio.
00:36:15
Speaker
because we think about fans nowadays like Metallica will go and record every show they do and then they can sell it to the fans the next week. That sort of technology I don't think was around in the 70s unless you know I'm wrong or something. But I wonder if he, just from being on stage with this band night after night, I wonder if he didn't plan to have a live album but just went, you know what, this band, this is kicking ass.
00:36:41
Speaker
do you know when we go back to America in a month to do these last 10 dates let's record it because this sounds good my songs have never sounded this good and I wanted that could have been the case I don't know that's something I never read about uh it might have been the case I mean it's
00:36:57
Speaker
Thing is they clearly having fun and the audience is having a good time with them. And it's just like, okay. Yeah. Yeah. I think when you listen to the album, start to finish, you feel like you're there as part of the gig. It's a long album. It's like, is it an hour and 17 minutes or something? 78 minutes. So yeah. Yeah. Yeah. An hour and 18 minutes or something. So, uh, but when I listened to it, start to finish, it didn't feel like that because you have some long songs and some short songs. Well, there's one cover song, right?
00:37:26
Speaker
So the Rolling Stones' Jumping Jack Flash. I wouldn't dare to do that version. It's funky and there's a half-temporal vibe on the groove in many parts, so it sounds like
00:37:44
Speaker
It's half of the speed, so it's not real, it's just interpretation. It's so cool, and it's so different. And he changes the melody for the chorus. Well, this is the thing. I didn't realize it was jumping Jack Flash until about halfway through the song. And he goes, because he completely changes it, doesn't he? Because the song, it's all right. He goes, I'm not going to try and do it, but he completely changes it. And then halfway through the song, he goes, I'm jumping Jack Flash. And I go, whoa.
Unique Interpretations and Effects
00:38:13
Speaker
Hold on. Yeah. Oh, my God. Yeah, exactly. That's a bit different. He made it his own. You might not like it if you compare to the original. I like both of them. I don't know if I could pick a favorite. And this song, they have a kind of a drum break and a jam session in the middle. That's classic 70s rock. That freedom of 70s rock. Yes, that's just kind of a drum break. And then everyone takes a solo or whatever. And that's super cool. I really, really like it.
00:38:42
Speaker
Do you have a favourite song? I really like the lines on my face and I just have to say that I didn't listen to this album intently and go okay, make a note, this track 9 is my favourite. I listened to it three times this week and I let it flow.
00:38:59
Speaker
I didn't even look, oh the songs changed. Because that's the effect the album causes on you, it just flows, you can't stop. You don't really care about. You can't stop and take notes about that, you just listen to it. And sometimes what happens, I mean I'll honestly admit with bands like Dream Theater, I got to like Song 7 and I was like right how long is that, oh another four songs right, well I'm just gonna go and
00:39:20
Speaker
top my water up or something with this I didn't care just sat back eyes closed just took it all in but yeah I answered your question lines on my face was nice yeah well you say that but I tell you do you know what
00:39:39
Speaker
I heard various soul elements in this album as well. Just some of the, the way again, as I was saying with the production of the instruments, some of the effects he had on his guitar sounded really good and made the song what it seems. So lines on my face and baby I love your way. I thought were very solely and something I want to add about baby I love your way. And this might be complete. Maybe everyone disagrees with me. I thought he sounded like Bob Marley.
00:40:08
Speaker
Oh, wow. That is... I would actually listen to it again to actually find where that connection is. It's not like he's singing with a Jamaican accent, but it's the way he delivers it. It's kind of like he's talking to you. And I just think I'm trying to think of a song
00:40:29
Speaker
And man, see, I'll paint yourself from that. And that's Bob Marley. And he's just trying. He's just delivering you his message. And I love that you could sort of take that same thing with baby. I love your way. So, yeah, if you if you're listening and watching now, go and listen to baby. I love your way and see if you can hear what I'm saying. And if you're going to let us know in the comments, let us know if you agree with me or not. And you've got to message me after Philippe. All right.
00:40:59
Speaker
Okay, I will, I have to listen. No, you say that happens in lines on my face or maybe I love your way. Maybe I love your way. Both of them I find kind of solely, they just have this kind of atmosphere to them, I thought. Yeah, there's another thing I want to say about the album, which is, it's one of the, he made an effect pedal become a part of the band, right, the talk box.
00:41:24
Speaker
And he uses it in the last song as well, doesn't he? He uses it in two songs, the last one, Do You Feel Like We Do, and Show Me The Way. So the talk box is such an interesting device. And I, you know, it came about like decades before this. But I think Phantom was the guy who made it popular. And, you know, and then Bone Jovi used it
00:41:47
Speaker
and David Gilmour used it, not Bon Jovi, but his guitar player used it. And Rich Sambora is it. And David Gilmour from Pink Floyd used it as well. So it became a thing, you know, but the talk box, if you're not familiar with, if you ever seen a guitar player with like this tube going into his mouth, that's the talk box. It's usually attached to the microphone. Basically, it sends the instrument sound into your mouth. And if the way you,
00:42:17
Speaker
you move your mouth, you change the sound, you reshape the sound of the guitar and feed it back into the microphone. So basically what comes out of it is you got to check like videos and stuff about it because it's kind of really hard to explain because that's how it works but basically it's a mix of the guitar and the voice or it literally makes the guitar speak
00:42:43
Speaker
makes the guitar talk. It's so cool. I mean, and he uses it again, never in a self-indulgent kind of way. It's just he makes the guitars picture the audience. And it's a complete shock when it first comes in song three. And then he brings it back for the last song, which I thought was really good. My opinion is a lot better than a wah wah pedal and less annoying. Yeah. Yeah.
00:43:11
Speaker
Oh, brilliant. Do you have anything else to add, bro? Because like I said, I've made my points. I just thought, yeah, go on, go on. I would just say, listen to it, you know, grab a beer, call your friends. Yeah, get the speed.
Album Experience and Rock Essence
00:43:23
Speaker
Play the album. Instead of watching a movie, just take a day to listen to the album, start to finish. Do you know, was there an accompanying company? Was there an accompanying video that came with it? Like a DVD? Do you know?
00:43:38
Speaker
Good question. Not at the time. There was no DVDs at the time, but I don't think it came out as VHS. I don't think it came out as VHS. I think he has a Live in Detroit, which is like way more recent than that one, which was the first DVD I watched. I'm not quite sure, but I don't think there's live footage from those specific gigs. Yeah. Okay. Interesting. Do you want to tell us why you think this album is so rock and roll?
00:44:09
Speaker
The freedom of rock and roll, I think, is in the way they play those songs. They're never intending to be pop or rock or anything. They just want to play good songs. And the music is bigger than the musicians. For me, that is, you know, although rock and roll has a lot of ego,
00:44:35
Speaker
I don't think there's any ego in this album, but maybe what makes it rock and roll is the fact that they can play a one minute and 23 classical guitar song and then they can play a 14 minute rock song.
00:44:50
Speaker
with everyone taking a solo. And I think the diversity of the album is what makes it a rock album. You can't call a pop album if you have a 14-minute song and an instrumental in the Pasco guitar. So rock music is that. You can write a pop song, you can have an instrumental, you can have a long song, you can have a bluesy guitar solo. And when you don't know what name to give to a certain kind of music, you just call it rock.
00:45:20
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I suppose as long as there's a guitar and a drum kit, I think you can call it rock. Well, Emerson, I can. Palmer doesn't have a guitar. They, well, they got to chase to shape. You don't know how to name this style. Just call it rock. Just call it rock. Yeah. Perfect. Um, excellent. You ready for my mom? Yes. Sure. Let's go. Just let's end the show with, uh, as is more normal monologue. So
00:45:46
Speaker
Frampton Comes Alive combines and perfectly executes all the things we love about live music, live gigs and live albums. The performances from the individual musicians are fantastic and at the click of a drumstick they can switch from loose rock and roll straight to disciplined prog rock. Frampton's guitar work is sublime and each solo flows beautifully displaying his technique and skill but still flourishing with lovely melodies, motifs and passages. The production value of the album is unbelievable.
00:46:15
Speaker
Achieving such a solid sound with a brilliant mix whilst keeping the energy and atmosphere of the gig is a great production achievement. In an era where live shows and albums were thriving, it was important for this to stand out. And although most people might not go straight to the production for reasons why it is successful, it's certainly a key element.
00:46:35
Speaker
Not knowing much at all about Peter Frampton, I can't speak to the setlist and the song choices, but the setlist is renowned for containing all of the best songs that Frampton fans could want, while still keeping it accessible and appealing enough for non-fans to enjoy as well. The sheer variety of styles in the album keeps the listener so entertained, going from a bluesy jam to a hard rock, almost metal riff in one of the songs, to some easy listening soul ensures that everyone who went to the concert had something to enjoy.
00:47:03
Speaker
You can tell this from the way he reacts and interacts with the audience, seeing the words back to him and finishing off phrases. I can't say that there was any moment where I said, wow, this is the best live solo song moment I've ever heard. But the amalgamation and culmination of everything we mentioned in this episode and in my paragraphs above only solidifies the notion that this is one of the greatest live albums of all times. I can't argue with that.
00:47:27
Speaker
I went from not knowing anything about Peter Frampton to wildly fist pumping one hour later during the outro of Lions On My Face. That, to me, says all I need to know about the quality, accessibility and nostalgic value this incredible album carries with it. Yeah. It's everything we love about gigs, isn't it? Isn't it? Everything we love about gigs was done really well on this album. I think that's the best way to put it. Yeah, man. Yeah. What an album.
00:47:55
Speaker
What an album. Excellent. Right. Well, guys, thank you for joining us for another Long Live Rock and Roll podcast episode. As usual, follow Felipe's advice, go and listen to it. And if you haven't done already, please go and subscribe to our social media channels on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, give us a like, comment, subscribe. And if you're listening to this on Apple or Spotify, please give us a review. The tiniest 30 seconds of your time to type something out and give us a five star review can make the world of difference to us because we might shoot up the algorithms
00:48:23
Speaker
and the next time someone searches Frampton looking for some music we might come up so we'd really appreciate that guys just give us a quick like and subscribe not a lot of time on your behalf but it would mean the world to us and if you guys jumped in go on if you think we're worth four and a half stars just round it up you know yeah just yeah that's it perfect but anyway guys yeah thank you for joining us uh keep on rocking everyone as usual take care and long live rock and roll