Second look at Frampton

Like most topics in this realm, things start to wither once you start examining them a little more closely. A buddy points out that Frampton went down a bit of a poncy path and many of us followed, but he never really recovered. If you don't know what I mean, look at the cover of his followup to "Comes Alive." See link.

http://frampton.com/albums/

Pretty Bieber. OK, totally Bieber. There's no coming back from hot pink satin britches and matching open-chested top. Why Robert Plant got away with this sort of thing but Frampton didnae, I can't tell you. Well, maybe I can tell you. Peter was pandering to those screaming girls -- first time I ever heard such in-person ('77), a solid 13 years post-Beatles (and I've only heard it twice since: Madonna and Strokes). He put the plane in a dive spiral and he couldn't regain control! Plus, Plant stuck mostly with earth tones.

Lookit, the screamers bought a lot of those records, how could he not? But that show in '77 was not enjoyable by the standards of the day (and I saw Styx that fall, i'll have you know, not to mention Bad Company and Steve Miller), especially in his milking of the crowd. Next time I saw him, 10 years later almost to the day, he was relatively anonymous sideman for Mr. Bowie, stadium show, pretty astounding switch.

I hate to bring this up because I think the guy has repented aplenty (Bowie sidemanship a good example -- he knows how to play the geetar, and that's what he's kept on doing. I actually purchased his '81 product because I thought it was rocking. And listen to the musical intro to his website, it's seriously badass.)

But my boss just walked into my office, saw that album cover on my computer screen and started laughing. I don't know if all the macho guitar chops in the world can overcome that.