The 100 Best Live Recordings - No. 81 Frampton Comes Alive
No. 81 Peter Frampton—Frampton Comes Alive (A&M Records, 1976)
On January 15, 1976, the commercial release of Frampton Comes Alive! celebrates its golden anniversary. Where those 50 years went rips most Baby Boomers still trying to account for just the last 25 years. When released, it became the best-selling live recording to date. It certainly piqued my interest in live rock recordings. It would be several years before I put together that this Peter Frampton is the same one who performed with the band Humble Pie from 1969 (As Safe as Yesterday Is (Immediate)) to 1971 (Performance: Rockin’ The Fillmore (A&M Records)). Five years and four solo recordings later, we hear a very different live Frampton on Frampton Comes Alive!
Nothing on his solo live recording resembled anything like “Four Day Creep,” “I’m Ready,” or “I Walk on Gilded Splinters.” Frampton never had that Steve Marriott edge to him. But he had plenty of chops, which he shows on this live recording covering his first four studio recordings leading up to his 1977 breakthrough, I’m in You (A&M Records). If Frampton was recognisable as a member of Humble Pie, Frampton Comes Alive! codified him in our collective subconscious.
“Do You Feel Like We Do” and Frampton’s use of the Heil Talk Box followed Joe Walsh’s use of the same on “Rocky Mountain Way” three years previously on The Smoker You Drink, The Player You Get (ABC-Dunhill, 1973) and Joe Perry’s use on 1975’s “Sweet Emotion” from Toys In The Attic (Columbia Records) and predates Richie Sambora’s employment on Bon Jovi’s 1986 single “Livin’ On A Prayer” from Slippery When Wet (Mercury Records). The talk box never got beyond novelty, and neither did Frampton Comes Alive! However, the recording remains a touchstone to a broad swath of Baby Boomers, who still believe that Styx and Uriah Heep were something exceptional.