In the Spotlight showcases a cross-section of an artist’s cover work. View past installments, then post suggestions for future picks in the comments!
Peter Frampton has been everyone and everywhere at once, with that bloody thing in his mouth. He’s also been anonymous and relatively unknown. Neither pendulum peak has stopped this Brit having a career that’s lasted 50 years and counting. Me, I would say a (belated) induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is a spotlight well worth acknowledging, in anyone’s book and by anyone’s reckoning. So, let’s have a look at that career.
Humble Pie – Desperation (Steppenwolf cover)
Disillusioned by his experiences in his first band, the Herd, Frampton jumped ship to team up with Steve Marriott of the Small Faces, for the first incarnation of the then-dubbed “supergroup,” Humble Pie. Sharing frontline guitar and vocal duties, each wished to rid themselves, once and for all, of the teen-idol image that prevented their being taken seriously. Prior to the band forming, Marriott had tried, unsuccessfully, to coerce his Small Faces bandmates to accept Frampton into the band, so plan B came into force. Humble Pie were anything other than teeny chart fodder, being no-nonsense meat and potatoes blues-rock from the start, if still with the commercialism Frampton had inherent in his writing genes.
History suggests that Frampton’s tenure with Humble Pie wasn’t long, he leaving when Marriott wished to go heavier still. In fact, Frampton was on board for their first four studio albums, 1969-71, as well as the breakthrough live album, seemingly possessed by every headbanger of the day, Performance: Rockin’ the Fillmore. Songwriting was shared between mainly Marriott and Frampton, but the odd cover had been included within the earlier unsuccessful studio sets, notably this one, “Desperation,” written by Steppenwolf’s John Kay, showing the transition from, broadly, pop to rock. Of course, it is Marriott singing, but the lead guitar and organ is Frampton.
Humble Pie – Hallelujah I Love Her So (Ray Charles cover)
Oddly, or possibly deliberately, the live album was largely covers, notably the side-long magnum opus workout of Dr John classic, “I Walk on Gilded Splinters.” But, rather than that, given this is nominally Frampton’s post, here is Ray Charles’ “Hallelujah, I Love Her So.” Here, as well as stonking guitar, he gets at least to trade some vocal action, it otherwise largely hogged by his rawer throated bandmate. It’s fun, with some exquisite licks, and, in any band without Steve Marriott, he’d be a perfectly functional lead singer.
Frampton’s Camel – I Believe (When I Fall in Love It Will Be Forever) (Stevie Wonder cover)
Having left the Pie, a solo career beckoned. Frampton put four studio albums under his belt, each meeting little success, ahead a live album again transformed his circumstances. But, ahead investigating that one, here’s a cover specific snapshot from the studio sets, from the second album. Eschewing the famous friends of the first eponymous solo disc, here he adopted a band formula, as Frampton’s Camel. The one cover was this Stevie Wonder song. It’s fine, but very AOR in style, which was, after all, the predominant flavor of the day.
Peter Frampton – Jumping Jack Flash (The Rolling Stones cover)
Right then, on to Frampton Comes Alive, that extraordinary album that made him an unavoidable presence in 1976. Still one of the best selling live albums of all time, this double disc produced three worldwide smash hits, including “Show Me the Way,” with his signature talk box effect. And yes, there is a cover on this disc, no doubt pleasing to the already straining coffers of Messrs. Jagger and Richards. (It also appeared on his eponymous first studio set, in a slightly less sweaty but nonetheless still muscular version.)
Peter Frampton & the Bee Gees – Getting Better (The Beatles cover)
Who could follow Frampton Comes Alive? The problem seemed to be that Frampton couldn’t, and his career began to founder, even if the subsequent release still went platinum. Appearing in Robert Stigwood’s fated (and unfêted) Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band project didn’t help, as didn’t, for other reasons, a significant car accident. We ought to move on, but, hey, I know you want to hear more of the auditory car crash that is Pepper. Frampton played Billy Shears, with, as far as I can fathom, the Bee Gees making up the rest of the “Beatles.” This is actually one of the better tracks. Honestly.
Peter Frampton – Friday On My Mind (The Easybeats cover)
Never let it be said Frampton was idle in the 1980s. Despite setbacks, he continued release music, if having “issues” with his record company, A&M, from whom he tried to split. Missing working with a band, he even teamed back with his old school buddy David Jones. Now known as David Bowie, he hired Frampton to be his guitarist on his 1987 Never Let Me Down and the subsequent Glass Spider tour. Still, during these years, there were the odd cover of note. Such as this cover of the Easybeats’ “Friday on My Mind” on his 1981 release Breaking All the Rules.
Peter Frampton – While My Guitar Gently Weeps (The Beatles cover)
After the period with Bowie came various blind alleys, noting a further hook-up with Marriott, who was, by then, even further down on his luck than Frampton. Some live gigs proved the chemistry was still there, with plans to take it further, ahead Marriott’s tragic end, in a 1991 house fire. A bid to nudge the short memory of a fickle record buying market then came with Frampton Comes Alive 2, but it did not catch on with any residual audience. He continued to tour and record, increasingly concentrating on instrumental music, and/or variations of his recycled past. Now from 2006 contains a cover of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” which actually displays what a fine blues guitarist he remained, with a melodic and yearning tone.
Peter Frampton Band – The Thrill Is Gone (Roy Hawkins cover)
Latterly, any news about Frampton has been centered on his health, he admitting he had been diagnosed with inclusion body myositis in 2019, a muscle wasting disease. A farewell tour duly took to the road. Proving there is no such thing as bad news, Frampton’s next album, All Blues returned him to the top of the charts, if in the specialist sub water of the blues chart. Its success was well deserved, seeing a stellar selection of standards, and with Frampton’s own play lifted by a bevy of special guests. One of the highlights is “The Thrill Is Gone,” with slide guitar maven Sonny Landreth on board, sparring with Frampton.
Peter Frampton – If You Want Me To Stay (Sly & the Family Stone cover)
And that would have been that, but it never is. is it? The illness, whilst wreaking havoc on Frampton’s dexterity, wreaked less than initially anticipated, allowing, at the time of writing, one more release, in 2021. Entitled, not without wit, Frampton Forgets the Words, it was all-instrumental and, covers lovers, his first all-cover song collection, embracing his many allegiances and loves over the years. Encompassing songs from familiar sources George Harrison and Stevie Wonder, and old friends like David Bowie, it also has the odd surprise, like a Radiohead song, and Roxy Music’s Avalon. Whilst we wonder whether he will be fit enough to play anything at his inauguration, here’s my favorite: a cover of Sly and the Family Stone’s “If You Want Me To Stay.”
Great versions of some real classics