Frampton Comes Alive [Live, Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered]

Peter Frampton | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 28, 1998)
• Original Release Date: 1976
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Live, Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
• Label: A&M
• ASIN: B000009HF2
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (221 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,186 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #85 in Music > Classic Rock > Arena Rock

Track Listings

1. Something's Happening

2. Doobie Wah

3. Show Me The Way

4. It's A Plain Shame

5. All I Want To Be (Is By Your Side)

6. Wind Of Change

7. Baby, I Love Your Way

8. I Wanna Go To The Sun

9. Penny For Your Thoughts

10. (I'll Give) You Money

11. Shine On

12. Jumping Jack Flash

13. Lines On My Face

14. Do You Feel Like We Do

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

If you were challenged to name five rock albums that epitomized the '70s, Frampton Comes Alive! should probably top the list. Former Humble Pie guitarist Peter Frampton recorded a few perfectly fine albums with his band Frampton's Camel, but it wasn't until some of those tracks were recorded at a live performance in San Francisco and released as Frampton Comes Alive! that he became a household name. Buoyant pop, sentimental ballads, arena rock--this album has it all. The double-LP package set sales records and contained three bona fide radio hits ("Baby, I Love Your Way," "Show Me the Way," and "Do You Feel Like We Do?"), one of which, shockingly enough, was over 14 minutes long. No wonder that, to many, the two-and-a-half-minute songs of the Damned and the Sex Pistols felt like a breath of fresh air a year or two later. --Lorry Fleming

Product Description

This double album spent 97 weeks on the charts on its way to becoming the best-selling live recording of all time! Remastered from the original source tapes and compiled on one CD. This is '70s rock!

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

121 of 127 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars 70s touchstone April 3, 2001

By S CORBETT

Format:Audio CD

For some reason, I feel compelled to start this review off with a few comments from someone else's. Following is a review of the previous CD release of Frampton Comes Alive:

"This album is so 70s that to listen to it would risk opening a time portal back to the days of afros, bellbottoms and - shudder - arena rock! Frightening, eh? Okay, this WAS the biggest selling album of all time at one point, and it DID get tons of exposure on FM radio all over the world. But it was totally PLAYED OUT by 1979! To be caught dead with this disc in your collection then - even moreso NOW - would be an invitation to the worst kind of (deserved) ridicule. The fact that this anachronism has made it onto the compact disc format is astonishing."

Hmm. What's funny is that everything this person said about this CD is the very reason I bought it. I've been tempted to buy it for years, but everytime I picked it up, I hesitated and put it back. Guess I wasn't ready to step through that "portal - back to the days of afros, bellbottoms and arena rock!." But then I saw the 25th anniversary edition on sale and decided to grab it. Guess enough time had passed for me.

The point is, this is a set of live music that does indeed teleport you to a specific time and place. How many recordings can do that so successfully? Whether or not you're a fan of 70s music is really beside the point. Listening to Frampton Comes Alive, you can close your eyes and almost relive those concerts of yore - the sights, the sounds, the people.... Where it was general admission seating and huge mushroom clouds of pot smoke always formed at the top of the venues. Sometimes the music itself was irrelevant. It was about the experience. This was before Ticketmaster wrangled control of the concert business and ruined it forever. Frampton Comes Alive is a stern rebuke to that, and the boy bands that now fill those over-priced, designated-seating arenas. Yes, FCA is a reminder of arena rock, but a reminder nonetheless.

As for the reviewer's comment, "to be caught dead with this disc in your collection then - even moreso NOW - would be an invitation to the worst kind of (deserved) ridicule." Geez, I'm not 13 anymore and feel quite secure in my decision to purchase this. So bring on the taunts, pal. My musical tastes are wide and varied and somehow this CD fits right in.

A great addition to any collection and especially for those who don't mind doing a little time traveling.

123 of 131 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Vinyl Memories January 7, 2007

By John P. Morgan VINE™ VOICE

Format:Audio CD

Ahhhhhh...1976...America was celebrating its 200th birthday, Farah Fawcett hairdos were all the rage, everyone wore either pooka shells or a mood ring (or both) and this album was EVERYWHERE.

I was eleven years old.

I remember sitting in the garage of my aunt's house listening to this album with my significantly older cousins. We'd have the garage door shut and Mike would light incense so that his mom, my aunt wouldn't smell the.....uhm, the biscuits that we were baking, in the garage...well, maybe it wasn't biscuits, but something was getting baked.

I just remember shutting my eyes while the music was going and feelung like everything was just this weird and wonderful dream. The music just kept on going and going even though I knew that my cousin periodically pulled himself up from the avocado colored beanbag he was sitting on to change the record. This music just seemed to register into my pre-teen brain. It even made me want to take guitar lessons even though my dad insisted that I should learn a more "practical" instrument first and then move on to the guitar.

Since when is the accordian practical?

But I never learned to play either of those instruments. Kind of sad, really. But cue up Show Me the way and I play a real mean Fender "air-caster". This album is just loaded with gems and even though later on, I was informed that a lot of stuff was done in a recording studio with stadium effects put in later, it still didn't sour my memories any.

I had this on vinyl and my friend at the time begged me to let him borrow it, after much pleading and promising, I succumbed to his whining. He promptly left it on the seat of his truck on a 105 degree Southern California Summer day. Oh, the carnage. He didn't even offer to replace it. He just told me it was an unfortunate accident. No, his mom not keeping her legs closed 20 years ago was an unfortunate accident. I did find another copy in a used record store, but it's still not MY copy. My copy had vibrations of my love, my joy, my gladness seeping through the album cover onto the album itself. The album that I was now holding had vibrations of someone desperate for a little cash money to buy their next beer so in their desperation they pawned this record for a buck...maybe even less. There's no love coming from this. Only desperation.

So I bought a CD version. Still not the same. At least it's mine, though. My little nephews get a kick out of this music. My youngest likes to pretend he's playing drums and my oldest is a chip off the old block playing his Fender air guitar just like his uncle. It makes me proud that I was able to provide them with some groovy music for some groovy memories later on.

Not too long ago I asked my cousin whatever happened to his vinyl version of this recording. Tears welled up in his eyes as he recounted a very sad tale of him being so desperate one night for cash. He said he sold it to a used record store for a buck so he could get a beer.

Buy this album. Make it yours and never sell the things that move your soul.

Peace & Blessings

52 of 53 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars a great album - now it's even better January 20, 2001

By Steve Marshall

Format:Audio CD

What can you possibly say about this album that hasn't already been said? A&M just released a new 'deluxe edition' of the album in commemoration of its 25th anniversary, complete with all-new packaging and four unreleased bonus tracks. For those of you who may not already be familiar with this record, I'll give you a little background on the musical phenomenon called Frampton Comes Alive.

The original plan was for it to be a single album. Five songs. Somehow, in retrospect, it just doesn't seem right. There were so many great tracks on this album, there's no possible way it could be edited down like that. Frampton invited A&M co-founder Jerry Moss to come down to Electric Lady Studios to preview the album. The first words out of Moss' mouth were "where's the rest?"

With Moss' blessing for a double album, Frampton went back out on the road to record more dates. Once the tour was over, Frampton went back to Electric Lady Studios to mix the album with Chris Kimsey. After everything was ready to go, he played the new version for several of his trusted friends and confidants. One of these friends was Rolling Stone music critic, Cameron Crowe. "Cameron was beaming from ear to ear," recalled Frampton. "He felt every track was better than the one that had come before it."

Now that the finished album was in the hands of the record company, it was time for a vacation. When he returned ten days later, things were already beginning to take off. Concerts were selling out, sales records were being shattered, and the album had the top spot on the Billboard chart for ten weeks straight--eventually surpassing Carole King's 'Tapestry' as the best selling album of all time.

For this new deluxe edition, the producers/engineers went back and remixed and remastered everything, and for the first time (without the time constraints of an album side), put the songs back in the proper order. As a special bonus, four songs--all previously unavailable and picked by Frampton himself--were added back into the set. From a musical standpoint, the album holds up quite well, even after all this time (not counting the tepid cover of "Jumping Jack Flash").

Having said all that, you're probably wondering... how's it sound? Outstanding. A&M really outdid themselves on this one. They did a great job in the remixing and remastering process. It's a bit strange at first hearing the songs in a different order, but the album sounds better than ever before. In addition to the new packaging, there's a new essay by John McDermott, plus a ton of new photos and lyrics to all the songs. All reissues should look and sound this good.