Frampton Comes Alive! [LIVE] [ORIGINAL RECORDING REISSUED] [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED]

Peter Frampton

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 Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (111 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #5,922 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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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

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Vinyl Memories, January 7, 2007

By	John P. Morgan "Light Coach" (Beautiful San Dimas, CA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 70's Touchstone, August 14, 2000

By	Thomas Magnum (NJ, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

Frampton Comes Alive came out of nowhere to become one of the biggest albums of all time. Peter Frampton released several albums in the early to mid 70's, a couple of which sold respectively. When this album was released in early '76, it exploded and stayed in the top ten for over a year. The album offers something for everybody from straight forward rockers like "It's A Plain Shame", "Something's Happening" & "Doobie Wah" to ballads like "Baby, I Love Your Way" & "Show Me The Way" to extended jams like "I Wanna Go To The Sun", "Lines On My Face" & "Do You Feel Like We Do?". It also has that voice-box. Frampton is a great guitar player and an energetic performer and those traits didn't always come across on his studio albums. They were front & center on the live album and people tapped into that. Frampton never again reached the heights he reached with this album, but it stands today as a touchstone of 70's rock music.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You're not as sophisticated as you think you are!, June 20, 2002

By	"gtoron" (El Dorado Hills, CA USA) - See all my reviews

Take it from someone who was there at Winterland in 1976, the audience track is not faked! That evening was magical the crowd was definitely in tune with the man and his band, and we were all so blown away by what we were hearing that night it only makes sense that the crowd sounds sweetened to you. The sound engineers did a masterful and up until that time unachieved level of perfection in capturing the real sounds of a live performance. That is why the album sold so well, it does not have the hollow sound of typical live performances. His guitar was ringing loud and clear that night as was his voice. It is such a pleasure to be able to listen to a live perfomance that ranks as one of the best concerts I have ever been to, (and believe me I have been to a lot of them) any time I want to, and be able to relive that very special performance in San Francisco. Thank God they recorded this show!