heh. I became interested in playing banjo a few years ago. Dam, it does get heavy. Lots of steel in a banjo.
My Wife bought me a nice Martin guitar. It’s about half the weight.
Perhaps she doesn’t like banjo though…
Oh yeah, resonator backed banjos can be tanks, too.
I had a LP Standard around 1980–the bathroom scale said 14 lbs.
Yeah; no. Oy.
I had a '73 Limited Edition reissue of the '54 type Black Beauty that Frampton’s guitar originally was. Customs back then had 1-piece mahogany bodies - no maple cap - and my reissue was the same. It weighed 8 lbs and was resonant as heck. Just amazing, and everyone who played it would pick it up and practically toss it in their because they expected something heavier.
I read that when Bowie called Frampton to be guitarist for his Glass Spider tour, Frampton was playing guitar on demos for unsigned bands. Unfortunately, the Glass Spider tour was not a high point for anyone involved.
I got to meet Frampton about 10 years ago, when he visited the ad agency where I was working. Awesomely nice guy.
I also saw him on the “FCA 35” tour, a few years ago. As sqweels and blondebear note, he has a great time on stage, and clearly still loves performing. It was also just a couple of weeks after the “Phoenix” Les Paul had been returned to him, so he got to gush a bit about how excited he was to have that instrument back.
Of course, we bass players like to chuckle at complaining LP players
Frampton was married to a Cincinnati woman for quite a few years. I’ve heard that he was very gracious when asked to give his time and talent to fundraisers and what not.
He was on a Geico commercial not long ago, with the talk box.
Here’s the ad – it was actually 8 or 9 years ago.
When Frampton came to the ad agency where I was working, it was about six months before he did the Geico ad (for a different ad agency). He was specifically offering his services to ad agencies – either for actually appearing in an ad, like the Geico one, or for agencies to just use his music in ads.
He’d just done the Fingerprints album that blondebear mentions, which was a critical success, but which he, himself admitted to us was more of a personal project, and one which he was not expecting to be a commercial success (and, as I understand it, it didn’t sell terribly well). I think it was pretty clear that he was doing OK financially, but that he was looking for ways to help his income by doing commercials.
You mean after he met Steve Marriott and formed Humble Pie, becoming one of the greatest rock guitarist, right?
Well, he went solo and started writing and playing pop music.
Peter tells the story of how he came to use the talk box. He had been chasing the sound for years until he “discovered” it doing session work for All Things Must Pass.
A few years ago, he played at the local county fair, and I remember being surprised. Not that there is anything wrong with it, but to me it sounds like a euphemism for B list performers. (I am sure it was a great performance and enjoyed by all … just, you know, at the county fair.)
I learned about his county fair gig on a commercial on the radio when I was on my way to a party. I was so struck by this, that PETER FRAMPTON was playing at the county fair, that I got to the party and was “omg you guys, Peter Frampton is playing at the county fair this summer!” And then after that, I remembered the other news I was planning to share, so I added “and also I’m pregnant.” My friends thought it was funny that Peter Frampton at the county fair was more newsworthy to me, and before my daughter was born, we all referred to her as “Peter Framptonette” during my pregnancy.
You may say my question is 30-40 years too late, but you hit the nail on the head. “Big in the 70s”??? He had like 4-5 hits. Only one album really stands out. Unlike bigger names of the era, he’s more like a flash in the pan. Who can name any other album beyond the Live album? But, he did have a lot of potential. I can’t understand why he seemed to fizzle so fast…or so it seemed to me. Did people grow tired of the sound of his voice synthesizer thing, or could he never write another hit song?
In the years before “Frampton Comes Alive” neither he or his previous group Humble Pie were that big. They were increasing their visibility with lots of touring and good shows. So the double live album was kind of a greatest hits collection by someone who hadn’t sold many records. Instead of it being a contractual obligation/put product out for Christmas with stuff people already had, people decided they wanted this album.
It was also a time of gigantic record sales. A few years later a recession and higher prices for albums, lots of groups saw sales drop. Plus Frampton’s subsequent material wasn’t as strong.
I have no clue on his specific case, but he reminds me of Alanis Morrissette or Hootie and the Blowfish. At that level of One Album Wonder, where you get many hits off it, it sells over 10 million copies, etc, it has to change things. In all three cases, there is real musical talent there, unlike an adjacent name, Vanilla Ice - they just didn’t find that level of massiveness again. Darius Rucker/Hootie has had great success but only after reinventing himself as a country star.
Peter Frampton also became a US Citizen following 9/11.