By Alan Sculley
Correspondent
September 07, 2008 01:23 am Peter Frampton says he feels like he's finally been able to hit the reset button and return to a place as an artist that he hadn't been since 1975. That was the year he released his fourth solo CD, a self-titled album. A year later, several songs from that record, including "Show Me The Way" and "Baby I Love Your Way," would re-emerge on the concert album "Frampton Comes Alive." His life and career were never the same. "Frampton Comes Alive," of course, was a phenomenon. It took the largely unknown guitarist/singer from someone who was essentially a cult figure and turned him into a pop idol, a Rolling Stone magazine cover boy and owner of an album that sold some 18 million copies and topped the charts for an unprecedented 17 weeks. Not since the days of the Beatles and Elvis Presley had an artist achieved the fame — and the teen idol status — that came with "Frampton Comes Alive." "Right before 'Frampton Comes Alive,' I was a guitar player who sang and wrote his own songs and used to be in Humble Pie," Frampton said in a recent phone interview. "With the fallout, when it started happening, I was a teeny bopper idol and no one cared or knew I played guitar. I'm sort of dumbing it down a little bit, but that's the way I felt I ended up." In many respects, the "Frampton Comes Alive" phenomenon has followed him ever since. His follow-up album, the 1977 studio effort, "I'm In You," easily surpassed platinum, but was seen as a colossal flop against the glare of his live album. The three albums that followed, "Where I Should Be" (1979), "Breaking All The Rules" (1981) and "The Art Of Control" (1982) | were even bigger flops. Still, "Frampton Comes Alive" helped the 58-year-old native of Beckenham, England, sustain a career. Even as the pace of album releases slowed ¬— he released only four studio albums over the next 20 years — he was still an instantly recognizable name and could continue to tour. But for everything "Frampton Comes Alive" brought to him — lasting fame, money, the signature instrumental sound of the talk box — he didn't like the teen idol image or that it detracted from his talents as a guitarist and songwriter. Today, Frampton feels the "Frampton Comes Alive" monkey is finally off his back. The reason is his 2006 CD, "Fingerprints." That album gave him something he had never gotten in a career that began in the mid-1960s with the Herd and then with Humble Pie from 1969 to 1971 — a Grammy award, in the category of best pop instrumental album. Frampton also sees the award as the first thing that has happened to him since the late 1970s that hasn't been tied in some way to "Frampton Comes Alive." "It's the first thing post-'Comes Alive' that to me sort of puts the clock back to zero for me," he said. While not a blockbuster seller, "Fingerprints" and the acclaim it received nevertheless has brought tangible rewards for Frampton and his career. "Basically last year was the 'Fingerprints' tour, and it was probably the most successful tour I'd done since the early '80s as far as attendance," he said. "The extra excitement of the Grammy definitely makes a difference." "Fingerprints" deserved the accolades and success it received. An album Frampton had wanted to make for years, it showcased his guitar playing in a wide range of stylistic settings, including several that are not generally associated with his melodic rock signature. For instance, "Smoky" is a laid-back tune with a decidedly jazzy feel. "Souvenirs De Nos Peres (Memories of our Fathers)" is a sprightly acoustic track that swings at an intersection between bluegrass and jazz. On "Ida Y Vuelta (Out and Back)," Frampton tries his hand at a Latin-flavored acoustic track. It also didn't hurt that several songs on "Fingerprints" had Frampton collaborating with some high-profile guests, beginning with the longtime Rolling Stones rhythm section of Bill Wyman (who left the band in 1994) and drummer Charlie Watts, and Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready and drummer Matt Cameron. Frampton's tour this summer will feature three songs from "Fingerprints," but he said the set will mostly be devoted to familiar fan favorites and a couple of songs that haven't been featured in his live set before. Then it's on to the follow-up album to "Fingerprints." Frampton plans to once again bring in several guests to play on the new CD. Among the guests already confirmed to play on the record are the Funk Brothers, the backing band that played on many of Motown Records' famous hits. The guests might even include a singer or two. "This will be mainly a vocal record," Frampton said. "But I love playing behind great singers. So there will probably be a couple where we'll do duets or maybe even sing a whole song and I'll just play."
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