Book Review by Theresa Gauthier: Peter Frampton with Alan Light--Do You Feel Like I Do?

 Peter Frampton. The name brings to mind a particular guitar riff—you know the one I mean—as well as images of blond curls and satin pants, but it’s the sound that means the most. Frampton’s guitar playing is brilliant. That goes without saying. How he’s gotten to where he is, how his guitar playing got so brilliant, and what choices he made and why has also gone without saying.

Until now. With the publication of Frampton’s “Do You Feel Like I Do?” (Newly released in paperback on October 5, 2021.), his fans both casual and die-hard will get a sense of the incredible life he’s lived. 

Beginning with a glimpse of his childhood, his family, and the incredible support he got from them in order to start his career in music so early, we get a taste for England in the 1950s. The importing American Rock and Roll on England in the 1959s is at least as impactful on the UK as the British Invasion was on the US in the 1960s. 

I’ve read my share of biographies of British rockers, and this one is one of the best. The conversational style and the nature of the stories makes it seem like a letter from a friend. Being a fan not only of Peter Frampton, but also of the other musicians he mentions, I enjoyed reading it if just to learn more about those decades.

Frampton’s parents were married at the beginning of World War II, but Peter wasn’t born until 1950. Spending all those years apart on opposite ends of the war (his mother enduring the Blitz in London, and his father involved in most of the major battles), he theorized that this is what put an end to Victorian attitudes, with joy at having survived loosening the previous strict English mindset.

His parents were supportive of his interest in music, and it seems that support and encouragement had a lot to do with Peter’s achievements. (There’s a wonderful photo of Peter Frampton and his dad and with David Bowie.) Those achievements are many and started at a young age. Playing from the time he was 8 years old, Frampton was in and out of bands even before The Beatles came along. 

It was with Humble Pie that he found success, but he broke from that band to start again. It was in 1976 that his live album, Frampton Comes Alive, ignited its own brand of Frampton Fever to rival Beatlemania. 

There’s no denying the success of that album, still one of the best selling live albums ever released. Voted Album of the Year by Rolling Stone readers in 1976, the album remained on the charts falling only to 14 by the following year. In 2012, it was voted the number 3 all-time favorite live album in a Rolling Stone readers poll.

It wasn’t an easy album to follow. The recording that did follow it, I’m in You, didn’t fare as well and was considered a failure in comparison to Frampton Come Alive. Frampton kept recording through the ’80s, but it wasn’t until he toured with David Bowie’s Glass Spider Tour in 1987 that he revived both his love for performing and his career. He later also toured with Ringo Starr as part of Ringo’s All Starr Band.

I’ve seen Peter Frampton in concert many times, and it’s always a joy. The first time I saw him was when he toured in the 1986 for his Premonition album. It was released in 1986, and I’d been collecting his albums for a while by then. I had nosebleed seats, but I truly loved every moment. 

I saw him again with David Bowie’s Glass Spider Tour in 1987. I have to say I’ve heard a lot of people call that tour and that album a failure, but all I can say is if you didn’t like it, you just didn’t get it. It was a phenomenal show. When Bowie introduced Frampton, it was obvious I wasn’t the only Frampton fan there. You could see what a good time they were all having on stage, and the theatrical show with dancers, and Bowie descending from the rafters was a spectacle worth experiencing. It remains one of the best concerts I’ve ever seen. (I’ve seen Bowie numerous times as well—All Hail, Ziggy—and while I can’t say which of his concerts was my favorite, I’d never disregard his Glass Spider Tour as so many people seem to have done.)

I saw Frampton twice more once in the ‘90s and once in 2015.

Whether as part of a band or on his own, you feel his energy, his talent, his exuberance in the music as he plays it. It’s an experience I’m glad I had.

Plans for his Farewell Tour in Europe and the UK were halted in Spring 2020 because of the global situation. The Farewell Tour wrapped in the U.S. in 2019. Diagnosed with inclusion body myositis, which causes muscles to weaken, he has been hard at work writing, recording, and promoting his book and his latest CDs. You can find him on the internet and he’s been doing virtual events and interviews. Take the time to revisit—or discover for the first time—this stellar musician.