Frampton Comes Alive! Vinyl Voyage Video Podcast

A few weeks ago, my friend Tom Flannery posted an article about Peter Frampton on his blog.  He unabashedly proclaimed that "Frampton kicks ass" and that the "young punks can learn a thing or two from the bald guy."

"I used to stand in front of my mirror," Tom writes, "tennis racket as a guitar, and sing along to 'Lines On My Face'. I was 17."

That post got me a little nostalgic for Frampton.

A few years ago, I checked out Frampton Comes Alive! from the library and burned it onto my computer.  I'm not even sure I listened to the album then; I just thought it was something I should have.  However, I now wanted to listen to Frampton as it was intended to be: on vinyl and loud.  So, I found a copy at a local record store.  I listened to the whole thing, something I don't think I have done for decades.  Yes, decades.

And, I must say, listening to the album again as a 43 year old, I am impressed that Tom Flannery stood in front of a mirror and sang along to "Lines on My Face" when he was seventeen.  Before reading Tom's post, I couldn't even place the song.  But now as I guy in my forties that song has a certain resonance that would have been lost on me in my teens.  And what's amazing is that Frampton wrote that song when he was just twenty-three.

Lines on my face,while I laugh lest I cry

Speed city dirt and gritty waving me goodbye

So many people,my family of friends

Trying so hard to make me smile until this heartache mends

That is my favorite song on the album.  But, that is speaking as a 43 year old.  As a kid, that was the song you had to get through in order to get to "Do You Feel Like We Do?"

The album holds up well.  Surprisingly well.  Although Frampton may have lost some rock and roll cred by the late 70s, this guy could rock. 

Thanks, Tom, for sparking an interest once again in a classic album.  Frampton Comes Alive! and "Lines On My Face" are featured on this Vinyl Voyage video podcast: