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Looper's Delight
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<<Would you agree that Comes Alive was his last really good album?)>> To be honest, Frampton Comes Alive is the only one of his records that I've heard all the way through. I've never heard the four solo albums he did prior to it. I do know that I refuse to buy I'm In You on the grounds that, well, there's no way in hell that a song called I'm In You can be any good. I mean, what kind of an idiot writes a song with a title like that? And it's the title track! And then there's that RIDICULOUS photo of him on the cover. Course, the photo on the cover of Comes Alive is ridiculous too (someone once pointed out to me that he looks like someone had just hit in the back of the head with a shovel on Comes Alive), but at least the song titles aren't stupid (except maybe Baby I Love Your Way, and I swear on Keith Moon's grave, I owned that album for about a decade before I realized that song was on it). And don't even get me started on the Sgt. Pepper movie. Frampton says he told his manager that he was afraid to do the movie because he felt it might be "sacrilege". Should have gone with your instincts, Pete! But no, he had to let Robert Stigwood hornswaggle him into doing what is quite possibly THE worst movie ever made!!! And The Bee Gees wonder why everyone was doing "Bee Gee Free Weekends" on the radio during the whole disco backlash thing! I've heard isolated examples of his work since that fiasco, some of which strike me as bland, some of which seem not too bad for a guy who's been around since Nigel Ollson was Uriah Heep's drummer (actually, longer than that, even). But I don't really have the evidence to deny any claim that Frampton's best years are behind him. As to the comment that someone else made that even Comes Alive struck him as bland, I've heard that comment too. My friend Doug Walker (who is the leader and synth player in a NYC based band called Alien Planetscapes) once told me that he thought Frampton's first four solo records were rather good, but there was too much filler on Comes Alive. Nels Cline has also made the ascertation that he loved Frampton's playing with Humble Pie, but that he can't even recognize him on his solo records. << Now, Heroes would have been a good album without Fripp, but his contributions unquestionably took it higher and closer to greatness.>> Then you have records like Let's Dance, which is listenable almost solely due to the playing of a then unknown guitarist named Stevie Ray Vaughan. Nile Rodgers (who produced that album) now admits that he told David that if he wanted bad ass blues guitar, he should at least get someone like Albert King, that people have at least heard of, instead of an unknown. Apparently, Nile needed a little more convincing than Bowie did. I need to get Heroes out again and give it a listen. Likewise for Lodger (which Belew played on). Anyone ever heard the live album that Bowie did around that time, Stage? How is it? I know both Belew and Hawkwind violinist Simon House are on it. Can you actually TELL they're on it, though? ===== May you never thirst! The Scuba Diver Presently Known As Chris "What do you get when you give a yo-yo to a flock of flamingos?"-James Earl Jones __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! - Official partner of 2002 FIFA World Cup http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com