{"id":492,"date":"2016-06-15T13:03:13","date_gmt":"2016-06-15T17:03:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/?p=492"},"modified":"2016-06-15T13:03:13","modified_gmt":"2016-06-15T17:03:13","slug":"peter-frampton-ooh-baby-we-still-love-his-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/peter-frampton-ooh-baby-we-still-love-his-way\/","title":{"rendered":"Peter Frampton: Ooh baby, we still love his way"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Peter<\/a>

Peter Frampton performed June 14, 2016, at the Sands casino in Bethlehem, PA.
(Photo by Mike Morsch)<\/p><\/div>\n

In a conversation with a newsroom colleague earlier this week, I mentioned that I was going to the Peter Frampton concert June 14 at the Sands Casino in Bethlehem, PA.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs it an acoustic show or a full band concert?\u201d he asked.
\n\u201cI don\u2019t really know. I\u2019ll have to check,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n

The question slipped my mind until later that evening. While sitting in the easy chair with the computer in my lap, I happened to be looking at Twitter and noticed some tweets from Frampton, whom I follow on that social network.<\/p>\n

My experience with artists on Twitter has been mixed. I know, for example, that David Crosby and Howard Kaylan from the Turtles respond to tweets themselves and I have had exchanges with both. But I also know that many artists, like Brian Wilson and Al Jardine from the Beach Boys, Daryl Hall and John Oates, and Peter Beckett and Ronn Moss from the band Player, hire people to run their social networks because I worked directly with those folks.<\/p>\n

The tweets I saw that evening by Peter Frampton suggested that it actually might actually be him doing the tweeting. Now I could have easily gone to his website to see if the Bethlehem concert was an acoustic or full band show, but I chose the lazy way out. Since I was already looking at Twitter, I thought I\u2019d just ask Frampton himself.<\/p>\n

So I typed \u201c@peterframpton Is tomorrow night\u2019s concert at the Sands Bethlehem an acoustic show?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Here's<\/a>

Here’s Peter Frampton still showing us the way.
(Photo by Mike Morsch)<\/p><\/div>\n

Within a few minutes, I got a response: \u201cSummer shows r w\/my incredible band. Spring and fall are the RAW acoustic shows. Can you pass this on pls? Thx ;-).\u201d That little thing at the end is a winking emoji.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Peter Frampton just winked at me on Twitter,\u201d I said to The Blonde Accountant, who was in the kitchen at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cDid you wink back?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n

Well . . . no, I didn\u2019t. But as a chronicler of the stories behind the making of the music of the 1970s, I\u2019m happy to pass along any pertinent concert information to my circle of music friends.<\/p>\n

The show was a full band show, and it was the first time I had a chance to see Frampton live. Cross that one off the bucket list. Now all that remains on my Frampton Wish List is an opportunity to interview him for The Vinyl Dialogues series.<\/p>\n

Of course, what I remember most fondly about his career was the \u201cFrampton Comes Alive!\u201d album, which is celebrating the 40th anniversary of its release this year. That\u2019s one of the albums I grew up with in that glorious decade of music.<\/p>\n

\"Band<\/a>

Band members and Frampton take a bow after the show. From left to right are Adam Lester, Paul Peterson, Frampton and Rob Arthur. Not pictured is drummer Dan Wojciechowski.
(Photo by Mike Morsch)<\/p><\/div>\n

Who doesn\u2019t love the hits off that album? I was 16 at the time, and my girlfriend loved to make out to Led Zeppelin\u2019s \u201cStairway to Heaven.\u201d I liked the making out part, but I hated that song. I thought Frampton\u2019s \u201cBaby, I Love Your Way\u201d made a much better background for making out in 1976. Turned out I learned an early lesson on the advantages of compromising for the greater good.<\/p>\n

Of course, those of us who grew up with his music in the 1970s recall Frampton\u2019s long, curly blonde locks on the cover of \u201cFrampton Comes Alive!\u201d But the days of being one of the decade\u2019s Hair Gods is gone for Frampton, as it is for many of us. That should be of no concern to him or us, though, as Frampton\u2019s considerable artistic skills and musicianship have not receded in the least.<\/p>\n

As for the Bethlehem show, it was vintage Frampton. Lots of guitar and lots of loud rock and roll. Right in his wheelhouse, and exactly what we came to see. And his band – Adam Lester on guitar; Paul Peterson on bass; Rob Arthur on keyboards; and Dan Wojciechowski on drugs – is superb.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m big on seeing artists sing their hits live, and we got \u201cBaby, I Love Your Way,\u201d \u201cShow Me The Way\u201d and \u201cDo You Feel Like We Do,\u201d along with the talk box effect that we all loved on the latter two singles.<\/p>\n

But I also enjoyed the portion of the show where Frampton played three songs from his 2006 album \u201cFingerprints,\u201d which won a Grammy for Best Pop Instrumental Album in 2007.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

A lyric sheet of “Baby, I Love Your Way,” with Frampton’s signature in the lower righthand corner.
(Photo by Mike Morsch)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI got a Grammy for the only album I made where I didn\u2019t sing,\u201d deadpanned Frampton.<\/p>\n

In an evening filled with highlights, Frampton saved a really good one for the last encore song: \u201cWhile My Guitar Gently Weeps,\u201d written by George Harrison for the Beatles \u201cWhite Album\u201d in 1968. A few years later, a young Frampton would do session recording for Harrison\u2019s first solo album, \u201cAll Things Must Pass\u201d in 1970.<\/p>\n

On this night – to the surprise of nobody I would guess – Frampton owned \u201cWhile My Guitar Gently Weeps.\u201d And that was very cool for those of us fortunate enough to witness it.<\/p>\n

After the show, I stopped at the merch table. I\u2019m in to signed posters now, so I always look to see if the artist has included those for purchase. There wasn\u2019t a poster, but there was a signed lyric sheet of \u201cBaby, I Love Your Way,\u201d which I happily snapped up for the reasonable price of $25. A small price to pay for the fond memories of trying to control teenage hormones in 1976.<\/p>\n

For anyone who doubted it, Frampton\u2019s still alive. And he\u2019s still showing us the way to a memorable evening of great music.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a conversation with a newsroom colleague earlier this week, I mentioned that I was going to the Peter Frampton concert June 14 at the Sands Casino in Bethlehem, PA. \u201cIs it an acoustic show or a full band concert?\u201d he asked. \u201cI don\u2019t really know. I\u2019ll have to check,\u201d I said. The question slipped […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":616,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[31,124,199,234],"class_list":["post-492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tvdbook","tag-baby","tag-i-love-your-way","tag-peter-frampton","tag-show-me-the-way"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/104"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}