Peter Frampton In Person - His Songs, Influences and Guitar Style

on my way from Atlanta to Nashville to meet one of my all-time favorite musicians and idols Peter Frampton I never would have thought that when I was listening to Frampton Comes Alive in 1976 when I was in eighth grade that one day 40 years later I would get to me Peter Frampton in person when I first walked in you see all these platinum records on the wall gold records you see pictures of him with other famous people that you'd played with you see all this memorabilia from his career I get introduced to Peter he's incredibly gracious I start talking to him about his guitar he's sitting down with his guitar in the control room all the time thinking I have so many questions to ask him but I don't even know where to begin so I decided I'm just gonna wing it so here's our interview hey everybody I'm incredibly honored to be with mr. Peter Frampton here who is one of my all-time biggest influences idols I don't I can't even begin to tell you I told Peter when I arrived here just how much his music means to me and is meant to me and my development as a musician Peter thank you so much for you for doing this I'm honored that you've analyzed me what Peters referring to is this video I did earlier this year that I called the art of soloing where I featured his guitar playing as a matter of fact he actually told me that his son had shown him the video I didn't know at first what you were doing I just know that it sounded great to my ear I never really thought about it I mean I I learnt by ear and then when I was about 12 my parents said this is getting serious you better learn you know better go to guitar less and so in just two classical lessons for about I don't know three or four years okay hated every moment over okay but I but I realized afterwards that it showed me positions and you know and what notice goes where you know and stuff like that so I knew what applied to the paper as opposed to what's on the neck and not that I'm a fast read or anything but I do read music so but never really used it in in my career it's always been if I need to show some something up for them and then we do it when I was starting guitar which was right around 1975-76 Frampton Comes Alive came out and that was the record that was not I mean it was a record for the whole I mean everywhere all over the world but for guitar players it everyone I knew was just oh my god have you heard the Peter Frampton's new record now I knew you from humble pie and I knew your earlier records but the live record was just so much I mean the the versions of the songs were so different for example lines of my face from Frampton's camel - then just had developed into this completely different song tell me about that well in those days it was very difficult to incorporate acoustic guitars into into a live set because monitors were almost non-existent you know for an opening band yeah you know I basically learned everything electrically you know with it being just you know drums bass keyboards and guitar and we had to do them that way you know and so that's how it ended up instead of the acoustic beginning two lines on my face it turned into electric you know and I liked both versions I like I like it both ways but I can't imagine playing it any any differently than I do onstage and I can't imagine not playing it in a specific show even though I've been doing it so long because it's a lines on my face kind of takes everyone's angst whether it be the audience or the band the nerves and it just puts you in a zone you know when you play that song and it's always been the third number and it always sets up the rest - such a tone yeah when you have these chords that are out of place or that come from different Keys like G minor what does your ear tell you when you're playing over that that I better find the right note okay to go over this G minor right you know so and that's what makes it enjoyable for me is to have - I like being on the I never played the same thing to whenever and and and sometimes it's good but but I always am on the edge and trying to search for something I haven't played before even though it's you know it's over that modulation or that key changes you cause so it's just you know what my ear hears you know when you were recording those songs for that record you took them from a number of life life concerts of just a few different concerts right not many does that meant most of it was winter land San Francisco did you realize when you were doing these shows how good it was well that the the main one is most of it apart from maybe five songs come from winter land and it was the very first time we'd headlined it's what seven seventy five hundred people that's a lot yeah but San Francisco was ahead of anywhere else like Detroit New York and San Francisco were were our towns you know so we were able to do something like this in San Francisco when we did that you know it was something that was so important to us to do it doing our first headline show that I didn't really think too much about and a lot on my plate that night sure about the truck outside normally I would have gone out to the truck and gone okay bass drum on one you know whatever it was and because I'm the producer you know but I didn't I was so involved in making sure that the soundcheck I didn't even think about them out there you know until after the show and I went oh my god we've recorded that you know so I didn't think about it did you go and check out the playback after the show and and did it was your first response wow this was you guys were really good what we did was we went out and listened to a you know little bit of probably do you feel or something and just I looked at Bob Mayo and we just went wow we got something good here it was Wally hide his truck and so we went down to LA the following week from San Francisco went to Ali Haider studios and then we just the engineer just said look I'm not going to mix it I'm just going to put all the faders at zero and you know you're here this is what we got so I remember me and Bob and I think John psalmist was there drama and it knocked us backwards it was there was something so apparent about it when we say apparent loudness you know sometimes something can seem like it's louder than something else but it really isn't on the meter we were apparently fuller in in the approach in capturing what we captured and it was it was pretty intense it's an incredibly full sounding record it's hard to imagine it's just four people playing well they're incredible players John Samus one of my all-time favorite drummers that I've ever played with God rest his soul and Bob Mayo was like my brother he was we never spoke about what we were playing but he would listen to my solos and change the chord underneath me to make it to what when we work together you know as a duo and then of course Stanley Sheldon was a phenomenal bass player as well so he was the he'd only been in the band like three months and but we were hot it was a we've been touring forever so it was we were ready to rock there's a few spots like and do you feel we're in Bob's solo for example he's doing a little little trill that you played later on in your solo same thing I heard him play it right and you incorporated it right into your solo before there's a communication thing that that we didn't even that's what I was saying we didn't even talk about that it always just happened you know and it's the same with my band now you know i I've been just the way I choose players and things like that I mean you you usually with me for a long time because you know I go off to people that are phenomenally good my band know is it's incredible and we just did we did 71 shows this year and then we took nine days off we came in here and did in two weeks we did a complete blues album live so live singing live guitar playing exactly like the live record but in the studio and then every time we'd finish a track we would chuck angling my engineer co-producer wonderful--wonderful engineer he would say well why don't you go out and do three more vocals and three more solos and we'll move on and that was how we did it and then when we'd finished we did 14 tracks in 10 days and I have to say it's one of the most exciting things I've done in a long time you know it occurred to me that when I go back and and listen to a lot of the older records from when I was a kid in the 60s and 70s that players back then it to be in a band and just to get a gig you had to be not only a great player but he had to be a great singer there were always multiple singers and bands back then where you rarely find it these days know right a little bit about that well humble pie was formed because well obviously I was elite had become a lead singer in the hood and Steve was the lead singer in the small faces Greg Ridley had a great voice from spooky tooth yeah so we wanted to make it a very democratic man even though Steve was really the front guy on the communicator but Steve wanted it to be a band you know and so we would split the vocals up you know in a lot of the songs you know a lot of the blues songs and rock songs whatever so Greg would sing the first verse I'd sing the second verse we join each other for the chorus and then Steve would blow it out with the third and kill us all and with that incredible talent that he had you know so we're all just thrilled that we had a chance to be be behind him because of things like Pro Tools now and and the ability to fix things you don't you find people that never would have been in a band well I guess so yeah I mean you can fix just about anything but but there's a line I think that that if you have to tune every note you know I mean it's like that we ever seen that YouTube thing when the woman's out in the controller yes the engine is a walker the sweating and it just sounds fantastic and then the camera goes into the into the studio I'm cheese guy it's horrible and then at the end they give each other high five because they pulled it off and they've tuned her all the way through I find that I'll use it if there's a note that's you know oh it's a great solo it's a great vocal but there's one the end the note of and is just under I'll bring it up a little bit you know I don't but I don't we don't have the auto-tune on from the beginning yeah you'll never hear that but yeah I used today's technology but but the beauty of today is that you can do a thousand guitar solos if you want to and and then just you know choose bits from each and everybody does that you know but usually I do about a half a dozen and then and then choose the best the best licks out of it how do you keep your focus when you're playing songs do you feel like we do on the record is 13 plus minutes what do you think about when you're doing that or do you just is it all instinct I'd have to say it's all instinct really if I play you a lick right now and then you ask me to play it again I can't do it because it's just up the month it's off at the moment with me and the ending section the whole long out course it's by EF CD in your playing you're always describing the chords every time it comes back around to the D major chord you're playing that F sharp right you'll let you come back to that you hear that difference between the F right FC and then the D and then you always make it a point to go through that but then you play other notes in the scale on the D chord you're playing playing these modes and I've that video that we talked about yeah that's it about you're playing or ever explaining know what you're doing well I only knew that because later on I I it just sounded so good to me and I start figuring it out and eventually from learning other solos and things really from jazz players I started knowing I said that's what Peter's doing in this sites because when everybody when Bluesbreakers album came out and Eric Clapton style is so seductive you want to be Eric every but the trouble was there was about a million and a half people wanted to be Eric Clapton and I said there's enough going that route I think I'm gonna go the other way so that's when I started buying Kenny Burrell Wes Montgomery joke Pass Django Reinhardt I'd live with since my father introduced me to him in when I was seven years old listening to him you name it George Benson when he was 16 playing with Jacqueline Duff 16 yeah I'm a new Joey Duff oh my god yeah and I still can't do what he did that you know so but he's I mean all these incredible players and I like the fact that they didn't play the I mean Kenny Burrell is the closest to a blues play yeah but he's a blues jazz player right or jazz blues play and I found that his style was especially when playing with Jimmy Smith was I just loved the way his sound beautiful sound sound yeah and his choice of notes you know because he's like and that that opened it up instead of you know that's your blues Lake but but you know Kenny burrows [Music] you know that kind of yeah and but he I mean he's so phenomenal I think one of his Forte's is being the solo electric guitar player behind all these incredible singers you know oh yeah yes Ella Fitzgerald you know I mean just and his his technique is so wonderful he's a professor I think now out in out in LA for music so but yeah you know I got to I got to meet Kenny when I was pretty young my manager had known Kenny because he handled he managed so many Bennett and all the jazz people you know the crooners and so I said you know Kenny Burrell he said yeah I know Kenny Burrell said you're kidding me he's got a club down it's called the guitar on the on the Westside I'll introduce you to him we'll go to the club so we go we go to the club and it's two sets so were there for the first set and he introduces me to and I'm like you know and so anyway then my manager leaves I said I'm gonna stay for the second set why wouldn't I you know well now it's just like all his buds you know the audience is kind of left where it's getting real late now and he said okay kid let's see what you got so it's just him and a double bass player right so he picks up the double bass it gives me his guitar and we sit up there and we jam he said what key I said cheap and as a break a turkey oh my god and that was probably one of the first moments of my career where I'm playing with one of my idols you know and he's kind of he's okay with it so I was playing old his licks back to him you know obviously so that was that was a great moment for me I heard you talk about your dad being in the Django and then once you started realizing that you liked things like that then did you seek out people like Wes Montgomery or were they did you start buying records jazz records and things yes I just started buying and looking at all these different electric jazz players because I had just about everything by that time everything that Django had released and recorded and so yeah Wes Montgomery was was one that I mean it's just you think it's very simple but it's not at all no because he can do a whole solo or he could do a whole solo with chords yes but it just phenomenal so I would take little bits from each one and and you know as the library you know of Lakes the in the end the whole idea like with humble pie by the time humble pie formed I had the Steve Mary was very very strong Blues player and I was more lyrical with the jazz side but that was sort of my apprenticeship of putting all these different styles together and having hopefully you know you wake up one day and it's you it's not you playing Kenny Burrell it's your yeah you can't tell Kenny girls in there but he's in there you know where's Montgomery or Django Reinhardt I don't really know of anyone that did it like you I don't I don't know of any rock player that ever did anything similar to you I think your playing is incredibly unique well thank you I think today though I think with all the YouTube stuff you can learn someone solo and that I'm not I wouldn't put myself in a shredding kind at all it's it's all about melanoma t player choice of choice of note yes and you know I'll rip it up a little bit here and there but speed has never been essential to me it's all the people we mentioned apart from Joe Pass and George Benson I mean obviously they're shredding jazz players yes definitely but it's it's mainly always been people have said that they could sing my solos you know because there's some melodic some of them and that I take that as a real compliment you know because that's what I'm trying to do how do you decide what's beautiful oh gosh do you work on a song for yeah or or do they know come right out no it's it's writing a song for me is if I've got an interesting chord sequence or a feel with the core a chord yeah and then come up with a melody that search for melody that that goes over the top that will you know that I like yeah you know that's that's you know and some start off completely differently to then they end up you know they develop you know as I'm writing them and by the time I record them and then by the time their life that there's something else altogether so it's always so what's changing so if you think back to do you feel like we do we did you come up with the opening riff first yeah that was that was very interesting because that was when Frampton's camel first got together for a we were got the band together for our very first American tour mhm opening for whoever and and I used to bring my reel-to-reel Reeboks and two mics and I I just record everything we did when we would jam and stuff and so everyone we finished this jam and everybody in the band because I don't know what I played everybody in the band said wind it back now keep going keep cannot there no before that before that and then there was there was that was in my solo okay and they said let's make a song out of that so that's how it happened so it was by accident and just them spotting that lick that I had completely forgotten I played you know and and then the night before [Music] I've written that the chorus the night before okay but now we're in were in a now right well well just go to D for the chorus and that's how that stuff and then I remember someone said that's after we've done this for a while well well can we modulate it that's gonna I said yeah let's go we go up there and and then how do we get back to you know up to a good you know so [Music] we also think oh this is a great chord progression to solo over would you have things we're like oh I like to solo over this and you would know I wouldn't know until I I play over it do you not I mean yeah it's not something that I would say oh this will be good I would find out when we would do it you know that this was good what's a long time to free to write a song do you have songs that that would sit around for a year and then you come back or how would you keep track of things I think something's happening and go to the Sun equally took well their piano so plot away at the piano you know I'm okay for writing but I think that there's so much many more options on piano I think it took me I had to edit myself because I very rarely write on keep on keyboards you know but those two were written on on piano and so this probably took you know maybe a month playing everyday and finding a new bit here or whatever where as show me the way and baby I love your way will written both in 20 minutes in the same day so you know there's no rules there's no rules to music even though you've got your modes I know that but but there's that there are no rules whether you write the words first whether you come up with the chords first it doesn't matter it's the end result it's the song that matters in the end if I were to say to you Peter what is your favorite song of all time of all time you what's your favorite ballad for example that anyone's written oh why - ADA pal just because it's such a perfect song it's perfect song it's a it is one of the most perfect songs yeah and there's loads you know this Beatle songs on it but that one I don't know what it what it is about that song but it's just perfect and it's it's classical yeah based based on classical yeah so can you talk a little bit about this guitar I know you've told the story right I played the guitar for a brief second and the neck on it is very thin yes it's thinner than any Les Paul I've ever played yes it is those guitars were like baseball bats originally the 54 yeah probably and uh Mount Mariana is my dear friend who gave me the guitar in 1917 from Oakland and Bay Area and so he had I think when he bought it he said it was Green someone who painted a green and it was it was it was - pink - yeah the original the two different ones right yeah so it was a black beauty 54 black beauty and so he he took the black the the p90s out and put two humbuckers in and then i mean he didn't just stop at shaving them there he did it by hand yeah you know he shaved this as well to get the oh yeah get the color off it's actually smaller than a regular Les Paul because he shaved so much off so but when when he done that I'm not sure if he put the third pickup him in himself or if he sent another one back and said please route this for 403 P he wanted it to look like a 57 custom yeah and even though it was a 54 so it came back pristine looking brand-new and then so humble pie is playing The Fillmore West and Mark said we were playing four nights and I had just I had had a an SG a 62 SG with the wood block back here with humble pie and I just fancied a change so I swapped it with someone for a 335 without the one without the it didn't have the the wood that goes all the way all right so it was more hollow I didn't know this at the time but every time I turned up for the solo feedback it was that was some of my solo so I was so depressed the first two nights and then Mark who we'd not we'd got to know a little bit and he said well I I got this Les Paul to you I said I'm not really big on that suppose I like my ASG he said well I said but you know what thank you maybe I could borrow it because I'm getting nowhere ever this so so he brought it to the I think was the Ramada Inn or somewhere where we're staying in San Francisco and he opened it up and it's this brand-new looking guitar looks like a brand-new 57 you know so I draw the little picked it up and I just put my hand round the neck and I went oh wow this is made for me you know and I'm thinking oh girl let me try this tonight so he let me play it for the remaining shows and at the end of the run I gave it back to him and he said I said I don't suppose there's any chance that you might ever wish to sell this he said no but give it to you so so he gave it to me and I have given him many guitar cents and every time we would come out with a new version you know Gibson I he's always the he always gets number one because if it weren't for him you know would never have had it so he's a dear dear friend and I treasure his friendship and one of those people that you could wow it's it's all to even think about now can I ask you about playing live back in the 70s about how loud did you guys play uh we do pretty loud well we we were using to start with we we use little mpegs okay and that didn't loss right so we came to America and we report old Marshall so we we each had a hundred one mouse Steve already had on would you play half stack or full stack ha stack okay the top the sound cabinets and so now because we don't have that much monitoring or it's not that great I need to hear a little bit more of me you know so so I said I think I'm gonna get a 50 watt and a separate cabinet so I got that and then two weeks later Steve had a 50 watt with an extra cabinet so well whatever so so but what we did with those extra cabinets was I put my 50 watt cat speaker his side and he put his 50 watt speaker my side so now we're here every yeah it was perfect you know and you knew how to balance then yeah we had internal balance we didn't have to worry about the monitor because the opening act if we get a sound check it'll be a miracle you know so we had to be self-contained and that's how we did it it was pretty loud yeah but I wasn't as loud as when I left apparently so I've never been about volume it's always been like small amps always to me consume much better than big amps unless you turn them up you know you're always very big into using your volume knob and containing your tones through through rolling back the volume and weighing and then when it would go to a you know an exciting part roll it up and then you'd be it right full volume playing with dynamics like yes and I had the capacitor put in on the main volume so that as you rolled it back it it wouldn't get dark it wouldn't get dark it got it actually maintained it's it's travel and this guitar that the the knobs function differently because of the three pickups yeah well this these two pickups your regular you know and they're there on this so we got let's see so we got the middle this one [Music] and then this scent then roll this off that's the main volume nothing so this scent a pickup I thought it would be good to have it on a volume so you can bring it in when you need it it's kind of sounds like a fast track right yeah so you couldn't then if you're playing so it's not in right now but just this pickup and then if you bring this one in it's got all different tones and then if you bring it in with this one so this is without it so it's always a massive difference yes yeah and it's fantastic because no other Les Paul has that sound yeah and the way that the original 57 was wired you could only ever get these to pick right so no yes you could never get this on on its own you know so that wasn't any good for me so was it always wired like that then yes yeah interesting yeah so I don't I don't remember it would have to be a phone call to mark but I don't remember whether he wanted that way or I did but yeah I kind of think he did I want to ask you about some of the other effects that you played with that cuz because a lot of this stuff people don't really I know you've talked about another interviews Buttle but I don't know for example about the echo used to Benson echo yes where would that go in the chain what would you plug into first I had three effects I think in those days I had a phase 90 right age 90 Leslie hmm as well as the which was run by a Marshall yeah and yeah that would always be on though right yes yes and then I would have the Benson echo so it would go into the MX into the Benson into the M and the we get split at that point and go into a separate Marshall that would drive the Leslie in the old days I used to couldn't afford much to take my own Leslie used to rent a Leslie at every gig and have one of those guitar pedals yeah the combo pedals they were called yeah so that I could run or Leslie so I would carry the combo pedal and rent the Leslie and how would you turn the Benson on and off I had had a pedal board with with that on it those those three controls that was all it was you know the sound of that echo is so beautiful well thank you yeah I loved it and and I got that from Dave Gilmour was using them so and we we were good friends and he would lend me gear and and so yeah and I knew he was but I'd always loved to Bent the sound of a Benson because it's not tape it was it's just the disc you know the head is round going the heads are all around this magnetic disc so you didn't have to worry about putting you taping all the time when you were making records back in the 70s the beginning of your career typically when you make a studio album how long would it take probably six weeks okay so two weeks to track two weeks to overdub and then two weeks to mix and how how involved were you as far as in the in the mixing stage for example things like right there turn that up yeah you know see with the humble pie we started off using Andy Jones an engineer then we graduated to to his older brother Glenn Jones Olympic and then we would then I would Oh a then the the assistant - Glenn Jones was Chris Kimsey mhm we were on a flight back from New York to London and we just bumped into each other and said oh man how you doing and so said well I'm I'm looking for my first project as Glenn's pushing me out he wants me he says I'm good enough to be an engineer now so I said that's fantastic I'm doing my first record and Glyn wasn't that interested in doing my first run so I said you want it should we do it together and he said absolutely and that was it it was just Chris and me basically mmm for the whole of wind of change which is my first solo record and now I learned so much from working with Glenn and Andy and Chris you know it's I I said my very first session when I was 14 Glenn Jones was the engineer because we were working with Bill Wyman unbelievable the stones so I kind of started at the top didn't realize that right until later on you know just thought he was an engineer no he's the engineer of the time you know I noticed when I was listening to these records for example on the live record the drums have a natural sound they didn't sound like 70s bands know they had top and bottom heads on them and they signed it like real drums which which is why they don't sound dated ever just like Zeppelin drums things like that when you use the when you actually use the drums where they sound good acoustically yes they always sound contemporary whenever I was doing it seemed like whenever I was doing an album Led Zeppelin were in Olympic too and I remember walking through I think they were doing the ocean mm-hmm and I just heard that drum sound from Headley Grange or whether it was the other one the the the castle where we Claire well Castle I think it was Headley Grange the mansion and I heard that room sound on the drums and I said it sounded like it was backwards or something that promise was it's like hitting the wall you know and I'd never heard that before you know I said what's that in the engineer when can tell you so then I walked out what it was that's this room sound you know so John Silas was a huge Bonzo fan mm-hmm so we put up run mics do you ever go back and listen to your old records not that often now if you come on the radio do you listen to it maybe or maybe I'll change the channel because I'm so much better now no I mean it's hard to listen for me because I can hear things that should have been done to one done you know it's still bother you oh yeah yeah never changes right it'll never change no that's and that's I guess my perfectionism is that's what makes me me you know I mean to somebody else they would maybe not go that deep into it being correct but on the other hand playing live it's never perfect you're not I mean it's perfect in the in the you're all set up to be perfect but some nights it's good some nights it's really good but it's never perfect and that's that's why I like it okay so if I said to you Peter what song that you've recorded is the best where you say okay this is this is really I can listen to this I think this is exactly how I imagined it oh no I not one never right now no I don't think so I can always find something that I don't like about something I play but that's what makes you better mm-hmm because you know what I'm not gonna make that mistake again I mean I left it at the time and it's fine but and you know sometimes the the mistake is good to leave in because you wouldn't have played all the other stuff around it you know and you know I know it's a mistake maybe some people don't think of it as a mistake but I do this has just been an incredible experience for me Peter just getting to talk to you and meet you and I thank you so much for all the great music that you've done and and in the inspiration I mean there's so many musicians I know that have been inspired by you by your songs but you're playing it just was a huge influence on me and and just not that that means anything but I mean it means a lot to me it means a lot to me too the fact that you say that I've inspired other players it means a lot to me oh I know so many players that are that are great players that that when I bring you up to them oh my god Peter Frampton he's the best like I said to you I know a lot of other players you should be listening to other than me I'm nowhere near as good as them that's not true but wow that's the way I have to think you know I'm not that I have to I do think that because that's what makes you want to improve well thank you so much Peter really appreciate it well you're very welcome thank you for calling I like to once again thank Peter for having me up to Nashville for the interview and thank all of you by Auto Club members who have really made these things possible the trip to Germany my trip to New York and having the time to go up and do interviews like this one with Peter so thanks everyone for watching

Channel: Rick Beato

Views: 962,833

Rating: 4.951746 out of 5

Keywords: peter frampton, show me the way, guitar lesson, do you feel like we do, lines on my face, classic rock, baby i love your way, guitar solo, how to play, Rick Beato, sounding off Peter Frampton, frampton comes alive, 70s rock songs, 70s rock and roll classics, Classic Rock interview, Peter Frampton Interview, peter frampton 2018 interview, peter frampton 2018 do you feel like we do, peter frampton i'm in you, peter frampton comes alive

Id: qUz75pYsA_c

Length: 41min 53sec (2513 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 11 2018