Don’t hesitate to catch Peter Frampton on tour this year, and not just because your love won’t wait. Despite a yearslong battle with an immune disorder that affects his guitar-playing muscles, the songwriter of ’70s mellow gold classic “Baby, I Love Your Way” appears to be keeping his condition under control. After wrapping his Finale: The Farewell Tour in November, Frampton made concert commitments for 2023, including his upcoming Vegas show.
Frampton seemed like an overnight sensation to American pop music fans when Frampton Comes Alive! catapulted him to the top of rock stardom’s hierarchy. Rock fans of the time knew him as the taller guitarist in seminal British hard rock outfit Humble Pie, his husky baritone and deft guitar lines perfectly contrasting with the late Steve Marriott’s style-setting frontman’s tenor and power chording.
As Humble Pie’s management influenced Marriott to eliminate acoustic sets and add backup singers, Frampton went his own way. Four solo albums scored him a decent following but little chart success. Then came 1976’s Frampton Comes Alive! In the wake of a blockbuster live album turning Kiss into megastars, a double LP featuring Frampton’s best work was ripe for platinum sales.
Frampton quickly went from respected musician to magazine cover pretty boy. His angelic countenance on Frampton Comes Alive!’s cover did much to create that perception. The sensitive lover who expressed himself in the lyrics was an alternative to hard rock’s squeeze-my-lemon braggadocio. While other bands sang of one-night stands, Frampton led off Side Two of his biggest recording with “All I Want to Be (Is by Your Side).”
Alas, Frampton’s success made him a scapegoat as punk rock swept the landscape clear of longhaired singers wielding custom Les Pauls. Both Frampton and the Bee Gees took hits to their careers after starring in 1978 film Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. There was nowhere to go but down. Frampton had raised the bar for record sales that future blockbusters would be measured by until the gargantuan success of Michael Jackson’s Thriller in 1983. Then he crashed.
By the mid-’80s, Frampton was the subject of “where are they now” stories in publications such as Rolling Stone. He was hardly done, though. Frampton persevered as music trends changed. The nostalgia cycle turned and veteran musicians found themselves as much in demand as the vinyl albums now selling in stores specializing in 12-inch turntable slabs of analog audio glory.
Frampton now plays for the family of friends he namechecks on “Lines on My Face,” a Comes Alive track that he plays in his current live sets along with “Shine On,” “Show Me the Way” and his talk-box guitar effect magnum opus “Do You Feel Like We Do.” He also covers Soundgarden and a few Humble Pie songs, much to the delight of dedicated Framptonians. Even better, he duets with Dolly Parton on “Baby, I Love Your Way” on her upcoming studio album and plays a guitar solo on her cover of “Let It Be,” which features Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr.
Palms, 8 p.m. Aug. 18, starting at $79 plus tax and fee. ticketmaster.com
Click here for your free subscription to the weekly digital edition of Las Vegas Magazine, your guide to everything to do, hear, see and experience in Southern Nevada. In addition to the latest edition emailed to every week, you’ll find plenty of great, money-saving offers from some of the most exciting attractions, restaurants, properties and more! And Las Vegas Magazine is full of informative content such as restaurants to visit, cocktails to sip and attractions to enjoy.
