Posted on 01/05/2012 9:31:05 PM PST by smokingfrog
Peter Frampton and his favorite guitar are together again following a 31-year estrangement, the New York Times reports.
The singer, who played the Gibson Electric Guitar on his 1976 album Frampton Comes Alive!, assumed the instrument had been wrecked in 1980 when a cargo plane crashed in Caracas, Venezuela, en route to Frampton's concert in Panama. As it happened, the guitar was recovered -- and sold to a musician on the Caribbean island of Curacao.
“For 30 years, it didn’t exist – it went up in a puff of smoke as far as I was concerned,” Frampton told The Times in an interview.
Lo and behold, eons later, the 1954 Gibson Les Paul -- made of Honduran mahogany -- was back in Frampton's hands last month, following two years of talks with the Curacao musician who owned it, the Times said. Also involved in negotiations: the head of the island’s tourist board, a Dutch Frampton fanatic and a customs agent who moonlights as a guitar repairman.
(Excerpt) Read more at hollywoodreporter.com ...
1975 was my freshman college year and spent some of my last nickels on that album- Frampton Comes Alive.
I may have spent other nickels on herbal accoutrements..
Dimes maybe?
Am I the only one that listened to him before this LP when he fronted Frampton’s Camel?
Make it sing again, Pete!
I think I recall the guitar that did the “singing” was one of the first-ever midi guitars, with on-board effects,made by Electra.
Could be wrong.
If I never hear another Frampton song as long as I live, I could die a happy man.
I remember something having to do with my fingers.
It got more technical later, IIRC.
He was cheesy, to be sure. But for about a month or two in ‘75 that solo on “Do You Feel Like We Do” had all the girls ready to move to England.
As a lifelong musician who has worked in the industry for over 30 yrs I think I’m qualified to say that Frampton is one of the most overrated guitarists of all time.
Zappa was a guitarist.
Frampton was just a pile of hair that could hold a pick.
He was better when he was with Humble Pie.
David Bowie thought enough of Frampton to have him be the guitarist on his Glass Spider Tour.
I'm with you. See my post #10
Black Sheep Squadron jumped the shark, when they had Frampton in one of their episodes.
I thought he was at his best with the BeeGees in the Sgt. Pepper movie. /s
Only caught Zappa once- 74-75 or so at the Cap Center near DC.
He did weird scales like egyptian jazz or something, coupled with muffin and snow references.
Definitely not commercial, but he would flash some riffs showing he could be commercial if he so chose...
I thought his best years were with Humble Pie. Their final concert at Long Beach Area in the 70's (help, I'm getting old) was fantastic. How did our ears survive those days.
Zappa could play really fast with no melody.
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