Book review

[cozmik_cowboy]

I was at the library to pick up a book I'd reserved (Cormack McCarthy's The Orchard Keeper; I cannot in good conscience recommend it), and (as I only had that one reserved) stopped by the "Featured Titles" table.  I am now about halfway through Do You Feel Like I Do?, Frampton's autobiography.


So far - much better than Jorma's or Rock's, not nearly as good as Phil's or Levon's.  Or, in other words, standard fare for the genre.  At least thus far, I'm finding more nuts & bolts about how they made the music than in Jorma's, less "Jerry-Garcia-was-a-terrible-person-who-made-me-take-smack-and-ruined-my-life" type Scullyesque whining, but far less depth of analysis and more stilted writing than P or L.


Where I am in it now, Frampton Comes Alive has just become the best-selling album of all time, and Peter has started down the road of pop-stardom, drink & drugs, so I expect a certain amount of Behind The Music "really screwed up/gotta make amends" coming up.


As I said, only about halfway done, but those are my impressions thus far.


Oh - and it is head & shoulders above Cindy Brightman's turd; supposedly about the Dead (who, despite being Candace's sister, she never saw until after Brent was dead); her main point seems to be "The Grateful Dead weren't really '60s, because I cut sugar cane in Cuba and they didn't".


Peter

[David Houck]

I would probably find the Humble Pie period interesting, and perhaps Frampton's Camel; but I lost track of him after Comes Alive.  Let us know how it turns out.

[bigredbass]

I once saw some sort of Frampton biography, and as a child wunderkind on the guitar, was friends with Bill Wyman, who'd let this little kid sneak in the back door to early Stones gigs, playing clubs around London.  THAT's an education !

[cozmik_cowboy]

Well, Dave, almost done.  It seems Frampton Comes Alive! changed him from a musician to a pop star - and as he puts it "A pop star's career is 18 months.  A musician's career is a lifetime."

As predicted above:  Pushed by the suits to do a follow up before he was ready, so it sucked; mobbed-up management robbed him blind; speed, blow,and, especially, booze; multiple divorces; 30-year climb back to musical respectability and being "the guitar player in a band" rather than "a pretty-boy in satin pants"; sobriety; growing new-won success - and a diagnosis of Inclusion Body Myositis, which is an incurable condition that causes atrophy of the muscles; it only affects the arms, wrists, fingers, quads, and the muscles that lift the feet, though in Peter's case it doesn't affect the muscles that you use to swallow.


His description of going under for the muscle biopsy to confirm the diagnosis: 
"As I was being wheeled into the operating room there was music playing, and I suddenly realized it was my favorite guitar player, Django Reinhardt!  Someone had obviously read up on my musical tatses, because I always mentiond Django>
"Okay, I know that right now you might be saying to yourself, 'How come these people get treated so differently than me?'  I understand, at times there are certain fringe benifits to fame, but apparently they always play music in the OR.  I guess the difference is just that someone had done some research on me, for which I am extremely grateful.  It was wild being told to count backward while Django was playing, fading into echo, and then by the time I got to 'seven,', I was out cold.  They probably all waited until I was out and then put on some Iron Maiden."


And yes, Joey - he & Wyman were friends since Frampton was 14 - which is also the age at which he sat down on the school steps and jammed with another student named Dave Jones (later, to avoid confusion with Davey Jones of the Monkees, he changed his last name to "Bowie")


His friends coming up included, by and large, 0 names you don't know.


So anywho - as I said, almost done, and I stand by my original assessment:  A solid, if unspectacular, entry into the annals of musician memoirs.


I have found references to a lot of post FCA! stuff that I'll be YTing to see if it's any good.


Peter

[gtrguy]

I have been on the team for countless surgeries and they usually play whatever music the doc or anesthesiologist brings. It's possible the patient might even hear it after they get put out. That's about the only dignity the patient has once the work starts.