Peter Frampton: Thank You Mr. Churchill/Fingerprints

When one hears the name Peter Frampton, one thinks of the rock-god, long-flowing blonde locks from the megahit live album Frampton Comes Alive! from 1976. He’s done two live albums since then [Frampton Comes Alive II and Live in Detroit, both very solid efforts]. Since 1976 his studio creations have been mixed affairs, with some fairly good songs mixed with some very forgettable ones. Despite his uneven material, he has always been a great guitarist. This brings us to his latest studio release, Thank You Mr. Churchill. Unlike studio albums of the past, this one is fairly autobiographical, with some commentary on outside events. The first track, the title track, thanks Winston Churchill for bringing his father home from the Second World War so he could meet his mother and conceive Peter Frampton. Solution is about people’s perception of him and how different he is from the public perception. Vaudeville Nanna And The Banjolele is about him picking up his first instrument, a banjolele which was left for him to be found by his grandmother [“Nanna”]. His grandmother loved Vaudeville, so in his mind, Vaudeville plus Nanna plus banjolele equals Peter Frampton. Asleep at the Wheel is a piece about the North Korean kidnapping of a Japanese girl, Megumi Yokota, a Japanese girl kidnapped more than thirty years ago by North Koreans to help train their spies to pass for Japanese citizens. Suite Liberté: A. Megumi B. Hurla Watu is an instrumental companion piece to Asleep at the Wheel that would not have been out of place on his previous release, the instrumental Fingerprints from 2006. Restraint is him feeling on edge about the recent Wall Street situation, people living in the lap of luxury on other peoples’ money. Invisible Man is a song that Frampton and his songwriting partner Gordon Kennedy put together with as many Motown titles as they could think of as an homage to the Funk Brothers, that anonymous band [hence the title] of Motown studio musicians who played on more hits than the Beatles. As a bonus, some of the Funk Brothers play on it. The last song, Black Ice, sounds to me like it is the most personal song on the CD. He’s working on his eighth year of sobriety and it talks about the journey to sobriety and of the one person in his life who has helped him get there.

All told, this is one of Peter Frampton’s strongest studio efforts. Not only are his usual guitar chops well intact, he’s finally got some well-written songs with some lyrical bite to match his musicianship. Thank You Mr. Churchill is a worthy follow-up to his last CD, the Grammy-winning Fingerprints. Speaking of which…

Sobriety has been very good to Peter Frampton. Thank You Mr Churchill is the second record he has made while sober; Fingerprints is the first. Peter Frampton is quite fond of it, to wit: “This has been the CD I've been waiting to make all my life. Every track has been a wonderful challenge, pushing me to raise my own bar again and again.” Guests include Warren Haynes [the Allman Brothers Band/Gov’t Mule], some members of the Rolling Stones, the Shadows and Pearl Jam. Blooze is the track that features the slide guitar of Warren Haynes. As one can surmise, it’s a blues-based rocker that features Frampton and Haynes swapping leads. Cornerstones is another blues-based rocker that features Charlie Watts and Bill Wyman. Double Nickel is a laid-back number that features the talents of veteran Nashville steel guitar player Paul Frankilin. If you own any Dire Straits or Mark Knopfler CDs, you’ve heard his work. Mike McCready and Matt Cameron from Pearl Jam play on two songs – the first an instrumental version of Soundgarden’s Black Hole Sun. Frampton’s talk-box [think “Do You Feel Like We Do”] is the “vocal” on the song. The second song is a Frampton/McCready improvisation called Blowin’ Smoke – very rock-ish. My Cup of Tea features Hank Marvin and Brian Bennet from the Shadows, a big British instrumental group from the early 1960s. Hank Marvin is one of Peter Frampton’s biggest influences, and he cites Marvin as his reason for getting into music in the first place. Smoky pays tribute to jazz greats like Wes Montgomery and Kenny Burrell. The last song finds Peter Frampton teaming with John Jorgenson on Souvenirs de Nos Pères (Memories of Our Fathers), a gypsy-sounding number reminiscent of Django Reinhardt. It’s quite entertaining.

Both Thank You Mr. Churchill and Fingerprints represent Peter Frampton’s finest work since his 1970s heyday. To quote Bob Dylan, “it’s all good.” If you’re a fan and you’re not sure whether to buy them, buy them both. I did – you won’t be disappointed.