Fingerprints

Peter Frampton

A & M / New Door, 2006

http://www.frampton.com

REVIEW BY: Jason Warburg

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 12/16/2020

Child prodigy; lead guitarist in a British supergroup (Humble Pie); restless solo artist in search of a sound to call his own; rocket-to-the-moon-riding mega-hitmaker; star of one of the biggest movie fiascoes of all time (Robert Stigwood’s film version of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band); 30-something has-been; David Bowie sideman; fondly remembered classic rocker; elder statesman of British rock. Over the course of a five-decade career, Peter Frampton has been thrust into or saddled with each of these roles over the years, seeming to meet each with shoulder-shrugging equanimity, as if to say “Whatever, guys, I just want to play.”

Of all the digressions Frampton and his career have taken over the decades since he set the rock world back on its heels with his world-beating Billboard #1 1976 live album Frampton Comes Alive!, his 2006 solo album Fingerprints remains a standout.

For one thing, it’s overloaded with A-list guests, from original Rolling Stones rhythm section Charlie Watts and Bill Wyman, to Pearl Jam's Mike McCready and Matt Cameron, to original Shadows members Hank Marvin and Brian Bennett, to Allman Brothers slide guitar maestro Warren Haynes, to industry-famous sidemen Paul Franklin (pedal steel) and John Jorgenson (guitar), to his chief collaborator, Nashville songsmith/guitarist Gordon Kennedy.

For another, this is the only album in Frampton’s entire catalog on which he does not sing. It’s 14 tracks of instrumental music, a showcase for Frampton the guitar player that leaves no doubt why his childhood friend Bowie plucked him from the sidelines in 1986 and made him part of his touring and studio band for two years. No traces remain on Fingerprints of Frampton the teen idol; here he’s a musician’s musician, going toe-to-toe with a series of fellow greats and having an absolute blast at it. After many years of pressing hard to mixed results, my_heart_sings_the_harmony_web_ad_alt_250 Fingerprints finds Frampton fully engaged with the pure joy of playing guitar.

And while there’s plenty of his trademark tastefully melodic British-inflected blues-rock, those moments are honestly less exciting than when Frampton takes the music in a more unexpected direction—which he does again and again.

When you hear the name Peter Frampton, you don’t necessarily think of funk, but that’s exactly where this album starts off, with the uber-funky strut of “Boot It Up,” featuring Frampton trading licks with sax player Courtney Pine. The more familiar-feeling “Ida Y Vuelta (Out And Back)” is a snappy acoustic piece featuring Comes Alive bassist Stanley Sheldon sitting in. But then Frampton throws a huge curveball, delivering slicing, skronky, greasy electric leads on a thundering cover of Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun,” with McCready and Cameron supplying extra muscle and authenticity. Here Frampton’s playing is as dynamic as anything you’ve ever heard from him, modulating tones dramatically, gradually gaining heaviness until the solo section erupts into a squalling duel with the ever-ready McCready. Just for kicks he drops a little trademark PF talk box into the final verse, before another storming guitar battle takes them to the close.

Next up, “Float” and “My Cup Of Tea” feel more familiar, lilting numbers full of bright, melodic playing. Ah, but then we get to “Shewango Way,” a frenetic, angular, careening, number that goes dreamy in some places and purely experimental in others, with superb tone throughout; it’s the first Frampton tune I’ve ever heard that reminded me of Ronnie Montrose. Then Frampton’s blues chops come to the fore in the winkingly named “Blooze,” executing a gentle, masterful buildup to an eruptive fireworks show of a twin-guitar solo section featuring Frampton squaring off with Haynes.

Watts and Wyman provide the deepest of pockets for “Cornerstones,” an emphatic slice of blues-rock featuring a dirty rhythm riff topped by PF’s screaming lead, before he goes full funk once again with the giddy, playful “Grab A Chicken (Put It Back).” Atmosphere is the focus of the winding, circuitous “Double Nickels” and the acoustic blues “Smoky,” before the thunder returns with the heavy metal sounds of “Blowin’ Smoke.” McCready and Cameron again contribute a big stomping beat and bruising rhythm guitar as Frampton plays the fat, twisty-turny main riff.

Penultimate track “Oh When…” showcases PF alone with his acoustic, a pleasant meditation / interlude before he closes things out with the still-acoustic but more offbeat “Souvenirs De Nos Peres (Memories Of Our Fathers),” an old-timey number with a distinctly Parisian feel. (Seriously, I kept expecting a woman singing in French to come in over the top.)

Fingerprints is a powerful reminder that before the melodrama, before the megastardom, before Peter Frampton ever even wrote a song, he made his bones in the music world as an ace guitar player. This album saw his gifts unleashed in a whole new way, and while the Grammys get it wrong more often than not, they got it exactly right when this album won Best Pop Instrumental Album in 2007. It’s a hell of a good time with a hell of a good player.

Rating: A-

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