At some point, I promise, I will do a full blog analyzing every second of this song (the full, unedited live version from Frampton Comes Alive!). So be warned, and be afraid.
I have written, briefly, about this epic song before, and with a little bit of summer left (despite the fact that it’s gray and gloomy and wet outside), let’s sneak in some love for Frampton’s finest moment.
First, to revisit the past:
Wonderful memory: remember back in the ’80s when radio stations (even before “classic rock” stations became all the rage mid-decade) used to do their Top 500 countdowns on holidays (often either Memorial Day or Labor Day but occasionally July 4)? I used to live for those things and would listen, dutifully scribbling down the entries. Anyway, back in the early ’80s it was very unusual to hear unedited, long songs on the radio. So a song like Peter Frampton’s “Do You Feel Like We Do” was one of those rare treats you’d catch a couple of times a year, if you were lucky. I didn’t own that album (yet) but that only made it more of an event if/when it came on. During one of the countdowns, on July 4, this one came on and Pops and I were heading back from the pool to cook out pre-fireworks. The famous “talk box” section was yet to occur, so we pulled up in the driveway and Pops simply let the car idle. Too enraptured in the moment to even miss a few seconds before we could dash into the house and turn it on the stereo, we sat there, in our soaked swimsuits and savored the moment. These are the types of shared encounters that, I suspect, sustain the father-son relationship a decade down the road when curfews are being tested and new boundaries are being established.
Second, have you ever seen any semi-vintage footage of him performing this? I hadn’t. God bless YouTube. The Internet wins, again.
Can you say talk box? Can you say ’70s? Can you say HEAVEN?
More on this, another time.
And, enjoy, the original (and underneath that, the original original, the elusive studio version…once again, gracias YouTube!)
