Peter Frampton???

[Timbresmith1]

As a Millennial, I guess I'm on the outside looking in... But one thing that has always sorta cracked me up and baffled me at the same time is.... "Frampton making a guitar sound like a synthesizer with a talk box; heck yeah, man! let's party! Whooooaaaaaa!!!"

EVH using an analog synth on "Jump".... "Man, what a sellout! It's like he doesn't care about the music anymore!"

Think of it as a less annoying version of a phenomenon like autotune, and you might get close. It’s fun to mock novel ideas from the past.
The safety pin! Hahahaha! What a buncha knuckleheads. How easy is it not to jab yourself with a pin?

 

[guitar_paul1]

And this supremely weird one:

 

[tanplastic]

Here's a more recent use of the talkbox:

 

[SnidelyWhiplash]

Love PF! He has a more jazzy, laid back, melodic soloing style that suits his songs, but he can burn with the best of them.

 

[Greggorios]

Joe Walsh got there first with Rocky Mountain Way.

+1, yep, by about 3 years.

 

[Phrygian77]

At the time, there were probably only a small number of die hard Van Halen fans who thought that the addition of synth was lame. Everyone, and I mean everyone in popular music, was using synthesizers then.

 

[archetype]

Before it was a called a talk box that sat on the floor, it was called "the bag" and you wore it hanging from a strap over your shoulder, like a purse.

Wow... I forgot about those. It was like a European wine bag.

 

[The Angle]

I was a big Frampton fan when Frampton Comes Alive hit the airwaves. I think part of why people loved it so much is that you can tell he's having a blast whenever he plays with it live. He's up there on stage literally talking to you with music. It was fun, and that's infectious.

 

[k1enneth]

Frampton was 17 years old when he joined Humble Pie. Prior to that I believe he had studied in-depth classical guitar for 3 years. A prodigy!! I must admit that when he went on to a solo and pop career, I didn't hold him as high regard as Humble Pie. But, he wrote million selling songs, top album sales and appealed to a huge audience. I've listened to "Frampton Comes Alive"...the live album and gosh...his solos are melodic and soaring. I saw him live about 10 years ago and he is powerful and effortless in his playing. He finished the show with the Humble Pie classic "I don't need no Dr.".

 

[AmpHandle]

As a Millennial, I guess I'm on the outside looking in... But one thing that has always sorta cracked me up and baffled me at the same time is.... "Frampton making a guitar sound like a synthesizer with a talk box; heck yeah, man! let's party! Whooooaaaaaa!!!"

EVH using an analog synth on "Jump".... "Man, what a sellout! It's like he doesn't care about the music anymore!"

Today's music is in dire need of a make over. When it does happen artists will clone the sound rather than fish for themselves.

 

[slauson slim]

Humble Pie.

 

[Les H]

You have to think back to a time before internet, YouTube videos, cell phones, MTV and cable or satellite television was available for every house.

With no readily available video footage and the large percentage of the population who never heard of a Talk Box effect device and without being at a Frampton concert or at least sober if you were there, there were people who only knew that performance on a vinyl record that thought he actually could make his guitar talk.

When I started playing guitar in the mid 80s there was always that older guy who would ask if I could make the guitar talk like Peter Frampton yet? At a time I had no idea who Peter Frampton was or what he was talking about.

Maybe it's not impressive now but I would say it was then.

 

[Engine Swap]

 

[tap4154]

I probably played that album so many times I wore out the grooves. There was a lot more to it than the talk box, and Joe Walsh used one as well. I saw the Comes Alive tour back in July of '77 at Angel Stadium in Anaheim California. A great show! I also saw him about four-five-six years ago, playing with Steve Miller. Another great show, with less hair. I also know his previous recordings, and there was just something about that double album that just killed it. As the title said said, the songs just came alive.

Here's Lines On My Face in 1995.

 

[David Barnett]

And this supremely weird one:

The funniest part of the Alvino Rey schtick was that his 1930s talk box worked on the same principle as the '70s ones, but he had a lady hiding behind a curtain behind the stage with the tube in her mouth.

 

[IMMusicRulz]

And don't forget Bob Mayo on keyboards.

"Hey everyone, Bob Mayon on the keyboards...Bob Mayo!"

Other than that, Frampton is for drug users. He was a pretty decent guitarist, but that Frampton Comes Alive album was overplayed and to be honest he should have stopped recording after that.

Frampton did make some great sounds out of his Gibsons and he also did the soundtrack to one of my favorite films, Almost Famous, so I guess I shouldn't rag on him.

 

[Fearnot]

Frampton did make some great sounds out of his Gibsons and he also did the soundtrack to one of my favorite films, Almost Famous, so I guess I shouldn't rag on him.

Nancy Wilson (of Heart, also Mrs. Cameron Crowe) did the soundtrack for 'Almost Famous.' Peter Frampton was the guitar coach for 'Stillwater' which is why Billy Crudup looked so natural with that Les Paul.

Frampton also played the road manager for... Humble Pie!

 

[Mike_LA]

As a Millennial, I guess I'm on the outside looking in...

Yes you are.
When that song came out Most people only had audio NO VIDEO so all we heard was the sound and the music. We had No Idea what he was doing only that we liked it.... We also had no idea that the crowd noise was in reaction to the fireworks not the performance.
I was a freshman in college at the time.

 

[tap4154]

Yes you are.
When that song came out Most people only had audio NO VIDEO so all we heard was the sound and the music. We had No Idea what he was doing only that we liked it.... We also had no idea that the crowd noise was in reaction to the fireworks not the performance.
I was a freshman in college at the time.

The sold out show I saw in 1976 at Angel Stadium didn't have any fireworks, except the fireworks on stage.

 

[HoodieMcFoodie]

Here's Chris Spedding using a talk box in Fox's truly atrocious hit S-S-Single Bed from 1976. (Cut to 2:20 if you don't want this ear worm in your head for the next week)