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January 2026
In This Issue:
- Fifty Years of 1976 Rock!
- The Talk Box
- The Black Beauty Guitar
- Do YOU Feel Like We Do?
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The 1976
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the single greatest year in rock music history.
It was also the year I first became aware of the sounds of modern rock music, and a year that saw a continued explosion of the incredible music that came to be known as classic rock.
As America celebrated it's Bicentennial, music fans celebrated the joy of now-iconic albums from Aerosmith, Bob Seger, Steve Miller, The Eagles, KISS, as well as incredible debut albums by now-legendary acts like Tom Petty, The Ramones, and Boston.
As we all know, I LOVE doing anniversary stories about big albums and big music events, so this month we'll kick off our year-long celebration of 1976 with a look at one of the biggest-selling LIVE albums of all-time, "Frampton Comes Alive," released in January, 1976.
An Iconic 70's Sound Breaks Sales Records
Fifty years ago this month, music fans fell in love with the funky sounds of a cool guitar effect called the "Talk Box," as Peter Frampton released a two-disc live concert album on January 15, 1976.
The 1970's was the biggest era of the "Live" concert album.
And for many years, "Frampton Comes Alive" was the best-selling LIVE album of all time. Everyone and their mother owned a copy by the summer of 1976.
It was a prolific musical year which brought a cascade of now-landmark albums.
Recorded mostly at San Francisco's Winterland Ballroom the previous year, Frampton Comes Alive was a critical and commercial smash for 25-year old British guitarist Peter Frampton.
His rise to the top was so fast after this album release that his return to the Bay Area the following year found him headlining a stadium show in Oakland!
Frampton had already established himself as a guitar whiz-kid while still a teenager in England, and he found success with the band Humble Pie before embarking on a solo career.
This album was monumentally important to many young guitarists, including myself. We were thrilled by Frampton's dynamic mastery of the extended guitar solo as an art form, his smooth, tasty jazz-style guitar phrasing in a rock context, and of course that talk-box!
The talk-box had been used previously by other guitarists, such as Joe Perry on Aerosmith's 1975 recording of "Sweet Emotion," Joe Walsh on "Rocky Mountain Way," and steel guitarist Pete Drake in the 1960's. But it was Frampton who made the talk-box guitar effect famous with this album, and he is the artist with whom it is still most-associated.
The 'talking' effect is created by pushing the guitar sound through a small speaker and into a plastic tube. The end of the tube is placed in the player's mouth near the microphone. As the player shapes words or vowels with the mouth, the guitar sound is shaped into those words or vowels.
I acquired a 70's era talk-box back around 1986, and I can tell you it is a unique thrill to play guitar and have the sound come out of your mouth!
Standout Tracks: Show me the Way, Do You Feel Like We Do -which both feature the talk-box- All I Want to Be, Baby I Love Your Way, It's a Plain Shame, Doobie Wah.
The Black Beauty Les Paul Guitar
Frampton's 3-pickup Les Paul Custom became one of the most famous and iconic guitars in rock history, partly due to it's prominence on the fold-out album cover (photo above) of the best-selling live album.
The guitar was given to Frampton by a friend after he used it for a series of Bay Area gigs in 1970 with his former band Humble Pie. The guitar is a 1954 Les Paul Custom that was heavily modified to resemble a 1957 model.
The guitar was presumed lost in a fiery 1980 plane crash in Venezuela. But it somehow survived the crash, and ended up in the possession of a musician in Curacao.
Frampton was finally reunited with his beloved guitar over 30 years later.
It had suffered a lot of damage, including serious burns, melting, and charring in the plane crash.
Gibson helped restore the guitar to playable condition. But Frampton decided to keep the crash and burn cosmetic damage as is.
Frampton has now named the guitar "Phenix," as it rose from the ashes. (He uses the French spelling of the word.)
See a clip below where Frampton talks about his beloved Les Paul.
8-Track Tapes!
I had "Frampton Comes Alive" on 8-track tape.
There once was a time when almost every teenager's car had an 8-track tape player. It was the mobile format of choice if you wanted to take your tunes along for the ride.
I installed an 8-track player below the dashboard in my first car (a '72 Buick), along with a set of 6x9 coaxial speakers in the back window.
Fun times, driving around with your friends, listening to great rock and roll on the 8-track player.
And then you'd have to use a matchbook or something to wedge under the tape cartridge to make it play correctly and not drag.
Good times. :)
(I recently played some old 8-track tapes on my dad's Akai 8-track tape deck, which is currently stationed under my desk as I make digital transfers of some old tapes.)
Bonus points if you remember playing music on 8-track tapes.
Signed, Sealed, Delivered
Signed, Sealed, Delivered
I finally got to see Frampton in concert in 2018 at Fiddler's Green.
It was a thrill to hear him play those classic songs I grew up with and loved all my life.
I bought this poster at the show. It is autographed by Frampton himself.
You all see it every week on my lesson room wall.
Just for Fun
