From: Peter Frampton

Subject: What a lovely surprise!!

Dear Bob,

Just now flying home from NY after playing the, “Artists for Action”, “Sandyhook Promise“ show with Mark Barden and family, whose son Daniel was killed at Sandy Hook.

Sheryl Crow, Kevin Bacon and Jimmy Vivino’s great band were all on hand plus a slew of great talent. It was an incredible feeling to be a part of, “doing something” for gun reform.

Then as soon as the WiFi came on the plane home, I saw your lovely piece about “Wind of Change”. It’s still one of the best experiences in my life. Having a completely blank slate not knowing what I was doing but enjoying being in charge of the whole album making process for the first time. Freedom!

Prod/engineer Chris Kimsey deserves a huge mention and thank you. Couldn’t have done it without him.

Thanks again, it brought back great memories of that leap off the musical diving board that I’m still very proud of today.

Peter

PS. Clem is a phenomenal guitar player. A wonderful but different style of playing.

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From: Chris Kimsey

Hi Bob, what sweet memories you evoke and these are in my DNA, as this album was the game changer for me as an engineer and associate producer. Peter and I had such an amazing bond and love of music. We would hang out listening to so much good music. We loved to explore the SOUND on recordings, forever reading the liner notes .

The Wind of Change album was a pure joy recorded at Olympic Studios, my first encounter with Ringo! And Peter wanting a LIVE more open drum sound asked him to take the tea cloths off the drums. A first for Ringo….!

Peter the innovator at work!! Amazing.

Nice one Bob,

Peter is the best, his songs and playing will never fade away and continue to give the world outstanding original pieces that are destined to be a precious treasure of our musical culture.

Chris K

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I am part of that small coterie you mention and still a huge Peter fan. Saw him w Humble Pie right before he left and then picked up his first solo and album and the ones after. Loved them all. Saw Frampton’s Camel tour soon after and bought the live album from Peaches Records the day it came out. Met him at a backyard party in Nassau late 70’s and he was very nice to us. Few years later saw him w Bowie and he played great and seemed happy. Over the years i have met him a few times and listened to everything he puts out. Recently saw the Ryman show and I am still blown away by the songs as much as the incredible playing he still does. Your words capture my feeling and love for the guy. And his book was a great read as well.

Thank you for writing this. Van Fletcher

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Peter’s accomplishments as a guitarist/writer/vocalist were just amazing and I felt was not recognized as much when he played with Humble Pie’s Live at Fillmore. As a guitar player I followed him with his solo career. Yes, ” Wind of Change Album” was a great LP! Peter had a great approach as a writer. Peter used Jazz chords with his rhythm and solos pushing him ahead of the typical 4 -Chord heavy Rock music of his time. A couple of other songs that may be forgotten from ” Wind of Change ” were :

Jumping Jack Flash

The Lodger

Thanks for the recap of Peter’s music and brief history. I plan to see Peter’s Solo Tour Spring 2024 at a local Chicago venue which is a more intimate place for R& R and select acoustic Frampton songs!

Marc/Chicago area

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Thanks Bob. Great memories of the early 70’s music. I played with Mylon and we opened for Humble Pie about 10 times in 70-72 just at the Eastown Theatre in Detroit alone!

But when we opened for Mountain, at Filmore and other places, it was funny but Frampton was always there.sometimes with Penny backstage and on the side cheering everyone on. He was a true muso!

I’m so glad you mentioned the Atlanta Rhythm Section. Barry Bailey was a legend in Atlanta and his playing is a perfect example of “overlooked guitarist” (ask Al Kooper about Barry). He could peel off the solo in “I’m So Into You” without looking anywhere but dead-on into the feel….He was an incredible southern gentleman super talent and he would be smiling at seeing his band’s name in your post. Unfortunately MS took Barry a couple years ago and Mylon passed away in Sept. Your recall and the way you express how meaningful that music meant to you, is a special

blessing for those of us here and gone.

Marty Simon

Toronto

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Hey Bob,

Although I’m a few years younger than you (too young to see Frampton with Humble Pie) a friend with an older brother turned me on to Rockin’ The Fillmore and I instantly became a fan of not only Pie but Frampton as well. I heard Wind of Change on my local Philadelphia rock radio station and literally had my Mom (I was too young to drive) take me to, I believe Korvetts Dept. Store to find and buy the album.

It hit me like a ton of bricks (still does) and I bought every one thereafter up to and including I’m In You.

My memory is he was often the opening act for a lot of concerts in Phila at the Spectrum and I would buy tickets ($5!) and go to shows just to see him! He even was 3rd on a bill with Humble Pie in ’75 billed as Goodbye To Pie tour and we were convinced he would come out and jam with HP but alas he did not.

Just want to thank you for bringing to light one of my favorite alltime artists. Frampton consistently delivers and the joy on his face when he is playing live is a wonderful reminder that joy is a big part of what music is all about!

Cheers

Tom Gillam

New Braunfels TX

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My high school friend and I went to see Peter just before the pandemic. We were like you – into Frampton from Rockin’ The Fillmore onwards, time-wise.

 

For our meet and greet, my friend brought his 1972 copy of Winds of Change to sign, and I brought a Django Reinhardt record. Frampton said he was surprised by both of them being the record to sign. We explained the era we got into him had us buying Winds of Change the day it came out, and I explained that it was he, with his gypsy jazz forays and mentions that made me the Django fanatic I am today. If it weren’t for getting into him, we’d be lesser guitar players and I’d have never heard of Django.

 

It was a nice moment of gratitude expressed after 50 years of admiration. It’s nice to read this. Though no one in our high school knew who he was until January of 1976, apparently we weren’t alone.

 

Great story. Agree with all of your observations about Clemson, who we saw in the Pie a few times. Pretty good, but not Frampton.

Gary Lang

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“I was raised by a bearded toothless hag”..you forgot the best song (jam) on the album. Jumping Jack Flash. Seems Mr. Frampton still had some Humble Pie left in him. Different strokes for different folks.

Richard Klufas

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“Don’t Fade Away” from solo elpee #2 Frampton’s Camel.

Scott Hazlewood

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Yeah. I wasn’t with A&M then but shine on should have been a hit or at least a hit on album radio. I still play it.

Cheers Bob!

Richard Pachter

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I could never figure out why “Nowhere’s Too Far (For My Baby),” was not on the live album
To me that was his biggest hit before the live record, still my favorite song by him 🙂

Thanks for the great writing

Peter Stema

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Couldn’t agree more, Bob. I’ve been singing “All I Want To Be (Is By Your Side)” around our house for decades and only discovered Wind of Change a few years ago. One of my new favorites.

Steve Gillan

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Tremendous call on “Wind Of Change’ from Peter Frampton. That album, and the follow-up “Frampton’s Camel” are two vastly underrated albums. I might spring for the SACD versions now,

Sky Daniels

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Those early Pie albums with Frampton were all killer, as were the Frampton’s Camel albums.

Ross Field

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Bob
I saw Lee Michaels and drummer Frosty show before 71 and my ears rang for a week!
Stan Goman

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Like you, came to Frampton after wearing out my copy of Humble Pie’s Live At The Fillmore. Bought Wind of Change immediately upon its release. Was not what I was expecting but stuck with it in my university dorm room at Acadia U. In Nova Scotia and it quietly became one of my favourite albums – along with Wishbone Ash’s Argus, Rory Gallagher’s Taste and Roxy Music’s 1st – those were the days indeed.

Mike Campbell

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Good to see the mention of Lee Michaels whose talent and reputation were unfortunately overshadowed by the lame and unrepresentative hit, “Do You Know What I Mean”.

I saw him at the Hollywood Bowl when I was sixteen. He was sandwiched between the Grass Roots and headliner Credence Clearwater. The Grass Roots performed a nice set. Then the virtually unknown Michaels comes on, just him on a Hammond B-3 and drummer Frosty. The two had a unique, high-energy sound that just blew everyone away. Then Credence comes on and is, relatively speaking, boring. Standing still, playing their hits perfectly. No match for the tsunami unleashed by Lee Michaels and Frosty, so we left early. An excellent representation is the album simply titled “Lee Michaels” which was recorded live in the studio. Listen to opener “Tell Me How Do You Feel” and “Stormy Monday” (crank it up!) and you hear the real Lee Michaels.

Thanks, Bob!

Gary Goff

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From: Don Strasburg

Always love this song

“Heighty Hi”

https://open.spotify.com/track/4HCBOzwH6I2GM0qPEGFxCi?si=a71a512e42fe4572

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I was intrigued by your description of the 1971 Lee Michaels concert – just him and a drummer – so I looked him up on YouTube and found this great footage and thought you might enjoy it, if you hadn’t seen it yet. https://youtu.be/K02bv-51nAU?si=ZPBkLx-5qTk7QYjS

This was filmed in August of 1971, just a few months after you saw him, which appears to have been on May 29th. The records show a concert at the Fillmore East that night with Fanny, Humble Pie and Lee Michaels.  If it was anything like the video above, you saw a great show.

I knew little of Lee Michaels other than “Do You Know What I Mean,” but when it was all over the radio, I boasted to my friends that Lee Michaels was my uncle. He was not. No relation at all, as far as I know, but that didn’t stop 12-year-old me from trying to get some street cred from having the same last name.

Best,

-John Michaels

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Yeah those were the days. My college guitar playing buddies drove down from the icy Northern Tier of NY State, Saint Lawrence University. Colder than a hooker or a politician’s heart. Two seasons: Fourth of July and winter. Till global warming, Call it hoax but it’s 60 WABC dee-grees in my home state of Connecticut. Surely you remember that chant on that 77 spot on the dial, if I remember correctly. But I ramble on. In the cold winter of 1972, there was a show at RPI, Rensellaer Polytechnic Institute. Opener was Frampton with the Winds of Change LP hot off the pressing plants, and Mahavishnu John McLaughlin was the second act on the bill. J Geils, the perennial favorite party college band were the headliners, but once Mahavishnu John McLaughlin got done with his amazing groundbreaking set, we left halfway through J Geils’s set, which I kinda regret. But get this. On the way way home me and my college guitar posse stopped at a gas station along the NY Northway…So a guy all in white comes up to us crazed high college kids and asked us for directions. I mean how to ge on the Thruway in Rensall-whatever…So John McLaughlin asked us for DIRECTIONS! Talk about fans meeting the artists when you least expect it.

Chip Lovitt

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I’m in you , I mean I’m with you all the way with Mr.Frampton. Hahahaha
 

The first time Humble Pie played the Fillmore East, I had enough money to take the train from Canarsie Brooklyn but failed to find enough money for a ticket. I wasn’t about to ask anyone for money. So I sat by the ground level fire doors and listened. I already had the “Safe As Yesterday Is” LP. That’s how much I was into Humble Pie and Peter Frampton.

When most guitarists emulated Eric Clapton during that time period, Peter seemed to be coming from a different place. More melodic, less cliched blues licks. I loved Pie & Frampton. I couldn’t wait for Peters solo lps.

I was at the Fillmore ( snuck in through the upper fire escapes) for the Rockin the Fillmore shows. I actually hear me yell out on the LP “yeah” while Marriott was talking to the audience. Hahahaa. The night after the Fillmore shows wrapped up, my friend who knew I loved Humble Pie called me and told me to meet him downstairs in back of my building (Bayview Projects).

I see my friend pull up in a CAR !!!! He didn’t have a license !!! Not only that, he didn’t have a car. I noticed the ignition had been popped. !!!!! So we drove from Brooklyn to the Oak Beach Inn on Long Island in a stolen car. Jeezzzz

Before Humble pie went on I had to use the restroom. As I approached the bathroom door, Steve Marriott came out of another door, the dressing room. He asked me if I wanted a slice of pizza. Hahahaha. There I was, a young punk asked to go into one of my fav band’s dressing room. Wow. All they had to eat were a few pizza pies and soda. Catering has come a long way since then. Haha. I must’ve been in there less than 3 minutes as the road manager said “Hey Kid you have to go now”. I’ll always remember just looking at them and how they were dressed so cool. The show was identical to the Fillmore show, even when Peter takes off his sports jacket. Hahaha

Fast forward 16 years. I made a name for myself as a drummer. I’ve already played with John Waite & Julian Lennon. In ‘87 I got the Bowie Glass Spider tour. Who’s in the band playing guitar? Peter Frampton!! Talk about a dream gig.
 

I did ask him if he remembered a kid eating pizza with them at the Oak Beach Inn. ( OBI). He laughed and said no. Hahaha. A great musician, funny and the sweetest guy. Man, I am one lucky guy. Happy Holidays Bob, Alan Childs

Spotify playlist: https://tinyurl.com/2a2kez3e

“Cold Cold Cold”

Little Feat

“Cold Blue Steel”

Joni Mitchell

“Cold Morning Light”

Todd Rundgren

“Cold Gin”

Kiss

“Cold Turkey”

Plastic Ono Band

“Stone Cold”

Rainbow

“Funky Cold Medina”

Tone Loc

“Cold Hard Bitch”

Jet

“Cold One”

Eric Church

“Stone Cold Crazy”

Queen

“Cold Back on Me”

Wendy Waldman

“Cold as Ice”

Foreigner

“She’s So Cold”

Rolling Stones

“Cold Day in Hell”

Gary Moore

“Cold Wind”

Spirit

“Come In From the Cold”

Joni Mitchell

“Cold Hearted Man”

AC/DC

“Early Morning Cold Taxi”

The Who

“The sweetest fragrance, it brings a wind of change”

1

I bought “Rock On” in preparation of seeing Humble Pie at the Fillmore East.

But they were not the headliner, that was Lee Michaels, who is now only known for “Do You Know What I Mean,” but before that he was a titan, of both the blues and rock. He had a unique stage show, it was just him and his organ, and a drummer. And it was a thunderous sound. “Barrel” is still one of my favorite albums, it makes me feel warm and connected when I listen to it. There was no hit, even though “What Now America” might have been one. Whereas Humble Pie…

Was a band formed by Steve Marriott and some guy who’d supposedly been a star in England, but we’d never heard of him, the fact that Peter Frampton was in the Herd didn’t register.

So the killer on “Rock On” is “Shine On,” it’s got a great sound, the studio take eclipses Frampton’s subsequent live renditions. It’s got a power that is just hard to replicate live.

So Humble Pie were pretty good. Little did I know that mere months later that weekend of shows would turn into the album “Rockin’ the Fillmore” and the band would become stars.

But this was after Frampton had left. As a matter of fact, Frampton said he was leaving before the tour, but it’s his fingers, his playing, that pushed “Rockin’ the Fillmore” over the top.

Frampton went solo in an era where we were paying attention, when rock was a movement, with mainstream and sideshow. Jethro Tull was now big as a result of “Aqualung,” the fourth Led Zeppelin album, with “Stairway to Heaven,” came out at the end of ’71.

Oh, I neglected to tell you, that Lee Michaels/Humble Pie show was in June of ’71, for context.

Meanwhile, Humble Pie, with the vastly inferior Clem Clempson replacing Frampton, substituting sludge for melody, put out “Smokin'” in March of ’72, and Frampton’s solo debut, “Wind of Change,” didn’t even come out until July of ’72, when I was doing the college rail trip of Europe. And at the time record stores were pilgrimages, everywhere you went you stopped in, and it was in the bins in London that I saw “Wind of Change.”

2

I woke up this morning singing “(I’ll Give You) Money” in my head. I have no idea where these songs come from, but it made me think of Frampton’s fourth album, the great leap forward after the walk in the woods, the figuring it out of the previous two albums. It’s “Frampton” that contains the original “Show Me the Way” and “Baby, I Love Your Way,” when Peter was still seen as credible, before he became a teenage idol with the double live album, which was a complete surprise to those of us who’d been following him. However, I must note that at this point my favorite cut from the LP is the opening track on side two, “Nowhere’s Too Far (For My Baby),” that change in the middle of the chorus slays me.

So I’m singing “(I’ll Give You) Money” in my head and it switches to “Wind of Change.” How did that happen? I don’t know. But one thing you’ve got to know is Frampton’s solo debut had no impact. Humble Pie was flourishing, and most Americans still had no idea who Peter Frampton was, but that first album…it existed in its own rarefied atmosphere, if you had it you loved it, and I had it.

The opener, “Fig Tree Bay,” was an invitation. Mellow, when most albums started off with a rocker, like the Stones, a single.

But it was the second side opener, “All I Want To Be (Is By Your Side)” that creeped up on me. This is not the acoustic number from the live album. That’s good, but this is different. The original studio version of “All I Want To Be (Is By Your Side)” is a tour-de-force. It’s electric, and it evolves, from the original lyrical beginning to an instrumental second half that would still turn heads today, if anybody still made this kind of music. Then again, the Atlanta Rhythm Section’s “Another Man’s Woman” never penetrated. Hell, people think that’s a soft rock band, when just the opposite is true.

But the title song…

“The sweetest fragrance, it brings a wind of change”

Now this song starts off acoustic, it would fit perfectly on “Frampton Comes Alive,” which it ultimately did.

“Take me away, take me away

Faking my way through

Take me away, take me away

Faking my way through”

The track goes from acoustic to electric and back again, something that Zeppelin specialized in. You were suspended in tranquility, and then the afterburners kicked in and you felt the jolt and it felt so good.

“Because all I do is for you”

Obviously Peter was singing about somebody, but at this point we had no idea who it was. But in truth, he was singing for us. A small coterie who’d followed him from Humble Pie, who were interested in where he’d go next. And rather than beating us over the head, like Humble Pie did with “Smokin’,” Peter went the opposite way, the road less taken, the one much harder to get people’s attention. At this point every burg had an FM rock station, and free format programming had given way to Lee Abrams’s consolidation. So this was a great period of album rock, you purchased albums that never got airplay, that were personal, that were yours alone.

And “Wind of Change” never became iconic, so I still own it. When it goes through my head, it’s only me. I’ve got no memories of music television performances. It’s a head game, one in which you always emerge victorious. 

And the warm glow of success lasts forever.

Spotify playlist: https://tinyurl.com/3s9r48dc

Tune in Saturday December 9th to Faction Talk, channel 103, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West.

If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app. Search: Lefsetz