Peter Frampton‘s latest studio album, an instrumental covers collection cleverly called Frampton Forgets the Words, gets its release today.
The guitar whiz recorded the album in early 2019 with his current touring band.
Among the 10 tracks are vocal-free versions of songs by David Bowie, George Harrison, Lenny Kravitz, Stevie Wonder, Sly and the Family Stone, Roxy Music and Radiohead.
Regarding the album’s tracks, Frampton tells ABC Audio, “Each one…is a tribute to the original artist, so I was nervous about attacking all of them, really, because…I wanted to make sure that it wasn’t just a Muzak copy of these incredible classic recordings.”
Peter notes that some of the tunes he picked to cover held special significance to his life and career.
For example, Frampton says he recorded Bowie’s “Loving the Alien” because when he was part David’s band for his 1987 Glass Spider tour, Bowie gave him the chance to play “an incredibly long solo” at the end of the song at every show on the trek.
Frampton Forgets the Words also features a cover of Harrison’s “Isn’t It a Pity,” a song from George’s classic 1970 album All Things Must Pass. Peter, who played guitar on several tracks on All Things Must Pass, explains that “Isn’t It a Pity” was “the song that I heard the very first day I walked into Abbey Road [Studios to work on the album].”
Another track on the album is a rendition of Kravitz’s 1993 hit “Are You Gonna Go My Way.”
“We all wanted to give that a go because it is hard rocking,” Peter maintains. “[A] lot of the tracks on the record are funky or laid back, and so we wanted to do one real up rocker.”
Here’s the album’s full track list:
“If You Want Me to Stay” (Sly and the Family Stone)
“Reckoner” (Radiohead)
“Dreamland” (Michel Colombier featuring Jaco Pastorius)
“One More Heartache” (Marvin Gaye)
“Avalon” (Roxy Music)
“Isn’t It a Pity” (George Harrison)
“I Don’t Know Why” (Stevie Wonder)
“Are You Gonna Go My Way” (Lenny Kravitz)
“Loving the Alien” (David Bowie)
“Maybe” (Alison Krauss)
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