Frampton Comes Alive

I went out at lunch today to run a few errands.  I usually don't listen to the FM radio, I'll listen to my amateur radio to see if anyone has anything good to say.  This morning, though, I was annoyed with the same old stories from the same old guys, so I turned it off and turned on the FM.

I was tuning around and I stumbled across an old familiar tune.  I knew as soon as I heard the bass line who it was and what the song was.  It was Peter Frampton's "Do you feel like I do?"  I loved this song, and the album "Frampton Comes Alive". 

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In the family room my parents used to have a record player hooked up to a stereo system.  Somewhere between my mom's Kenny Rogers albums and my dad's Beatles and Quiet Riot albums lived "Frampton Comes Alive" – an album that pictures Peter on the cover with his awesome 70's hair and neon glow.  I remember when I was just started to get interested in music, I would dig through the record collection and listen to this album.  I was especially interested in the guitar technique, one which Frampton pioneered, which allowed him to "speak" the chords with a special device that went in his mouth.  He'd play a guitar lick, and manipulate the sound with his mouth – in effect, talking with the guitar. 

It wasn't long until I got my license and my first car – a hand-me-down pickup truck from my dad.  Of course, I had to hook up a stereo, and when I got the CD player plugged in, Frampton, Hendrix, and the Beatles were there to jam. 

I can vividly remember sitting in my truck one weekend while my dad was cutting or bailing hay (which we used to do a lot when I was a teenager) sitting in the late fall sun, listening to Frampton's eerie "Dooouuu youuuuu feeeeeel………..lyke Eii dooooo…" from the guitar.

Who was that kid?  Am I still him?  It seems like a lifetime ago – so long ago that I don't remember what I wanted to do, or what I wanted to be.  I wonder what I'd think of myself if I met me back then.  I know for a fact that the kid in the pickup truck never thought he'd have a wife and twin girls waiting at home every day.  I don't think I even thought I'd live past 20 years old when I was a teenager.  It was unfathomable.  But here I am, and I'm thankful for the little things that spark up old memories - from something as simple as a song.