Do You Feel Like We Do
"Do You Feel Like We Do" is a song by Peter Frampton originally appearing on the Frampton's Camel album that he released in 1973. The song became one of the highlights of his live performances in the following years, and it became one of the three hit singles released from his Frampton Comes Alive! album, released in 1976. The live version was recorded at the State University of New York Plattsburgh's Memorial Hall.[1][2] This live version is featured in Guitar Hero 5 and as downloadable content for Rock Band 3. The studio version of the song is available as downloadable content for Rocksmith 2014.
| "Do You Feel Like We Do" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Song by Peter Frampton | ||||
| from the album Frampton's Camel and Frampton Comes Alive! | ||||
| Released | September 1976 | |||
| Recorded | 20 October 1973 (original studio version) | |||
| Genre | Rock | |||
| Length | 6:44 | |||
| Label | A&M | |||
| Songwriter(s) |
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| Producer(s) | Peter Frampton | |||
| Peter Frampton singles chronology | ||||
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Writing and recording
The song was written and composed in the early 1970s with members of Frampton's band, then called "Frampton's Camel." It was released on the 1973 Frampton's Camel album. This version was shorter than the duration of the live version (approximately 14 minutes), with the studio recording totaling 6 minutes and 44 seconds, and it was not released as a single. The closing notes of the studio version features a guitar riff that has a strong resemblance to The Beatles's "Baby's in Black".
After the lack of success of his "Camel," Frampton performed under his own name and began touring the United States extensively for the next two years, supporting acts such as The J. Geils Band and ZZ Top, as well as performing his own shows at smaller venues. As a result, he developed a strong live following while his albums sold moderately and his singles failed to chart.
"Do You Feel Like We Do" became the closing number of his set and one of the highlights of his show. His concert version was considerably longer, with the version recorded on Frampton Comes Alive! alone exceeding 14 minutes, 4 of which are spent in the rock intro, 4 in the loud rock subito fortissimo outro, and 6 in the long, quiet bridge, featuring several instrumental solos utilizing Bob Mayo's keyboard and Frampton's guitar and talk box skills. Most famously of these were the aforementioned talk box solos, which were performed using an effects pedal that redirects a guitar's sound through a tube coming from the performer's mouth, allowing the guitar to mimic human speech, similarly to a vocoder. Inspiration for the talk box came from Frampton listening to the call letters of Radio Luxembourg. Following the success of the talk box solos, Frampton subsequently marketed such talk boxes under his own "Framptone" brand. To this day, Frampton is considered an exemplary talk box performer, with his solos arguably being the selling point of some of his albums and songs.
As a result of the strength of Frampton's live show, A&M Records decided to release a live album taped when Frampton performed at Winterland in San Francisco. Frampton Comes Alive! was originally going to be a single album until Jerry Moss asked, "Where's the rest?" "Do You Feel Like We Do" was one of the tracks added to the album as a result of the decision to expand the album into a double album. The selection had been recorded live on November 22, 1975 on the college campus of SUNY Plattsburgh in Plattsburgh, New York.
Release as a single
"Do You Feel Like We Do" was released as the third single from Frampton Comes Alive! in September 1976. On September 8, U.S. President Gerald Ford invited him to stay at the White House as a result of the success of Frampton Comes Alive! It was edited down extensively for the 45 RPM single and promo single for pop radio stations, but this version was still seven minutes long. Many radio stations were known to edit the song down even further, to make it fit into the then-tightly-programmed AM radio formats. It reached number 10 on the US pop charts and number 39 in the UK, making it one of the longest songs to reach the US top 10.
Many album-oriented rock stations played the full 14-minute version, most notably WBCN in Boston, Massachusetts (now WWBX). WBCN is credited with being the first album rock station to play the full length of the album on air.
Other performances
Frampton continues to play this song live to close his concerts, and he played the song in his solo spot while playing with Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band in 1997 and 1998 with a piano solo of Gary Brooker bass solo of Jack Bruce and the version length was about 19 minutes. The Simpsons episode "Homerpalooza" featured the song with the London Symphony Orchestra supporting Frampton.
Frampton appeared in a 2009 Geico commercial (part of their series coupling an actual Geico customer with a celebrity), playing talk box guitar commentary with a woman describing her auto accident and Geico's help in getting a settlement. Frampton closed the commercial with an improv riff from the song.
Frampton plays the opening notes of the song for a 2012 TV commercial for the 2012 Buick Verano.
Title
The title of the song is "Do You Feel Like We Do," although the lyrics read, "Do you feel like I do?" Only after Bob Mayo's keyboard solo in the Frampton Comes Alive! version does Frampton sing, "Do you feel like we do?" He then sings "Do you feel like we do?" through the talk box in the midst of his extended guitar solo.
Chart history
Covers
This song was covered by Tesla, whose version can be found on Disk Two of their 2007 album Real to Reel, and by Night Ranger, whose version can be found on their album Feeding off the Mojo, where it is coupled with their cover of the Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Knows."
Local H recorded a very faithful cover of the Frampton Comes Alive! version of the song, complete with lengthy talk box solo and fake crowd noise. It can be found on the "Eddie Vedder" CD single.
On the Strong Bad Main Page of the Homestar Runner website (accessible through the game Homestar Talker), this song is referenced when the viewer scrolls over the Characters button. A clip from the song plays, and Strong Bad says, "Oh, check it out, this guy's guitar is totally talking!"
A cover by Warren Haynes is included on the iTunes deluxe edition of Frampton Comes Alive!
References
- Crowe, Cameron (1976). "Do You Feel Like We Do". In Frampton Comes Alive! [CD liner notes]. Santa Monica: A&M Records.
- "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-23. Retrieved 2010-05-26.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
- "Item Display - RPM - Library and Archives Canada". Collectionscanada.gc.ca. 1976-12-04. Retrieved 2017-04-04.
- "NZ Top 40 Singles Chart | The Official New Zealand Music Chart". Nztop40.co.nz. 1977-03-13. Retrieved 2017-07-31.
- Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955-1990 - ISBN 0-89820-089-X
- "Cash Box Top 100 Singles, November 20, 1976". Archived from the original on October 20, 2018. Retrieved July 31, 2017.
- "Top Singles – Volume 26, No. 14 & 15, January 08 1977". RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Archived from the original on March 19, 2016. Retrieved July 31, 2017.
- "Cash Box Year-End Charts: Top 100 Pop Singles, December 25, 1976". Archived from the original on October 20, 2018. Retrieved July 31, 2017.
- "Peter Frampton" article in Contemporary Musicians, Volume 3. Gale Research, 1990. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale. 2005.
- ^ Moss, Jerry. cited in Classic Bands article on Peter Frampton
- ^ Crowe, Cameron (1976). "Do You Feel Like We Do" In Frampton Comes Alive! [CD liner notes]. Santa Monica: A&M Records.
- ^ Peter Frampton in "Homerpalooza" (episode of The Simpsons, originally aired May 19, 1996)
- ^ The live version of the song was used in 2009's Guitar Hero 5.