Interview with Richard E. Aaron - "Frampton Comes Alive", a photograph taken in 1974 and used on the cover of his 1976 double-live LP
Subject - "Frampton Comes Alive", a photograph taken in 1974 by Richard E. Aaron, used on the cover of Peter Frampton's 1976 2-record set titled Frampton Comes Alive, released on A&M Records.
Originally published on April 20, 2007 by Mike Goldstein
Holding the record as the biggest-selling live double album of all time for nearly 30 years (such a big-seller that, in the movie Wayne's World 2, Mike Myers' character Wayne states that "everybody in the world has Frampton Comes Alive. If you lived in the suburbs, you were issued it free along with samples of Tide."), 1976's Frampton Comes Alive is the record that made guitarist/singer Peter Frampton (who'd made a name for himself as a "teen idol" in the UK with his band The Herd and then again with his guitar chops both in the studio and with the band Humble Pie), a household name. His band's powerful live performances, as well as his use of the "Talk Box" effects device, made hit singles of songs such as "Show Me The Way" and "Do You Feel Like We Do". The record was a compilation of a number of performances recorded in 1975, including shows in California at the Winterland Ballroom and the Marin County Civic Center, as well as two New York area performances. There was so much material available that A&M decided to make it a 2-record set, doubling the studio workload of the band and master engineer/remixer Chis Kimsey (see photos, below). Once it was decided that this would be a double album, A&M's art department needed to create an eye-catching package, and so our story begins...
In Richard's words - "One day Peter Frampton, whom I had photographed many times by the early 70's, called and asked if he could take my photo portfolio of him to A&M headquarters in Los Angeles as the senior art director there was looking for a photograph for Peter's next record, a live concert album. Of course I agreed but thought nothing more of it. Although I was already in demand as a photo-journalist, I had pretty much given up on ever having an album cover credit; art directors, it seemed, preferred studio shots.
A few weeks later, I got a message on my answering service that Peter had called and that it was "very important" that I return his call in L. A. By this time, his career was beginning to take off, and the answering service operator was impressed that he had called -- "Do you really know Frampton?"
The message came in at 9:30 a.m., which made it only 6:30 a.m. in Los Angeles. I reached Peter immediately, and he said, "Richard are you standing or sitting?" " Why?" I asked. "Well you should sit. You not only got the cover of my LP but you also got three out of four of the shots inside the double album. " (Editor's note - Richard's photographs of Frampton, guitarist and keyboard player Bob Mayo and bassist Stanley Sheldon were used on the inside of the gatefold). I was in shock. Finally, after three years, I got my first album cover, and it was from a musician who's music I actually liked and who was also a friend. He knew that it was my first album cover and he congratulated me.
A few months later at a party for Peter in New York, he showed me a mock-up of the cover -- a gatefold with a performing shot of Peter that extended over both outer sleeves. This was the first time I had seen the photo A&M had picked (Ed. Note #2 - interestingly, the shot used was taken at an earlier concert at Madison Square Garden in NYC and is not from one of the shows featured on the recording). The art department had put an extra diffusion filter over the photo to give the hypnotic effect to the viewer, a dreamy effect. The two background stage lights to the side of Peter's head had been re-positioned to make it more symmetrical, and also some coloring added in selected areas on the print. At the time, the only thing that really bothered me was that the focus wasn't sharp; I was trained to believe that every photo had to be technically perfect -- no exceptions. What would my professors at New York School of Visual Arts and the Brooks Institute say when they saw it?
Through the years, colleagues would good-naturedly kid me about the focus. At first, I would say that I had purposely used a diffusion filter. Then, about 10 years later on a radio interview, I came clean -- I told everybody it was out of focus. The album went on to become the biggest selling live LP in history, which just goes to show you: teachers, and critics, aren't always right".
BONUS PHOTO MATERIALS - For this story, Richard went into his archives and provided us with 2 additional never-released photos he took to document the making of this classic recording. Both images were taken at Electric Lady studios in New York City in late 1975 during the mixing sessions for the "Frampton Comes Alive" record.
The first photo shows the three lads in deep concentration - they'd just been notified that this record was going to be a double LP and now they had twice the work to do!
The second photo of Peter in concert was taken in October 2007 - the man still rocks with the best of them!
BONUS EDITORIAL - Here's an excerpt from my April 2016 interview with designer Stan Evenson that provides even more of the back story – In 1974 at the age of 23, and after graduating from Art Center College of Design (ACCD) being trained in advertising and design, I was fortunate enough to land right in the middle of the heyday of the 70's music business looking for a job as a designer. Initially I was hired by the renowned album cover photographer, Norman Seeff, who already had an extensive music celebrity roster by the time I showed up. Not too much later, my former ACCD professor, A&M Records Creative Director, and mentor, Roland Young, hired me to work under his direction in the Creative Services division at A&M. A&M Records was pure, unadulterated Hollywood, located on the former Charlie Chaplin Studio lot near the corner of La Brea and Sunset Blvd. While there, I had the opportunity to work on Cat Steven’s IZITSO advertising and marketing campaign - which included a billboard on Sunset Blvd with an oversized working yoyo that went slowly up and down - to working directly with George Harrison on a few of his Dark Horse Records campaigns. Eventually, I found myself creating the album packaging for Frampton Comes Alive!, a live double album package that went to #1 on Billboard Magazine charts fairly quickly and became one of the largest selling albums of all time, selling over 11 million worldwide and voted “album of the year” by Rolling Stone Magazine in 1976.
I actually remember the late Gil Friesen - then the Executive Vice President when I was there and who, ultimately, became the President of A&M several years later - coming into Creative Services one day just a few weeks before Frampton Comes Alive! had exploded off of the charts and delivering a hand written note in ALL CAPS that read…"I DON'T WANT TO SEE ANY MORE 4-COLOR ADS…ONLY B&W OR 2-COLOR!" - instructions which demanded our immediate attention. Obviously, full color ads were much more expensive in the trade publications than one or two-color ads and Gil was exercising his authority and concern for budgets and wanted us to tighten our belts. Just a few days later, Gil delivered another hand written note in all caps, "I ONLY WANT TO SEE 4-COLOR ADS BEING PRODUCED FROM NOW ON!". This obviously meant A&M was suddenly rolling in the dough due to Frampton’s huge hit. A&M even built a three-story office building for their music publishing arm next door to their historical lot because of this new-found success. I was a very lucky young designer, at the right place and time, who was asked to design the packaging for this kick ass two-record set.
On a side note, I saw Peter Frampton at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles, doing his "Frampton's Guitar Circus" show, a couple of years ago. I went back stage to reintroduce myself and he hugged me as if he remembered me 38 years before. It was a fun, though, seeing him very bald but still having his act together after all those younger days during which he sported his famous long golden locks. Peter and I are close to the same age, him being 65 and I'm turning 65 in August this year. It was quite a trip for me at the age of 24 helping Roland, Jeff Ayeroff, along with Dee Anthony and Peter finally decide on the cover photo that is such an iconic image for that time.
Richard E. Aaron biography -
In a career that spanned over three decades, Richard E. Aaron shot still photography for a wide variety of media, ranging from feature films, television and video to corporate public relations, entertainment publicity and album covers.
Perhaps best known for his music photography, he was honored by Modern Photography Magazine as one of the "10 Best Rock Photographers" in the world, he has more than 50 album covers to his credit including FRAMPTON COMES ALIVE which was, until being passed by Garth Brooks' mega-selling Double Live LP, the biggest-selling double live LP ever released. He shot the first photographic rock 'n' roll cover of Time magazine - Paul McCartney/Wings Over America. All told, his work has appeared in more than 6,000 magazines, newspapers and books worldwide.
His extensive work in music photography (4,000 groups photographed) led to his first tour assignment, "Fleetwood: The Visitor in Africa" (RCA Records), a tour shot on location in Ghana West Africa. Similar projects for many top rock & roll groups around the world followed. He traveled through the People's Republic of China for several months in 1986, where he documented the first Western rock group to record an album and tour.
Later on in his career, Richard worked with a variety of feature films, unit still and gallery photographer and as director cameraman producing videos on “Behind The Scenes/The Making Of” for feature film companies. He also continued to shoot for clients in the music business, contributing to music videos, CD jackets and other publicity.
A native of New York, Mr. Aaron and his photo agency had been located in Los Angeles since 1980. He was a graduate of the School of Visual Arts (NYC) and of Brooks Institute of Photography (Santa Barbara, California). You can learn more about Richard’s portfolio of work at his website – www.rockpix.com
Sadly, Richard passed away in December, 2016 at the age of 67.
All photographs Copyright 2007 Richard E. Aaron - www.rockpix.com - All Rights Reserved and used by permission to illustrate this story. All text Copyright 2007 & 2016 Michael Goldstein/AlbumCoverHallofFame.com - All Rights Reserved.
Comments