Tag Archives: Humble Pie

Song of the Week – Stone Cold Fever, Humble Pie

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Ignored             Obscured              Restored

The English rock band Humble Pie was born out of the ashes of several notable groups — Small Faces (Steve Marriott), The Herd (Peter Frampton), and Spooky Tooth (Greg Ridley) — in 1969.  Yet after years of relentless touring and three albums on Immediate and A&M, the band struggled to live up to its considerable promise.

For their fourth album, Rock On (1971), Humble Pie enlisted legendary producer Glyn Johns. Johns evaluated the situation and decided the band was unfocused and needed direction.  His solution was straightforward and firm.  Steve Marriott would take charge as lead vocalist, while Peter Frampton would concentrate on lead guitar. For the others, the directive was simple — stay in your lane.

That discipline, combined with material the band had already road-tested, resulted in what is arguably Humble Pie’s most cohesive and fully realized studio album.

The standout track on Rock On is “Stone Cold Fever,” credited to the entire band.

Peter Frampton brought in the opening riff — one of those instantly arresting figures that anchors the song from the first bar.  From there, the band shaped the arrangement collectively, including an unexpected jazzy midsection that allows Frampton to stretch out and reveal a more expansive musical vocabulary.  Nineteen-year-old drummer Jerry Shirley holds the performance together with crisp, driving precision, while Steve Marriott delivers a raw, soulful vocal that locks in perfectly with Frampton’s more measured, melodic guitar work.

Marriott reportedly wrote the lyrics in about twenty minutes — and it shows.  There’s little in the way of narrative; instead, the song leans on immediacy and emotional force, using the vocal as another instrument riding the groove rather than telling a story.

“Stone Cold Fever” stands as a testament to what Humble Pie could achieve when its considerable talents were aligned — focused, collaborative, and firing on all cylinders.

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week – Shine On, Humble Pie

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Ignored           Obscured            Restored

In October, Peter Frampton officially retired, wrapping up his “Finale: The Farewell Tour” in nearby Concord, CA.  Sadly, the underrated guitarist was motivated to undertake a final tour because he has been battling a degenerative muscle disease – inclusion-body myositis – that would eventually rob him of his ability to perform.


Most famous for his mega-sales, live double album, Frampton Comes Alive! (1976), Frampton deserves recognition for so much more.

Frampton started to play in bands when he was only 12 years old.  By the time he was 16, he was recording with The Herd.

When Steve Marriott, of The Small Faces, formed Humble Pie in 1969, Frampton was recruited to be in that band’s original line-up.  Frampton joined Humble Pie, in part to escape the teen idol image he was tagged with as the frontman for The Herd.  He stayed with the band until 1971 when the development of his softer, pop songwriting didn’t fit in with Marriott’s more hard-rocking vision.

Today’s SotW, “Shine On,” is a good example of that quandary.

“Shine On” is the lead track from Humble Pie’s fourth album, Rock On (1971).  The heavy guitar combined with a keen pop sensibility of “Shine On” point toward the songs that would make Frampton an international superstar later in the decade with hits like “Show Me the Way” and “Baby, I Love Your Way.”  He delivers a terrific, soulful vocal too.

It was fitting that Frampton chose to close out his career in northern California.  His high watermark, Frampton Comes Alive!, was recorded primarily at San Francisco’s Winterland Ballroom.

Enjoy… until next week.