The origins of Peter Frampton”s ‘Breaking All The Rules’ can be traced back to ‘Rise Up’, a South American-only 1980 release promoting his tour there that contained most of the songs that made it to this 1981 album.
Written by: Dave T
ARTIST: Peter Frampton
ALBUM: Breaking All The Rules
LABEL: A&M
SERIAL: T-3722, S-114567
YEAR: 1981
CD REISSUE: Discogs Reissue List
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: England, USA
LINEUP: Peter Frampton – vocals, guitars * Steve Lukather- guitars * John Reagan – bass * Arthur Stead – keyboards * Jeff Porcaro – drums
TRACK LISTING: 01 Dig What I Say * 02 Don’t Wanna Let You Go * 03 Rise Up * 04 Wasting The Night Away * 05 Going To L.A * 06 You Kill Me * 07 Friday On My Mind * 08 Lost A Part Of You * 09 Breakin All The Rules
RATING: 90/100
Background
The origins of ‘Breaking All The Rules’ can be traced back to ‘Rise Up’, a South American-only 1980 release promoting Peter Frampton’s tour there that contained most of the songs that made it to this 1981 album – albeit in almost demo versions, plus a couple of live tracks.
Hard times for Frampton as he had just lost his management and, by the end of the tour, the cargo plane with all his guitars crashed on takeoff in Venezuela killing three people.
Lost was his trademark black Les Paul (the one he played in ‘Performance: Rockin’ The Fillmore’ and is also pictured on the cover of ‘Frampton Comes Alive’), only to be recovered in 2012.
The Songs
The production is raw; the album was recorded almost completely live according to Frampton himself. And it rocks as maybe no other Frampton record does.
Frampton’s jazzy muscular guitar fills can be found in abundance. Steve Lukather and Jeff Porcaro’s involvements are remarkable; the latter pushing John Reagan’s bass playing to new heights.
Just listen to the disco/funky basslines in ‘I Don’t Wanna Let You Go’. Guitar synthesizers are prominent; the album is ahead of its time in this regard.
The highlights for me are ‘Rise Up’ (an Alessi Bros cover originally recorded for their ‘Long Time Friends’ album) that should have been a huge hit but never was besides South America, featuring fantastic Frampton singing and three brilliant guitar solos.
‘Breaking All The Rules’, a true hard rocker with an unforgettable guitar riff that at 7 minutes plus is one of Frampton’s longer studio tracks with not a second of waste.
It’s worth mentioning that Procol Harum‘s lyricist Keith Reid co-wrote the title track.
There’s plenty of rockers to enjoy as well such as the opening track ‘Dig What I Say’ and its heavy use of guitar synths, ‘You Kill Me’ with Frampton’s top notch vocals and The Easybeats cover ‘Friday On My Mind’, previously covered by David Bowie in the 1970’s.
In Summary
The album failed to produce any chart action and right after 1982’s ‘The Art Of Control’, Peter was no longer involved with A&M and vanished for about four years.
‘Breaking All The Rules’ is my favorite Frampton studio release. As bitter as this period would have been for him, Peter managed to provide a strong album that indeed rocks with hooks, variety, great singing and inspired guitar playing.
Peter Frampton on Video
Click to go to YTM album page.
Actually, Frampton’s version of ‘Rise Up’ (the song) predated Alessi Brothers’ as the latter’s Long Time Friends album was released in 1982.
Frampton released two studio versions of the song before Alessi’s. The first one was the title track to the aforementioned South American-only 1980 release, a different studio take from the one included on Breaking… featuring Anton Fig on drums.
Here’s an actual picture of Rise Up’s Argentine release, the album’s title translated to Spanish as ‘Levántate’.