How many songs have been written at the dawn of a new relationship when everything is exciting and new? Peter Frampton had just begun seeing a woman. She lived in New York with her husband, an old friend of Frampton’s. To make things more complicated, Frampton was still married himself. The new relationship would fuel some of the singer’s biggest hits. “Baby I Love Your Way” and “I’m in You” were inspired by her, as well as “Show Me the Way.” Let’s look at the meaning behind the lead single from one of the best-selling live albums of all time.
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I wonder how you’re feeling
There’s ringing in my ears
And no one to relate to ‘cept the sea
Who can I believe in?
I’m kneeling on the floor
There has to be a force
Who do I phone?
The stars are out and shining
But all I really wanna know
Oh, won’t you show me the way, yeah
I want you to show me the way
Swimming in a Circle
After success with bands like The Herd and Humble Pie, Frampton went solo in 1972. The continuous loop of releasing an album, touring to promote it, and then going straight into the studio to start all over again inhibited Frampton from writing songs. He realized he needed to sequester himself away and concentrate on new songs for his next album. He borrowed guitarist Steve Marriott’s cottage on the beach in the Bahamas and set aside three weeks for writing. As he arrived at the airport, Frampton ran into Alvin Lee from Ten Years After and his wife, Suzanne. The following two weeks were a blur.
Frampton remembers in his 2021 memoir Do You Feel Like I Do, “None of us remember a thing. We had started having a great old time, and I’m thinking, ‘Oh, dear, I’m not getting any work done.’ Then they left, and I’ve got nothing I like. Now, I only had eight days left to write the whole album.”
Well, I can see no reason
You’re living on your nerves
When someone drops a cup, and I submerge
I’m swimming in a circle
I feel I’m going down
There has to be a fool to play my part
Someone thought of healing
And all I really wanna know
Oh, won’t you show me the way, yeah
I want you to show me the way
I want you day after day
A New Love
Frampton had recently started seeing a woman named Penny McCall and was smitten with her.
One morning he woke up realizing he needed to get to work. “So, after some Corn Flakes or Raisin Bran, within about 20 minutes, I had written the chords and melody to ‘Show Me the Way?’ It just happened,” Frampton said. “I thought, “Oh, this is better than all the other crap I’ve been writing; this is good. I like this.” The chords came first, and then the lyrics were, ‘I want you (Penny) to show me the way.’ I wanted to know how she was feeling because I couldn’t call. She was probably with her husband, and it wasn’t easy to communicate in those days on the phone from the Bahamas to New York. So I wrote the first verse and the chorus lyrics and put it down on my boom box. I made sure I had a good enough version on the cassette so I could come back to it later and finish it.”
The song became the lead single from his 1975 album Frampton, which also contained the song “Baby, I Love Your Way,” also written about McCall on the same day. As Bob Dylan says, sometimes you’re in input, and sometimes you’re in output. Frampton had seven songs by the time he left Nassau. “Show Me the Way” was a beautiful love song written to a woman he couldn’t get in touch with.
Well, I wonder if I’m dreaming
I feel so unashamed
I can’t believe this is happening to me
I watch you when you’re sleeping
And then I want to take your love
Oh, won’t you show me the way, yeah
I want you to show me the way
I want you day after day
The Song Initially Failed to Chart
Frampton’s manager Dee Anthony encouraged the singer to record a live album, “Let’s just do a single live album. Don’t do a double one, OK? That’ll be better for Jerry [Moss, Co-founder of A&M Records]. I think he’d prefer that,” Frampton remembered. “So we mixed enough for one disc, none of the acoustic numbers, no ‘Show Me the Way.’ I don’t even think ‘Baby, I Love Your Way’ was on there because we didn’t like the versions of those two.”
Moss came to the studio to hear the project, “The comfy couch was a step down in front of the console, so we couldn’t see him while we played the tape,” Frampton continued. “We played him both sides of the album, and I’ll never forget as, all of a sudden, his head just came up over the console, and he said, ‘Where’s the rest?’ And I said, ‘You like it?’ He said, ‘I love it! But where’s ‘Show Me the Way?’ Where’s ‘Wind of Change’ and ‘Baby, I Love Your Way?’ I told him I didn’t like the versions we had of those. The rest of the songs were ones we’d been doing for a while, but the songs from the Frampton album hadn’t found their live legs yet. And he said, ‘Well, go and do some more recording, but I would like a double album!’ So we did half a dozen more shows and got a great version of ‘Show Me the Way’ in Commack, Long Island, where Eddie Kramer engineered for us.”
Frampton Comes Alive featured “Show Me the Way” as the lead single. This time, it reached the top 10 and his solo career was elevated to a whole new level.
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Photo by Fin Costello/Redferns
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