Me And My Guitar: Legendary Musician/Inventor Les Paul Dies at 94
Today, music has lost one of its great pioneers, Les Paul, who died of complications from pneumonia in a White Plains, N.Y. hospital. A lot of musicians and engineers owe a lot to his genius and creative vision, and what he introduced to guitar playing and the recording process is precious and timeless. He is most famous for conjuring the solid-body electric guitar in the fifties that practically invented rock 'n' roll, but his innovations of the instrument began in the thirties with "the log," which was not much more than a piece of lumber that encompassed the neck, bridge, and area for an electric pick-up, the wood attached to a hollow-body Epiphone. Although Adolph Rickenbacker and Leo Fender also introduced their own electric guitar variations, it was Les Paul who was approached by the Gibson Guitar Corporation on a model the company built basically using the inventor's designs. That model became the legendary Gibson Les Paul and traditionally was manufactured with a "gold top" (front surface), and it was adopted by many rock musicians, including Eric Clapton. His style of playing has been mimicked by everyone, especially his use of trills, riffs, and guitar echo and delays, and he even gave Steve Miller his first guitar lesson.
Les Paul also experimented with the recording process, employing an "overdub" method, meaning recording a part "on top" of another while listening to the original or earlier take. His 1948 Capitol Records single "Lover (When You're Near Me)" with its b-side "Brazil" is the first release employing this technique, and the pair not only featured overdubbing, but they also employed speed variations. Amazingly, the record was made using acetates as this was prior to "reel-to-reel audiotape" recording. That drove him to his next invention, the "multi-track" tape recorder (Ampex having produced the original mono machine) that stacked or layered "channels" of tape to accommodate the capturing of multiple performances. He started the process by putting an extra playback head on the Ampex 200 machine that prompted the company to develop two-track and three-track tape recorders. Years later, Les Paul paid Ampex to create the first eight-track recorder, the new process dubbed "Sel-Sync" or Selective Sychronization.
With his wife Mary Ford, Les Paul recorded a number of hits for Capitol, including the classics "How High The Moon" and "Vaya Con Dios" that featured Les on guitar and Mary harmonizing with herself, almost Andrews Sisters-style, closely-mic'd for a very intimate effect. With his wife and rhythm player Eddie Stapleton, he hosted NBC's The Les Paul Show radio program in 1950 on which he not only played music but also dabbled with introducing electronics such as "The Pulverizer" that "multiplied" any audio played through it. The show evolved into the Listerine-sponsored The Les Paul & Mary Ford Show for television, over which he had total control of both the audio and film elements.
Though things basically ramped down for Les after the fifties, one of that later period's highlights is his teaming-up with his old friend Chet Atkins in the seventies for the Grammy-winning Chester & Lester and also Guitar Monsters albums on RCA Victor. And his "duets"/"tribute" album Les Paul & Friends: American Made World Played earned him two Grammy Awards in 2006. Other career awards have included his 1978 induction into the Grammy Hall of Fame, his 1983 Grammy Trustees award, and in 1988, he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame by Jeff Beck. He also received honors from the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2005 and the National Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2006. With all this acclaim and the legacy he leaves behind, though Lester William Polsfuss is gone, it's a bit impossible for him to ever be forgotten.
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A colossus. His impact on every genre of popular music was immense.
Yeah, you can't get away from all his contributions.
I turned on the TV "news" and guess what, no wall-to-wall coverage of Les' passing. No helicopters over his house, either. I guess that's the way it goes, when you're just a bonna fide music genius. Same deal last week when Billy Lee Riley died. Go figure.
Thank God we left him alone!! The press probably would have distorted the whole thing anyway, and it would have invited strange comparisons and critiquing by all the talking heads. Now Les gets to rest in peace and he matters to those who he really should matter to...folks like you and those who actually care!
I'm a Fender Strat/Tele kind of guy, but damn, when you want to really tear the place down, it is the Les Paul for sure. Rest in Peace, Les.
Nothing matches that sound, what a great guitar...
Saw Les in 1999 when he signed my LP Standard, "To Phil, Play Hard, Les Paul." I've told my children that if they ever sell it after I'm gone, I'm going to come back and haunt them for eternity...lol!
I understand, he, Chet and Mary are opening tonight in the next dimension!
BTW, old standards are not dead! You just have to look hard for them. Here in the A-T-L, we have a great, great jazz show every Saturday night on WABE-FM 90.1. It's called "Jazz Classics," and it's hosted by the inimitable H. Johnson. It streams live on the internet. I suggest all you jazz cats and kittens out there give it a listen!
Nice, on to WABE-FM!
Very cool tribute, man.
Les would be moved. I always like watching some of his interviews in Rock /music documentaries. His inovations and influence are without question absolute.
But his demeanor as a musician is equally as impressive. Many "musicians" should take note of this.
I do play with a Stratocaster, though. I tried a Les Paul but it is very heavy on the shoulder and back. But the sound is amazing. A friend of mine owed a few though. He was sad when he heard the news.
Take care, Les et al! :)
It's a bit heavy, but so is the sound! ;)
I've had a 1954 Goldtop for forty years. We need to say thank you to Les for everything, including multi track recording.
The Angels Band just got a powerful new member.
You can bet he's in Rock 'n' Roll Heaven...
Since I began playing I have always had some model of Les Paul. The Black Beauty, the Deluxe, a really cool old 1960 Les Paul Special (double cutaway - my absolute favorite)
Les Paul was one of those modest, self-effacing people who somehow, without much initial fanfare or notoriety, quietly went about changing the world. He changed the sound of rock and roll forever and without him the sound of the Beatles, the Stones, Zeppelin, Jeff Beck and others would never have been what it is and was.
The solid body electric guitar AND multi track recording - among other things - can all be attributed to this man. Nice work Lester - well done you!
And from soooo many of us - a very sincere thank you.
P.S. - Jeff Beck ROCKS!!
That Les Paul Special is what all the guitar players I knew growing up saved up for. Nice axe. Jeff Beck does sure does rock.
I bought a used 20 Anniversary Les Paul Custom in College in the late 80's. A few yeras ago, my wife went on a trip to New York - and brought my guitar to the Iridium Club - where Les Paul still played every week at age 90+. He signed my guitar "To Jack, Keep Pickin', Les Paul". It's is one of my most prized posessions.
Les, your contribuution to our planet will live on in your music and your inventions.
We'll miss you.
Keep Pickin',
Jack
His Iridium Club performances were always special, it was unbelievable he kept playing for that long...
If you work the Ax, and want to be truly humbled, watch some cuts from "Chester & Lester" with
Les Paul and Chet Atkins joking and yucking it up while absolutely SHREDDING the guitars in such an effortless way it puts ALL other guitarists to shame. No feedback or electronic tricks, just a couple of Jedi-Guitar masters having a ball.
Absolutely awesome stuff.
Both were monsters on the guitar, but Les was my hero and always will be.
An unassuming man who let his TALENT speak for him, and he never lost the love of playing in front of a small, appreciative crowd.
He will be missed.
Chester & Lester and Guitar Monsters are terrific albums, and what a good time they had on those records! I think there's a CD reissue with both combined still in existence.
I remember reading an article years ago about Les Paul's opinion of Jimi Hendrix's guitar style. Paul was completely fascinated by Hendrix's use of sound distortion and mentioned that he had no idea anybody could achieve that effect on an electric guitar.
Over the years, Les Paul had the admiration of professional guitar players around the world. He will be missed.
RIP, Paul. It's good to know that you and Mary are together again. (I do hope there is a Rock 'N' Roll heaven!)
That Hendrix story is great, his loving the innovative nature of Hendrix's playing...
The world mourns the passing of a legend. His innovations changed music, and helped music change the world.
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Nice Molly. It really did, he made records and guitars that much sweeter....
I remember when I got my ebony Les Paul custom in 1974. I never could play it as well as it deserved to be played, but I could sure play better on it than any other ax I picked up. I later picked up a sunburst deluxe which I still have.
Someone mentioned they're a bit heavy, and they are, but nuttin' sounds like a Les Paul.
Thanks for the guitars and all the memories, Les.
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Yeah they are kind of heavy, but they sound so sweeet. No pain, no gain! ;)
http://www.debbieschlussel.com/6837/les-paul-great-american-inventormusician-rest-in-peace/#comments
Les Paul was always like Macs in the 'hood...WE are stuck with Microshiite,,,but WE always WANTED the LPs---hence all bluesmen play Fenders.
But Sir Les WILL be missed...[alas WE don't KNIGHT our innovators]
Kind of an odd post. The Gibson Les Paul is a great guitar, but the Fender Stratocaster isn't exactly junk, you know.
(I mean respect for the newly gone and all, but geez)
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Actually, a medal from congress would be kind of nice! They did it for Harry Chapin for his crusade against world hunger. It's a bit different here, but they should do something special for cats like Les...
Listening (and watching) Les Paul play is almost enough to make me want to trade in my Telecaster for a Les Paul Special - as though that would make me a better player (NOT!). Almost....but not quite.... ;-)
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Teles are nice too, don't go hockin' it quite yet....maybe just save up for a gold top...
Les Paul was the man. His recordings with Mary Ford are timeless. For all you people who think music started when you were in high school, there were masters like Paul who paved the way. I love rock, but I can also appreciate musicians from before i was even born. Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey , Harry James and many more all recorded in the thirties and forties and made great music.
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Yeah, it's a shame how that golden era's music is just fading away into the sunset. On the other hand, Les' contributions will be around for quite some time.
Sirius has a forties channel. It makes a nice change sometimes late at night.
It's actually kind of depressing how good they were. You have your personal rock god in your mind, and then you see this unassuming guy in a suit who looks like your dad, just blowin' your rock god away.
Yeah, it can be kinda depressing, but that's no excuse for not listening to the great Les Paul and his contemporaries. 'Cause you know what? All your favorite rock gods sure listen to him. Just ask Slash.
Speaking of the thirties and forties, let's not forget Charlie Christian who played rhythm guitar for many of the big bands.
Or, for that matter, the AMAZING Django!!!
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