Les Paul

[Big Erik]

RIP to the originator of the modern electric guitar.........LES PAUL........he was 94........ERIK

[colecoonce]

He also invented multi-track recording, modifying a tape machine Bing Crosby gave him.

The ultimate modern renaissance man.

CC

[pro70z28]

Just saw that on the news. R.I.P.

[WCB]

Thanks Les Paul
You were amazing
God Bless You

[draglist]

RIP, Les. Looking forward to John's comments on this. bp

[WildcatOne]

Les Paul was the genius of modern musical technology. He was also the biggest musical influence on so many of the greatest rock n' roll players in history. Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Frank Zappa, the often overlooked Cliff Gallup, whose blazing style of playing with Gene Vincent in the 1950s went down on record as the best rock guitar ever played and mirrored Les Paul's style in a rock context, as well as countless imitators and students of his technique. The word "technique" is significant here because he was rejected from music lessons when he was a young boy, his music teacher sending him home with a note to his parents saying he would never amount to anything as a musician and they were wasting their money trying to make him learn how to play violin. This was from his autobiography. Les Paul was completely SELF-TAUGHT and SELF-MADE. His style was original, compelling, immensely creative and flat-out lightning quick. He thanked the music teacher in his autobiography...he said it was his first big break...He became a beacon, a lighthouse in a complacent environment, never content to cruise on a plateau. He came up with more gizmos, gadgets and thingamajiggies than you could fit in a Walter Drake catalog, as well as inventing and using studio technologies that laid the foundation for the creative sounds of the modern recording era. From Lee Hazlewood, his pupil Phil Spector, George Martin, Peter Asher, Joe Meek, Brian Wilson, Todd Rundgren, Jeff Lynne, to Berry Gordy, Smokey Robinson, Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton (Stax Records), even Johnny Winter...all won awards using stuff that Les Paul created. Over the years during my career in music, I have picked up on Les Paul stories. Not all of them were printed, it's stuff I heard through the grapevine...there is a "grapevine" in the music world and it isn't on the internet or the telephone. "Word gets around". As a musician, Les Paul was one of the guys. He would rather hang out with musicians at gigs than attend honors banquets unless he was playing at them. His personal life was pretty much patterned along the lines of a working musician, with all of the highs and lows associated with the stereotypical musician's struggles. His house looked like a bomb exploded in it, completely jam-packed with stuff that he made or was working on. In the late 1940s, he was on his way to a gig in a blinding snowstorm at night...one of those deals where he had to be in two places at once...his speeding car hit an ice patch ahead of a bridge, he lost control of the car, crashed into a bridge support, careened down the embankment and went into the freezing river below the bridge. It was hours before he was found (no cell phones back then) and he was in critical condition, almost dead from being in freezing water for a number of hours and smashed-up with a crushed right arm and shoulder, and facial injuries. When they got him to the hospital, the doctors said they were going to have to either amputate his right arm or set it permanently in one position. It was crushed; powdered...he said look. I've had some time to think about this. Make an L-shaped steel rod. Cut my arm open and put in there where the bones used to be. clean it out, then sew it back up and put my arm and shoulder in a cast and leave it at that. If I die, OK, but I'm not giving that arm up so I can live. They did what he asked, and for the rest of his life, his right arm was frozen in guitar-playing position. Folks, there will never be another Les Paul. He is now eternal, immortal; he belongs to the ages. We were lucky to have him with us. WC1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Paul

[draglist]

Thanks, John. I learned more about Les Paul than I ever knew and I appreciate him all the more now. bp

[colecoonce]

Taken in 2003, during his residence at the Iridium in Manhattan.

[WildcatOne]

Great photo, CC. Thanks for posting it. I regret never having had the privilege of seeing Les Paul play live. In Cole's picture, Les Paul is playing a Gibson Les Paul Recording guitar that he rewired and hot-rodded to suit his taste. The Les Paul Recording is no longer in production, and it was somewhat confusing to a lot of guys with all its bells and whistles, but it took not only an advanced player but an advanced knowledge of sound reproduction and quality as well as an exact slant to perfectionism to properly function on that particular instrument. It was a truly hi-tech guitar, designed and produced from 1969 till the late 70s...in many ways comparable to the Mini-Moog keyboard synthesizer, but still electronically contoured to accurately dial up precisely the sound you were after on the instrument. Nowadays you can get guitar synths that'll sound like anything you want 'em to. This was Les Paul's contribution to that evolutionary trend; the missing link between old-school and hi-tech. The basic Gibson Les Paul guitar, as we all know, stands at the top of all electric guitars, tied with the Fender Stratocaster as the best you can get. I have both. Each one is useful to certain applications but over the years I personally relied mainly on the '69 Les Paul that my sister gave me when her husband and my best friend Andy Quinn died in 1992. It's been a real trouper. In my own world, doing my own thing on guitar for a while, I got to where I would challenge myself and see if I could play an entire night without ever once looking at my hands while I was onstage with either guitar and not screw up. The Les Paul won. I pretty much relied on that guitar until not long after I joined Pee Wee's band, it was then that I went and bought a new USA Fender Telecaster. But the playability, ease of operation and overall great vibe of the "Fretless Wonder", the Les Paul guitar, pretty much kept me on it for a number of years. That guitar in that picture is now invaluable, but here's a link to the LPR page. Rest in peace, Les Paul.
WC1
http://www.ntw.net/~w0ui/family_webpage ... ording.htm

[RH]

The man was a genius innovator and inventor and could flat smoke the fret board when he played.
String bender extrordinaire.
RIP Les Paul.

Ron