R.I.P. Les Paul

[Jonathan Bogart]

What can you say about a man who a) invented the solid-body electric guitar, b) invented multi-track recording, and c) when his hand was crushed in an accident, made the doctors set it in a permanent claw shape so he could keep playing the guitar?

(Actually, I'll be trying to say something within the next day or so on my blog. The timing is kind of freaky.)

Anyway, even apart from his famous guitar, what he did with his studio experiments made possible everything good in the pop of the last 50 years. We should all be so lucky as to live to 94.

[Slam_Bradley]

He was also a damn fine performer. I loved his stuff with Mary Ford.

R.I.P.

[Ziggy Stardust]

A true legend has left this world. :frown:

[Adam C]

What can you say about a man who a) invented the solid-body electric guitar, b) invented multi-track recording, and c) when his hand was crushed in an accident, made the doctors set it in a permanent claw shape so he could keep playing the guitar?

I did not know that he had his hand set in a claw shape so he could keep playing guitar. That's pretty hardcore, like Johnny Cash refusing surgery to fix his jaw after a dentist broke so he could keep singing (while refusing pain killers because of his experiences with addiction in the 80s). Or Django hardcore.

You could also say he was pretty damn innovative and strange guitar player. I listened to only a smattering of his 50s recordings with Mary Ford and the stuff he does is pretty damn weird and forward thinking. And if it didn't influence Hendrix, both Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck have certainly cited him as an influence. (Possibly even more rock guitarists considering the guest list on his last albums. I know Chet Atkins was a follower, but I don't know if that applies to other country guitarists and I'm ignorant in regards to his following in jazz...though Bill Frisell's playing does remind me a lot of him.)

Though at the risk of sounding disrespectful, does "The Log" (http://invention.smithsonian.org/centerpieces/electricguitar/pop-ups/02-07.htm) count as the first solid-body, or am I just being characteristically persnickety?

(FYI; I do play an ES copy, which wouldn't exist without his innovations though.)

[wrecksracer]

While I'm a Telecaster man myself, we all must bow down to Les Paul. Popular music wouldn't be the same without him. Having his arm set so he could continue playing guitar is as rock and roll as it gets. I have a collection of Les Paul 78s (from a Thrift Store) that focuses on Island music....it's like all instrumental pre-surf guitar. Years before Dick Dale. I think I'll be listening to them tonite.

[vcassel]

the most playable guitar i've ever owned was a gibson les paul melody maker. light as a feather and those p90 pickups gave the most punk growl i've ever heard. r.i.p.

[howyadoin]

The man shook the world. Nuff said.

[Spike-X]

RIP, Mr Paul. Love your work.

[Adam C]

While I normally despise the National Post as a paper, when they write about arts they're actually pretty good. One columnist who I have been unable to stand in the past actually produced a good piece detailing the importance of his technical innovations.

http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2009/08/13/colby-cosh-the-man-who-changed-the-guitar-and-us.aspx

Two men, Les Paul and Bob Moog, stand above all others as creators of the musical environment in which our brains are all now marinated. Moog, who died in 2005, stepped into the nascent field of digital music and devised an interface that took pure sound synthesis across the bridge from engineers to practicing musicians. Paul, who died of pneumonia yesterday at the age of 94, is less recognized as a digital innovator. But maybe he should be. Underlying many of his incredible inventions was an abstract notion that demanded, almost as an afterthought, radical changes to the hardware of music creation: the idea of sound as pure information.

The man born as Lester Polfuss is remembered, above all else, for creating the solid-body electric guitar. (Like most well-known inventors, he was more of a Columbus; his ideas had already been tried by more obscure figures, but he was -- arguably, and there definitely is an argument -- the one who permanently opened the floodgates to followers and imitators.) And why did he do it? Because he wanted a better, simpler, more direct, more efficient way of transferring the sounds inside his head to the amplifier.

Granted I would dispute the purpose of the line "the guitar, in its crude acoustic form" since the only problem is that it was ill-suited at the time for the needs of electrified amplication, but otherwise it's a good piece.

And if anyone is interested here are some reminiscences of Les by other musicians at Rolling Stone (http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2009/08/13/les-paul-remembered-guitar-greats-on-their-true-hero/) and the Associated Press (http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jng0H_QICGxhNX2HLRL-8EmtltGQD9A29NGG1). The Guardian also has this piece (http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/aug/13/obituary-les-paul) that provides a little more focus on his music career.

[jesse_custer]

This is absolutely crushing. He lived a great life. I remember when my father first let me listen to a Les Paul tape. I was maybe 14 or 15. I still haven't heard anyone play like him.

He continued playing in his old age, even though arthritis only allowed him to fret with two fingers.

"If you only have two fingers [to work with], you have to think, how will you play that chord?" he told CNN.com in a 2002 phone interview. "So you think of how to replace that chord with several notes, and it gives the illusion of sounding like a chord.

Genius.

RIP

[Adam C]

He continued playing in his old age, even though arthritis only allowed him to fret with two fingers.


I did not know the arthritis left him with two working fingers. In fact Django Reinhardt had the same problem.

I actually think that makes Les Paul overcoming his arthritis even cooler.

[The Confessor]

Though at the risk of sounding disrespectful, does "The Log" (http://invention.smithsonian.org/centerpieces/electricguitar/pop-ups/02-07.htm) count as the first solid-body, or am I just being characteristically persnickety?


"The Log" definitely qualifies as a solid-body electric guitar, no question...whether it was the first is open to debate. Rickenbacker's "Frying Pan", which predates "The Log" by 8 years, could also be considered a solid body but there's little doubt that Les Paul's "The Log" was the first solid body as we know them today. Actually, Les Paul was already experimenting with attaching microphones to acoustic guitars at around the same time as Adolph Rickenbacker created the "Frying Pan", so he was definitely on the same track at about the same time.

Anyway, it's a real shame about Les Paul passing away. I feel pretty sad about this...I'm not a massive fan of his music with Mary Ford but I've always had a lot of respect and admiration for his technical achievements in the field of music. Apart from the aforementioned solid body electric guitar, Les Paul also invented multi-track recording which has obviously shaped popular music hugely in the intervening 60 years. Yep, it's a real shame...one of the all-time greats has left us.

RIP Les and as Eugene Kelly (of The Vaselines, Captain America & Eugenius) was fond of saying...

"God bless us all, God bless Les Paul."