Yeah, I took last Friday off and nobody gave a shit about my Drunk Drivers profile the week before. Well, now I'm back up in your ass with a resurrection, and I have a new inspiration due to the death of a HUGE, HUGE, larger than life legend.
Les Paul died yesterday, August 13, 2009, at the age of 94. Lester William Polsfuss was born in Waukesha, Wisconsin (as was my son) way back in 1915. Seriously. 1915. Later, he adopted the stage name Les Paul. The guy started playing music at a very early age, and by the time he was a teenager he had grown bored with the standard acoustic instruments. What does he do? He INVENTS THE SOLID BODY ELECTRIC GUITAR, I shit you not. He spent many years tinkering with different electric guitar designs to improve tone, and ended up creating many of the guitar effects (phasing, delay) used today and invented the multi-track and overdub recording methods that became standard practice. On top of that, the guy is a guitar playing legend and a pop music star in his own right. His wife, Mary Ford, was a singer and the duo sold millions of records, primarily in the 1950s. He had numerous regular radio and television shows in his prime.
The Gibson Les Paul model has a been a standard-bearer in blues and rock, counting among its owners and players legendary rockers such as Slash, Duane Allman, Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, The Edge, Ace Frehley, Billy Gibbons, Dave Grohl, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Jimmy Page, Keith Richards, Pete Townshend, Eddie Van Halen and Neil Young.
There is likely no other individual who had a more profound effect on guitar rock, jazz or blues, or music recording in general in the 20th Century. Every rock record to come out in the past 60 years has Les Paul's fingerprints on it.
Perhaps what is most amazing is his ridiculous longevity. After being a pop star in the 1950s, he never stopped playing and never stopped having a massive following. Well into his 90s, he continued to perform every Monday night with his trio to packed houses at the Iridium jazz club in New York City. Below is a clip from his 1950s hey-day with Mary Ford and discussing his multi-track recording method, which was novel at the time, and then a clip from him performing his Monday night gig at the age of 91.
The term "legend" is sadly over-used these days. Les Paul is a true legend. Not bad for Waukesha boy.
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5 comments:
TK, I loved the links. I didnt know who this guy was, as you can tell I am an idiot when it comes to music. So whenever you throw something out there I usually learn a thing or two. Dare I say you are becoming a legend in internet blogging???
Gibson Les Paul's are fucking sexy as hell.
McGarn, they are badass. I don't play one because they are so compact that they look pretty stupid on a big fat guy like me, so I go with something with a little bigger body.
Tasty, check out any of the news articles about his death, and take a look at the folks that are commenting about how influential he was. It's mindblowing.
Here's a pretty cool little biographical piece.
Linky
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