landson
2009-08-13 18:20:11 UTC
http://www.comcast.net/articles/music/20090813/US.Obit.Les.Paul/
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — Les Paul, who invented the solid-body electric
guitar later wielded by a legion of rock 'n' roll greats, died
Thursday of complications from pneumonia. He was 94.
According to Gibson Guitar, Paul died at White Plains Hospital. His
family and friends were by his side.
As an inventor, Paul also helped bring about the rise of rock 'n' roll
with multitrack recording, which enables artists to record different
instruments at different times, sing harmony with themselves, and then
carefully balance the tracks in the finished recording.
The use of electric guitar gained popularity in the mid-to-late 1940s,
and then exploded with the advent of rock in the mid-'50s.
"Suddenly, it was recognized that power was a very important part of
music," Paul once said. "To have the dynamics, to have the way of
expressing yourself beyond the normal limits of an unamplified
instrument, was incredible. Today a guy wouldn't think of singing a
song on a stage without a microphone and a sound system."
A tinkerer and musician since childhood, he experimented with guitar
amplification for years before coming up in 1941 with what he called
"The Log," a four-by-four piece of wood strung with steel strings.
"I went into a nightclub and played it. Of course, everybody had me
labeled as a nut." He later put the wooden wings onto the body to give
it a tradition guitar shape.
In 1952, Gibson Guitars began production on the Les Paul guitar.
Pete Townsend of the Who, Steve Howe of Yes, jazz great Al DiMeola and
Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page all made the Gibson Les Paul their trademark
six-string.
Over the years, the Les Paul series has become one of the most widely
used guitars in the music industry. In 2005, Christie's auction house
sold a 1955 Gibson Les Paul for $45,600.
In the late 1960s, Paul retired from music to concentrate on his
inventions. His interest in country music was rekindled in the
mid-'70s and he teamed up with Chet Atkins for two albums. The duo
were awarded a Grammy for best country instrumental performance of
1976 for their "Chester and Lester" album.
With Mary Ford, his wife from 1949 to 1962, he earned 36 gold records
for hits including "Vaya Con Dios" and "How High the Moon," which both
hit No. 1. Many of their songs used overdubbing techniques that Paul
had helped develop.
"I could take my Mary and make her three, six, nine, 12, as many
voices as I wished," he recalled. "This is quite an asset." The
overdubbing technique was highly influential on later recording
artists such as the Carpenters.
Released in 2005, "Les Paul & Friends: American Made, World Played"
was his first album of new material since those 1970s recordings.
Among those playing with him: Peter Frampton, Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton
and Richie Sambora.
"They're not only my friends, but they're great players," Paul told
The Associated Press. "I never stop being amazed by all the different
ways of playing the guitar and making it deliver a message."
Two cuts from the album won Grammys, "Caravan" for best pop
instrumental performance and "69 Freedom Special" for best rock
instrumental performance. (He had also been awarded a technical Grammy
in 2001.)
Paul was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2005.
Paul was born Lester William Polfus, in Waukseha, Wis., on June 9,
1915. He began his career as a musician, billing himself as Red Hot
Red or Rhubarb Red. He toured with the popular Chicago band Rube
Tronson and His Texas Cowboys and led the house band on WJJD radio in
Chicago.
In the mid-1930s he joined Fred Waring's Pennsylvanians and soon moved
to New York to form the Les Paul Trio, with Jim Atkins and bassist
Ernie Newton.
Meanwhile, he had made his first attempt at audio amplification at age
13. Unhappy with the amount of volume produced by his acoustic guitar,
Paul tried placing a telephone receiver under the strings. Although
this worked to some extent, only two strings were amplified and the
volume level was still too low.
By placing a phonograph needle in the guitar, all six strings were
amplified, which proved to be much louder. Paul was playing a working
prototype of the electric guitar in 1929.
His work on taping techniques began in the years after World War II,
when Bing Crosby gave him a tape recorder. Drawing on his earlier
experimentation with his homemade record-cutting machines, Paul added
an additional playback head to the recorder. The result was a delayed
effect that became known as tape echo.
Tape echo gave the recording a more "live" feel and enabled the user
to simulate different playing environments.
Paul's next "crazy idea" was to stack together eight mono tape
machines and send their outputs to one piece of tape, stacking the
recording heads on top of each other. The resulting machine served as
the forerunner to today's multitrack recorders.
In 1954, Paul commissioned Ampex to build the first eight-track tape
recorder, later known as "Sel-Sync," in which a recording head could
simultaneously record a new track and play back previous ones.
He had met Ford, then known as Colleen Summers, in the 1940s while
working as a studio musician in Los Angeles. For seven years in the
1950s, Paul and Ford broadcast a TV show from their home in Mahwah,
N.J. Ford died in 1977, 15 years after they divorced.
In recent years, even after his illness in early 2006, Paul played
Monday nights at New York night spots. Such stars as Led Zeppelin's
Jimmy Page, Dire Straits' Mark Knopfler, Bruce Springsteen and Eddie
Van Halen came to pay tribute and sit in with him.
"It's where we were the happiest, in a `joint,'" he said in a 2000
interview with the AP. "It was not being on top. The fun was getting
there, not staying there — that's hard work."
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — Les Paul, who invented the solid-body electric
guitar later wielded by a legion of rock 'n' roll greats, died
Thursday of complications from pneumonia. He was 94.
According to Gibson Guitar, Paul died at White Plains Hospital. His
family and friends were by his side.
As an inventor, Paul also helped bring about the rise of rock 'n' roll
with multitrack recording, which enables artists to record different
instruments at different times, sing harmony with themselves, and then
carefully balance the tracks in the finished recording.
The use of electric guitar gained popularity in the mid-to-late 1940s,
and then exploded with the advent of rock in the mid-'50s.
"Suddenly, it was recognized that power was a very important part of
music," Paul once said. "To have the dynamics, to have the way of
expressing yourself beyond the normal limits of an unamplified
instrument, was incredible. Today a guy wouldn't think of singing a
song on a stage without a microphone and a sound system."
A tinkerer and musician since childhood, he experimented with guitar
amplification for years before coming up in 1941 with what he called
"The Log," a four-by-four piece of wood strung with steel strings.
"I went into a nightclub and played it. Of course, everybody had me
labeled as a nut." He later put the wooden wings onto the body to give
it a tradition guitar shape.
In 1952, Gibson Guitars began production on the Les Paul guitar.
Pete Townsend of the Who, Steve Howe of Yes, jazz great Al DiMeola and
Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page all made the Gibson Les Paul their trademark
six-string.
Over the years, the Les Paul series has become one of the most widely
used guitars in the music industry. In 2005, Christie's auction house
sold a 1955 Gibson Les Paul for $45,600.
In the late 1960s, Paul retired from music to concentrate on his
inventions. His interest in country music was rekindled in the
mid-'70s and he teamed up with Chet Atkins for two albums. The duo
were awarded a Grammy for best country instrumental performance of
1976 for their "Chester and Lester" album.
With Mary Ford, his wife from 1949 to 1962, he earned 36 gold records
for hits including "Vaya Con Dios" and "How High the Moon," which both
hit No. 1. Many of their songs used overdubbing techniques that Paul
had helped develop.
"I could take my Mary and make her three, six, nine, 12, as many
voices as I wished," he recalled. "This is quite an asset." The
overdubbing technique was highly influential on later recording
artists such as the Carpenters.
Released in 2005, "Les Paul & Friends: American Made, World Played"
was his first album of new material since those 1970s recordings.
Among those playing with him: Peter Frampton, Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton
and Richie Sambora.
"They're not only my friends, but they're great players," Paul told
The Associated Press. "I never stop being amazed by all the different
ways of playing the guitar and making it deliver a message."
Two cuts from the album won Grammys, "Caravan" for best pop
instrumental performance and "69 Freedom Special" for best rock
instrumental performance. (He had also been awarded a technical Grammy
in 2001.)
Paul was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2005.
Paul was born Lester William Polfus, in Waukseha, Wis., on June 9,
1915. He began his career as a musician, billing himself as Red Hot
Red or Rhubarb Red. He toured with the popular Chicago band Rube
Tronson and His Texas Cowboys and led the house band on WJJD radio in
Chicago.
In the mid-1930s he joined Fred Waring's Pennsylvanians and soon moved
to New York to form the Les Paul Trio, with Jim Atkins and bassist
Ernie Newton.
Meanwhile, he had made his first attempt at audio amplification at age
13. Unhappy with the amount of volume produced by his acoustic guitar,
Paul tried placing a telephone receiver under the strings. Although
this worked to some extent, only two strings were amplified and the
volume level was still too low.
By placing a phonograph needle in the guitar, all six strings were
amplified, which proved to be much louder. Paul was playing a working
prototype of the electric guitar in 1929.
His work on taping techniques began in the years after World War II,
when Bing Crosby gave him a tape recorder. Drawing on his earlier
experimentation with his homemade record-cutting machines, Paul added
an additional playback head to the recorder. The result was a delayed
effect that became known as tape echo.
Tape echo gave the recording a more "live" feel and enabled the user
to simulate different playing environments.
Paul's next "crazy idea" was to stack together eight mono tape
machines and send their outputs to one piece of tape, stacking the
recording heads on top of each other. The resulting machine served as
the forerunner to today's multitrack recorders.
In 1954, Paul commissioned Ampex to build the first eight-track tape
recorder, later known as "Sel-Sync," in which a recording head could
simultaneously record a new track and play back previous ones.
He had met Ford, then known as Colleen Summers, in the 1940s while
working as a studio musician in Los Angeles. For seven years in the
1950s, Paul and Ford broadcast a TV show from their home in Mahwah,
N.J. Ford died in 1977, 15 years after they divorced.
In recent years, even after his illness in early 2006, Paul played
Monday nights at New York night spots. Such stars as Led Zeppelin's
Jimmy Page, Dire Straits' Mark Knopfler, Bruce Springsteen and Eddie
Van Halen came to pay tribute and sit in with him.
"It's where we were the happiest, in a `joint,'" he said in a 2000
interview with the AP. "It was not being on top. The fun was getting
there, not staying there — that's hard work."