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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13476 Posts |
 Posted - 08/13/2009 : 11:49:42
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Legendary guitarist Les Paul dies at 94
So long Les Paul. His innovations and contributions to modern music cannot be overstated…
…In 1941 he invented 'The Log' - a four-by-four solid piece of wood strung with steel strings.
'I went into a nightclub and played it. Of course, everybody thought I was a nut,' he recalled on early outings with the electric model.
After modifying the instrument's shape to make it look more traditional, the guitar began to gain fans.
In 1952, Gibson Guitars began to produce the Les Paul guitar.
The model firmly established itself in rock and jazz history, ensuring that Les Paul's name will continue long after his death… |
Snip Aside from technical inventions that also included innovations in the field of multi-track recording and overdubbing, Paul had a successful career as an instrumentalist.
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For those of us who love music, and especially guitars, Les Paul was a giant. 94 years is a pretty decent run. Nice that he hung around long enough to see how much influence he had as a musician and as an inventor. My only "Les Paul" is a junior model. But all of my solid body electric guitars have a common ancestor...
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Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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BigPapaSmurf
SFN Die Hard
3192 Posts |
Posted - 08/13/2009 : 12:10:00 [Permalink]
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I might be suspicious if he had died last year, as Robb predicted.
Funny story from a Les Paul convention...Clapton:(to Slash)"Come back when you learn how to play guitar!" |
"...things I have neither seen nor experienced nor heard tell of from anybody else; things, what is more, that do not in fact exist and could not ever exist at all. So my readers must not believe a word I say." -Lucian on his book True History
"...They accept such things on faith alone, without any evidence. So if a fraudulent and cunning person who knows how to take advantage of a situation comes among them, he can make himself rich in a short time." -Lucian critical of early Christians c.166 AD From his book, De Morte Peregrini |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 08/13/2009 : 13:29:35 [Permalink]
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"The day the music died...."
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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bngbuck
SFN Addict
USA
2437 Posts |
Posted - 08/13/2009 : 13:47:32 [Permalink]
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I met Les Paul at a Jazz party several years ago. He seemed a sweet person, friendly and modest, accomodating (took several requests for several of his megahits like "How High the Moon" and "Nola"), and everybody was loving him. Inevitably, someone asked "How's Mary Ford, Les?"
His face clouded up like a Colorado thunderstorm, his good left hand clenched into a fist, and in a guttural growl he snarled, "That bitch! I hope she's rotting in hell where she belongs! End of friendly tete-a-tete with a music legend! Not another word Wow!
I later learned that their divorce was extraordinarily bitter and heavily laced with dissent over money and who was entitled to what royalties, etc. It pretty well ended Paul's recording career, although he was still playing live five nights a week in a New York club as recently as last year!
He invented the practical electric guitar, and pioneered multi-track recording techniques that are pervasive in the recording industry today! A great loss to modern music! |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 08/13/2009 : 16:26:21 [Permalink]
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Les Paul was hardly a rocker a heart, but by inventing the electric guitar, he laid the foundation of Rock 'N' Roll.
Personally, I'm amazed at how long and well R&R has lasted. That a genre of music could thrive for a half century is pretty amazing. And this survival is probably the result of the fact that a few guys with electric guitars can make a "big sound" much more economically than could the big bands that preceded the Rock era.
Thanks not only for your own fine music, but for all the other great music you made possible, Les.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
Posted - 08/13/2009 : 16:45:27 [Permalink]
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Even if you are not a fan of his music you have to stand in awe of his contribution.
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Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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Randy
SFN Regular
USA
1990 Posts |
Posted - 08/13/2009 : 17:31:13 [Permalink]
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There's a nice little bit of Les Paul on Youtube.
I'm quite lucky to have grown up in a household full of music. We still have stacks of 78's with Les Paul, Mary Ford and the like.
For a salute tonight, think I'll put on my lp copy of "Chester and Lester". It's a sessions recording from the late 1970's with the two guitar giants, Les Paul and Chet Atkins. Itunes has it for downloading; I highly recommend it. |
"We are all connected; to each other biologically, to the earth chemically, to the rest of the universe atomically."
"So you're made of detritus [from exploded stars]. Get over it. Or better yet, celebrate it. After all, what nobler thought can one cherish than that the universe lives within us all?"
-Neil DeGrasse Tyson |
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13476 Posts |
Posted - 08/13/2009 : 17:45:01 [Permalink]
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Les Paul playing a Les Paul. |
Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13476 Posts |
Posted - 08/13/2009 : 18:24:14 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Randy
There's a nice little bit of Les Paul on Youtube.
I'm quite lucky to have grown up in a household full of music. We still have stacks of 78's with Les Paul, Mary Ford and the like.
For a salute tonight, think I'll put on my lp copy of "Chester and Lester". It's a sessions recording from the late 1970's with the two guitar giants, Les Paul and Chet Atkins. Itunes has it for downloading; I highly recommend it.
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Great Clip! |
Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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H. Humbert
SFN Die Hard
USA
4574 Posts |
Posted - 08/13/2009 : 18:25:44 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by HalfMooner
And this survival is probably the result of the fact that a few guys with electric guitars can make a "big sound" much more economically than could the big bands that preceded the Rock era. |
My grandfather was a saxophone player in his youth. He toured the country with a big band and would play various clubs. He said that electric instruments absolutely killed that era. Club owners only had to pay 4-5 guys vs. a full 20-25 man orchestra. They just couldn't compete.
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"A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true." --Demosthenes
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." --Richard P. Feynman
"Face facts with dignity." --found inside a fortune cookie |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 08/13/2009 : 22:27:54 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by H. Humbert
Originally posted by HalfMooner
And this survival is probably the result of the fact that a few guys with electric guitars can make a "big sound" much more economically than could the big bands that preceded the Rock era. |
My grandfather was a saxophone player in his youth. He toured the country with a big band and would play various clubs. He said that electric instruments absolutely killed that era. Club owners only had to pay 4-5 guys vs. a full 20-25 man orchestra. They just couldn't compete.
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I still love that rich Big Band sound, even more than most rock. But I see how it couldn't compete.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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Randy
SFN Regular
USA
1990 Posts |
Posted - 08/14/2009 : 19:15:27 [Permalink]
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An earlier interview with Les Paul was on Fresh Air on NPR this afternoon. I happened to hear while at work today. Fabulous listen, to say the least.
While you're on the site, do a search of 'Les Paul' on the upper right. There's lots more of him on NPR.
I count myself lucky...coming from a musical family. Dad wrote a bit, played and sang back in the late 1940's/50's. He was a chief engineer for a local TV station back then; and was fully aware of Les Paul's inventive genius. I grew up listening to Les Paul/Mary Ford and others on old 78 rpm records.
We still have dad's own recordings, from the early 1950's, using a variation of Les Paul's multi-track recording (dad plays the guitar and sings four part harmony). Couple of his songs got air time in a few local markets. Even was picked up and broadcast during a AM radio music program in Chicago on WLS.
Anywho, for me it's been a lot of mixed emotions with the recent passing of Les Paul. What a magnificent contribution he's been to the world of music, and will continue to be for a long, long time. |
"We are all connected; to each other biologically, to the earth chemically, to the rest of the universe atomically."
"So you're made of detritus [from exploded stars]. Get over it. Or better yet, celebrate it. After all, what nobler thought can one cherish than that the universe lives within us all?"
-Neil DeGrasse Tyson |
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Les Paul has died
