Les Paul Dead at 94

[donald]

The man who made possible the music we all enjoy has passed at the ripe old age of 94.  He continued to play in small clubs, just for fun, until very recently.

I urge you all to visit youtube etc to watch some of the historical and tribute videos.

[Chris Brown]

Very sad indeed.  Obviously he is most known for his innovations with the electric guitar, but he was also the father of multi-track recording.  Without him, the past 50 years of musical history would be very different, and incredible works like Pet Sounds wouldn't have been technologically possible.

[Nicole]

Heard this yesterday Rest in peace!

[PongHit]

... he was also the father of multi-track recording.  Without him, the past 50 years of musical history would be very different, and incredible works like Pet Sounds wouldn't have been technologically possible.

While there's no doubt Les Paul was an amazing talent who accomplished a lot, you've over-stated the case above.  He was not the first nor only person to experiment with multi-track recording.  And had he never lived, PET SOUNDS would be exactly the same.

[TonyW]

... he was also the father of multi-track recording.  Without him, the past 50 years of musical history would be very different, and incredible works like Pet Sounds wouldn't have been technologically possible.

While there's no doubt Les Paul was an amazing talent who accomplished a lot, you've over-stated the case above.  He was not the first nor only person to experiment with multi-track recording.  And had he never lived, PET SOUNDS would be exactly the same.

Brian Douglas Wilson might disagree ...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8201036.stm

BRIAN WILSON, SINGER-SONGWRITER WITH THE BEACH BOYS

Les Paul and Mary Ford were among my most favourite musicians in the 50s.

He was the first guy to do multi guitar, multi track recording and that turned me on to guitars and stacking vocals for our records.

[PongHit]

I stand by my assertions.

Look, I don't really wanna get into a big debate about this; like I already said, LP was an amazing guy who accomplished a lot.  But the fact is, as I already said, he was not the first nor the only person to do multi-track recording.  But more importantly, the way I look at it is this: the desire for a musician to want multiple layers of audio is an obvious, almost basic concept.  I think the 'tricky' part (for those of us who care about such things), when looking back into history, is trying to figure out who rendered the idea, in hardware, first &/or best.

It's tidier, & makes for a more dramatic story, to credit only 1 person for an invention or concept, but the reality is almost never that simple.  A lot of people think Henry Ford invented the automobile, but what he did was find a way to modernize the assembly-line process to make cars a practical retail product.  A lot of people believe Bob Moog invented the first synthesizer too.  Or that Betsy Ross sewed the first American flag.  I could go on with examples like these all day, but this is waaaaay off-topic.

[donald]

Others were also working on multitrack and building the first electric guitar etc.but while Les Paul was doing that he was also learning and perfecting the use of said techniques and applying them to pop recordings....eventually being the first to get these sounds out there on a large scale influencing generations of creative artists including one BW.

Not only that, he is and was a beloved musician and character and an inspiration to those who refuse to call it quits just because they are approaching very old age.  He relearned to play the guitar with inflexible arthritic hands and continued to wow audiences right up until recently.  He loved playing electric guitar.

That is the main thing.  He was a sweet guy.

[PongHit]

Others were also working on multitrack and building the first electric guitar etc.but while Les Paul was doing that he was also learning and perfecting the use of said techniques and applying them to pop recordings....eventually being the first to get these sounds out there on a large scale influencing generations of creative artists including one BW.
Not only that, he is and was a beloved musician and character and an inspiration to those who refuse to call it quits just because they are approaching very old age.  He relearned to play the guitar with inflexible arthritic hands and continued to wow audiences right up until recently.  He loved playing electric guitar.
That is the main thing.  He was a sweet guy.

I agree with all of the above (although I can't attest, first-hand, to how sweet he may have been); LP is indeed an important part of music history, no doubt.

Further study:

http://raymondscott.blogspot.com/2009/08/les-paul-1915-2009.html

[Jason]

I am an incredible fan of Les Paul and do respect his contributions to popular music, but there is indeed undeniable evidence that Raymond Scott was there first as far as multitrack recordings. The reason Les gets the credit is because he shared his inventions with the world. Raymond, on the other hand, was known then and is remembered now as an INCREDIBLY hermetic, isolated mad genius, relentlessly tinkering, farming parts, always finding new ways to have an old gadget make a new sound. Unfortunately, after a while he never had the resources someone like Les Paul did. Raymond had what might be considered a "fifteen minutes" back in the 1930s when he ran probably the most avant-garde band in popular music - designed like and  marketed as a jazz band, but every arrangement WRITTEN, with no improvisations. He was known as tyrannical, and many of his sidemen had little good to say about him.

[PongHit]

I am an incredible fan of Les Paul and do respect his contributions to popular music, but there is indeed undeniable evidence that Raymond Scott was there first as far as multitrack recordings. The reason Les gets the credit is because he shared his inventions with the world. Raymond, on the other hand, was known then and is remembered now as an INCREDIBLY hermetic, isolated mad genius, relentlessly tinkering, farming parts, always finding new ways to have an old gadget make a new sound. Unfortunately, after a while he never had the resources someone like Les Paul did. Raymond had what might be considered a "fifteen minutes" back in the 1930s when he ran probably the most avant-garde band in popular music - designed like and  marketed as a jazz band, but every arrangement WRITTEN, with no improvisations. He was known as tyrannical, and many of his sidemen had little good to say about him.

I agree with most of the above, EXCEPT: apparently Raymond Scott's "15 minutes" was more like 20 or 30 years! 

[Ed Roach]

Thanks for the sound returns, Les Paul

A good guitar falls into that small category of things that manage to hold their value.

By John Corrigan

August 16, 2009


For a teenage guitar slinger in the 1970s, it was the most coveted of instruments: a Gibson Les Paul. In the hands of Duane Allman, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Pete Townsend and countless others, it defined the hard-rock sound of the day.

I had to have one.

Trouble was, Les Pauls could cost nearly twice as much as other name-brand electric guitars. Crafted largely by hand and outfitted with hum-bucking pickups that hammered out sound with the effortless power of a Detroit V-8, Les Pauls were built for concert stages, not San Fernando Valley garages.

Still, where there's a will, there's a way. So one August day in 1976, I found myself on the doorstep of a second-story North Hollywood apartment, a wad of cash in my Levis, thanks to a gas station job. At age 19, a long-term lesson in guitar economics was about to begin.

The seller, as they say, was motivated. He had come from Arizona to make it as a rock musician in L.A., and it wasn't happening. Even worse, bus drivers for the RTD (forerunner of today's Metropolitan Transportation Authority) were about to go on strike. The Arizona rocker didn't have a car, and to buy one he would sell his prized Les Paul.

It was a beauty: a top-of-the-line 1971 Les Paul Custom with gold-plated hardware, sunburst finish and mother-of-pearl inlay on the fret board.

There was a quarter-size blemish of chipped paint -- belt rash -- on the back, courtesy of the first owner, the seller told me. Otherwise, mint. The asking price was $475. I carried it out his door for $440.

The return on my investment began almost immediately. The guitar was fun to play, so I played more, and became a better player. More advanced guitarists were happy to show me new riffs and, oh, thank you very much, take a few turns on the Les Paul themselves.

A punk band needed a paint-peeling lead guitar for a recording and asked me to provide it. (What they really wanted was that screaming Les Paul sound, of course.)

Whenever a chance to gig arose, it was always a thrill to pull the guitar out of the case; like driving up to the A&W in a cherry-red Corvette.

Years passed, and the Les Paul that was just a few years old when I bought it gained added status as a "vintage" instrument, worth at least $2,000, maybe $3,000 or more.

Not bad, although if I had taken that same $440 and put it in a mutual fund invested in a broad index of blue-chip stocks, my initial stake would be worth more than $10,000.

And on closer examination, my Les Paul doesn't seem to have gotten much of a premium for its age. You can get a brand-new Les Paul Custom for about $3,000; shouldn't a vintage instrument, 38 years old, be worth a lot more?

Not necessarily, said Ken Daniels of True Tone Music in Santa Monica, a specialist in high-end vintage instruments. To be truly valuable, he said, guitars generally have to be not only old, but rare.

Gibson put out only about 1,500 Les Pauls in 1959, he noted. With so few in circulation, those guitars sell for anywhere between $200,000 and $500,000. My Les Paul, built at a time when the Gibson factory was churning out guitars as fast as baby-boom rockers could snap them up, doesn't have quite the same cachet.

Nor is the guitar's value likely to grow following the death of its namesake -- guitar virtuoso and musical innovator Les Paul -- who passed away last week at age 94.

"It's hard to say, but my guess is no," said Daniels, who knew Les Paul and considers him one of the music industry's true giants. "It may increase the demand, but not the value." That's simple economics; even with Les Paul gone, the Gibson factory can make as many guitars as needed to meet demand.

So does that make a good guitar a bad investment? Daniels answers the question this way: What other consumer products can even retain their original value, let alone appreciate over time? "If you have a 10-year-old refrigerator, you have nothing," he said. "Just try to sell your old sofa."

"You didn't buy your guitar because you thought it would be a great investment," Daniels said. "You bought it because you wanted a Les Paul. And you probably got a lot of satisfaction from it."

Indeed, the old Les Paul has taken me to some interesting places over the years, proving that a good guitar falls into that small category of things that manage to hold value, and provide sound returns along the way.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-lespaul16-2009aug16,0,4293117.story

[donald]

Right Ed!  Like that vintage corvette mentioned.  That is the beauty of old guitars and cars to the person who truly loves these things.    I've owned and enjoyed both items and neither was much changed in value in these recent economic times.  I worry about my savings but not about my 64 convertible or my vintage Guild D50.  I enjoy them regularly and they will pay the bills if the need should arise.

[Ed Roach]

Can't tell you the # of women who have considered me a pack rat; until, of course, my collecting saves the day.
Here's another article, from todays Times, regarding his legacy:

Les Paul's legacy looms large in 'It Might Get Loud'

At a screening of the movie starring Jimmy Page, the Edge and Jack White, the filmmakers honor the late guitarist and inventer.

By Steve Appleford

August 17, 2009

There's a moment in the documentary "It Might Get Loud" when Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page, while sitting with fellow guitarists Jack White and the Edge, reaches for his Gibson Les Paul to play a thundering "Whole Lotta Love." The solid-body guitar remains the model of choice for Page and many of rock's leading players, and is the enduring legacy of the late guitarist and inventor Les Paul.

"It was like a throwdown," director Davis Guggenheim said of that moment in his film. "It was like, 'I'm done talking.' "

Paul, who died Thursday at age 94, was very much on the mind of Guggenheim at a Friday opening-night screening of "It Might Get Loud" at the Landmark Theater in West Los Angeles.

"This screening will be dedicated to Lester William Polsfuss, who was born on June 9, 1915," he told a full house and then read details of the man's life from a newspaper obituary.

It was a fitting setting for a tribute, as the film is an intimate look at three distinctive rock guitarists and their relationships with the instrument: Page, U2's the Edge and White (of the White Stripes, Raconteurs, Dead Weather, etc.). It's on his black "No. 2" Les Paul that Page grinds a raw, shimmering riff over the film's opening credits.

As the 97-minute documentary rolled, Guggenheim gathered with producer Lesley Chilcott, editor Greg Finton and other members of his crew to celebrate the opening at an adjacent bar. The director drew a line from Paul to the restless guitarists in his film, noting that the Edge built a guitar from scratch as a teenager with his brother, and White is seen constructing a primitive "Diddley Bow" in the opening scene from a plank of wood, a Coke bottle and a single string.

"Les Paul was constantly taking things apart and making things better, finding a tool for him to express himself," Guggenheim said. "They each take this thing and modify it for themselves to say what they want it to say."

"Words are their second language," he added with a grin. "Their first language was this piece of wood, the strings and electricity."

Of the many hours of footage left out of the film was a scene in which Page spoke of hearing the guitar on Paul and Mary Ford's "How High the Moon" for the first time. "It blew his mind and he wondered how he did it," Guggenheim said.

After the film ended Friday, the filmmakers took questions from the audience. One of the first was about how the three guitarists were chosen.

Producer Chilcott, who also worked with Guggenheim on the Oscar-winning "An Inconvenient Truth," noted that Page was the first to sign on. She also smiled and admitted, "My mother didn't talk to me for a couple of months because of some of the people we left out of the movie."

"Namely?" asked Guggenheim.

"Namely, Les Paul," she answered with a nod.

Another fan just wanted to know the most rewarding part of making a film like this. Editor Finton had an easy answer: "I got to meet Jimmy Page."

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/music/la-et-loud17-2009aug17,0,4255369.story

[Ed Roach]

Les Paul, 1915-2009
W.C. Fields on the legendary innovator: “The music you’re making sounds like an octopus. Like a guy with a million hands”

By John Payne
published: August 20, 2009

He was without exaggeration the single most important figure in the history of modern music technology. The inventor of multitrack recording, the mobile recording studio, basic gear for reverb/echo and other effects, even the bass guitar — not to mention the primary architect of the solid-body guitar. ...

To chat on the phone with Les Paul was a little bit like talking to God. He was there at the beginning, and he changed everything. And at 91, his age when our conversation took place in 2006, he showed no signs of slowing down.

Since his boyhood days in Waukesha, Wisconsin, twin curiosities about all things musical and mechanical seemed to run in Les Paul’s blood.

“When I first recognized that I had any kind of musical ability,” he said, “I had to be around 5 to 6 years old. And I was pounding on boards that separated the stairway from the living room. I could play all kinds of different songs — except for one note, and that one board, I had to shave down a little bit.”

It was slightly sharp, you see.

Not yet having many musical instruments at his disposal, young Les grabbed most anything he could get his hands on, including the harmonica, and he could sing a little bit, too.

“I had to have something to accompany me with,” he said. “But with the piano I had my back turned to the people; and I tried an accordion, but Mother wouldn’t let it leave the house.”

So Paul’s decision wiggled itself down to guitar — “and when I got that guitar, that was it.”

Circa 1941, the carrot-topped Les was playing his first professional gigs as Rhubarb Red at a little roadhouse barbecue stand just outside Waukesha, on a custom PA system jerry-rigged from his mother’s radio, which he’d hooked up to a telephone mike. “I’m playing and singing and everything,” he said, “and some guy in the rumble seat of a car wrote a note to the carhop, and the note read, ‘Red, your voice and your harmonica are fine, but your guitar sounds lousy.’ He said the guitar wasn’t loud enough.”

Paul couldn’t stop thinking about that anonymous listener’s comment. It made him think about the ideal materials that ought to be employed to ensure a guitar’s maximum volume. He thought about the density and hardness of railroad track.

Paul’s idea was to combine that dense steel with wood: “Something,” he said, “where the strings would vibrate but not the object holding the strings — in other words, to add a piece of wood that would color the sound, and make it different than the string actually is.”

Thus he built two guitars, one of wood and one of steel railroad track. On the train-track guitar, he suspended the strings with spikes from the original track, and placed under it the half of the telephone that you listen on, which had a coil and a magnet inside. The resulting sound was fed into his mother’s radio, and blasted out loud and startlingly clear.

Playing his guitar and harmonica as Rhubarb Red in a country combo in Wisconsin and St. Louis had sharpened Paul’s playing chops, which dazzled with speed, agility and resourceful harmonic and melodic content. When he moved to Chicago and, later on, New York, he studied and played with the big boys of jazz, including Louis Armstrong, Art Tatum and Eddie South.

Yet when Paul teamed with singer Mary Ford in 1950, it was with the idea of “commercial music” in mind, something that would speak to a broader audience than jazz could ever hope to do. The duo scored 16 Top 10 hits between 1950 and 1954 — yet they were technically innovative projects whose multilayered and heavily effects-laden voices and guitars seem even today like a daring aural experience.

Paul continued to experiment with the science of the electric guitar, devoting his efforts to building a wood guitar that would convey a purer tone and accommodate the mechanics required for maximum volume. His first attempt was fashioned out of a 4-by-4 log.

“One day, the Gibson people said, ‘Hey, would you bring that broomstick in, that ironing board that you’re playing?’ And the rest is history.”

One of Paul’s greatest periods of innovation came during his residency in L.A. during the 1950s. In his garage studio on Curson Street, he worked in secrecy. Immersed in his work one day, however, he heard someone in his yard. It was W.C. Fields, sitting on a swing and listening to Paul’s strange new effects. “You know what?” Fields asked. “The music you’re making sounds like an octopus. Like a guy with a million hands. I’ve never heard anything like it.”

Among the myriad innovations Paul was developing was the first multitrack recording unit, an acetate recording lathe that he fashioned from a Cadillac flywheel and fan belt. After finishing up his night’s work on the project at a friend’s hobby shop in Hollywood one morning, Paul heard someone throwing rocks in the window. He looked out and saw Groucho Marx.

“Groucho says, ‘I’m trying to wake the guy up upstairs.’ I started throwing rocks too, and Groucho said, ‘What in the world are you doing here?’ ‘Well, I’m working on a recording. You wouldn’t know what it is.’ Groucho says, ‘Let’s see what you got.’ ”

Paul showed Marx the lathe. Marx said, “My family are engineers over in Glendale. They might be interested in something like this.”

Marx’s family company ultimately manufactured a lathe for Paul, which he used along with the one he’d built himself to create a multitrack recording unit that would record and bounce tracks back and forth between the two lathes.

Not the least of Paul’s creations would be his development with Ampex and engineer Ray Norman of the eight-track recording machine, initially inspired by the way in which film companies striped the video and audio track on a single strip of magnetic tape.

And then there is the mysterious Les Paulverizer, a multi-effects/playback unit that he custom-crafted to fit right onto his guitar, enabling him and Ford to improvise multitracked vocals and guitar and space it all out wacky, as the mood might deem. Among the first people to hear the Paulverizer were Richard Nixon and Dwight Eisenhower, at a command performance at the White House. They dug it, apparently. .

The Paulverizer was a key element in the success of Paul and Ford’s radio shows and live performances, where, by the way, Paul eliminated the acoustic bass to play the bass sound on the guitar — the beginning of the electric bass.

Through it all, Paul persistently plugged away at his dreams, following his muse, having the time of his life.

“I had my dreams, but they didn’t go way out,” he said. “I just thought the electric guitar should be here, it will be here and it’ll be successful. With my invention of all the sound effects: the reverb, and the delay and all those things, I knew they were great toys to play with; I knew I was gonna have a lot of fun with them, but I never knew it would continue to advance more and more. It was a very pleasant surprise.”

One more thing: Les Paul is the inventor of the Chipmunks. But that’s a whole ’nother story...

Further Reading: "Guitar Legends: Slash Remembers Friend and Mentor Les Paul, 'A Total Fuckin' Maverick,'" by Erin Broadley


http://www.laweekly.com/2009-08-20/music/les-paul-1915-8211-2009/

[Wirestone]

Given that WC Fields died in the 1940s, I find this story somewhat unlikely.

[Ed Roach]

Given that WC Fields died in the 1940s, I find this story somewhat unlikely.

Meant to write to the LA Weekly with your observation re: Fields death, but fortunately you weren't the only one who noticed this:

Les Paul’s Passing
Re “Les Paul, 1915-2009,” by John Payne (August 19):

Folks,

1. The Les Pulveriser was not necessarily a real-time recorder–looping device, according to several interviews with Les, most notably a 1977 Keyboard magazine article.

2. W.C. Fields could not have been on Les’ swing in the backyard in the 1950s, as he passed away in 1946.

—Comment by Stephen Goodman, Gittisham, Devon, U.K.

 

Correction: Les Paul moved to Los Angeles in 1942, and was in residence here at the time the incident with W.C. Fields took place.

—Comment by John Payne

http://www.laweekly.com/2009-08-27/news/back-when-quentin-was-behind-the-counter