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The boy was born Lester William Polsfuss June 9th 1915 just outside Milwaukee, in Waukesha, Wisconsin, America. Later he became the man known as Les Paul. This became his stage name after his hillbilly nicknames like ‘Rhubarb Red’ and ‘Red Hot Red”. Initially he played the banjo. He later mastered the guitar and developed a neck worn device to hold his harmonica in front of his mouth to enable him to play it, with his hands free to play the guitar at the same time. This device was later extrapolated by Bob Dylan and Neil Young and is still formulated today. Les Paul was more than a musician, he was a songwriter, inventor and a pioneer. He produced the worlds’ most frequent and successful solid body Sunburst electric guitar, the Gibson Les Paul. He invented a heap of recording mechanics and methods; ‘overdubbing’, multi-track recording, phasing effects and tape delay. It was these technical inventions that made the birth of Rock ‘n’ Roll possible. At thirteen, he was a semi professional musician playing guitar and harmonica in a country based group. Soon after he would join the Rube Tronson’s Texas Cowboys and then Wolverton’s Radio Band based in St. Louis, Missouri, on KMOX. In 1934 Les Paul moved to Chicago and performed principally sessions on the radio. In 1936 he freed his primary two studio based records. On one he was credited as an blues accompanist for performer Georgia White and the other recording bore his earlier nickname, ‘Rhubarb Red’. Soon after, he adopted his widely known and esteemed name and notorious jazz playing guitar style. By 1937 Les Paul formed a trio with percussionist and bass player, Ernie Darius Newton and Chet Atkins older half brother, guitarist and singer Jim Atkins. In 1939 the trio arrived in New York and started out a residency gig on Fred Waring’s radio show in Pennsylvania. During the 1940′s Les Paul continued his development and experimentation with the electric guitar. One such experiment resulted in near electrocution, the effects of it took over two years for him to recover from. He re-located to Hollywood with a new trio of musicians and continued to manufacture music for the radio. Disillusioned with acoustic electric guitars, paul begun experimenting to invent a new way of making the sound of the guitar electric and amplified. He started with a basic lump of 4 x 4 20lb lumber wood, attached a bridge, a Gibson neck, a Larson fingerboard and two pickups. He called his guitar invention the ‘Log’. The Log was one of the very original solid body electric guitars ever to be made. To make the visual aspect off the Log more guitar like, he added the body sides of a semi-acoustic Epiphone and in place of it is middle, he fixed the Log down the central column. This was a ground breaking solution to the main difficulties Les Paul had been facing; Sustain – the power of the strings was energized through the body of the guitar and Feedback – was now controlled by the semi-acoustic body of the electric guitar. Paul unceasingly continued to adjust and improve the technical specifications of his Log electric guitar and applied the instrument to record with even after the production of his Gibson Les Paul Sunburst. Throughout the 1940′s Les Paul performed and recorded with some well known artists like; Nat King Cole, Louis Armstrong and The Andrews Sisters. As well as performing with him, Bing Crosby likewise financed a lot of of his recording experiments. At the beginning of 1948 Paul had a near fatal car accident that shattered his right arm and elbow. Surgeons insisted that his arm would have to be re-built in a set position, which took a year and a half to complete. The guitarist demanded that his arm will have to be set at a ninety degree angle. An angle that would still concede him to carry on to play the guitar. Les Paul continued to experiment in the recording studio with a track called Lover (When You’re Near Me) in 1948 for Capitol Records. This track marked an amazing break through with his multi-track recording techniques. Les Paul recorded eight distinguished guitar parts, numerous at double speed and a heap of at half speed, overlaying each track onto acetate disks. When all eight were played back, the sound was as if eight dissimilar guitarists were playing together at the same time. This was the primary time that this had ever been done. This invention lead him to work on the worlds’ introductory eight track recording deck with Ross Snyder. This reel to reel tape recorder with particular effects like over dubbing and echo was fictitious by Ampex. He made variations of these machines with two track and four track recorder versions called the Sel-Sync (or the Selective Synchronization). Les Paul married Virginia Webb in 1938, they divorced in 1949 the same year that he married Iris Colleen Summers who was a country and western singer with the Gene Autry. Later she changed her name to Mary Ford. The couple would later divorce in 1962 due to their heavy work load and touring pressures. Throughout the 1950′s Les Paul and Mary Ford recorded together and went on to trade millions of records. Their remarkable hits were; Bye Bye Blues, How High The Moon and The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise. The multi-track recording technique that Les Paul had perfected, enabled Mary Ford to record a lot of harmonizing vocal arrangements, for them to be synchronized and played back at the same time as one seamless track. In the 1930′s Adolph Rickenbacker formulated a solid body guitar which would later be produced into a semi acoustic hollow body guitar. A short time after, Les Paul neared the Gibson Corporation with his idea for a solid body electric guitar. Gibson refused production of his idea as they thought it would be too pricey to mass produce. In 1946 Leo Fender developed his own version of a solid body guitar, the Telecaster Tobacco Sunburst electric guitar. In the early 1950′s Gibson formulated their introductory electric guitar that integrated the inventions and ideas of Les Paul and staged it to him for him to try out. He loved the Gibson guitar so much that he consorted to endorse the guitar with his name. The introductory Gibson Les Paul electric guitar was in the first place only available in a Gold Top finish. The Sunburst electric guitar Cherry and Tobacco finishes were to come later in 1952 when the Gibson Les Paul Custom model was introduced. The agreement and contract that he had with Gibson Corporation meant that the guitarist would only be photographed and carry out with a Gibson Les Paul electric guitar. The Patent and Trademark office in the U.S. gave Les Paul Patent number 3,018,680 for an Electrical Musical Instrument in 1962 for his Gibson endorsed guitar. Les Paul always performed with his individualized Les Paul electric guitar. It was a Gibson ‘Recording’ model, the body was a solid single piece of mahogany that he had customized and modified over the years and added a Bigsby vibrato to. He also invented a black box that was fixed to his on stage guitar that he called his ‘Les Paulverizer’. This box enabled the guitarist to fabricate a great deal of sound effects on stage, it enabled him to play a guitar lick and play it back over and over, creating a loop effect. Another effect was a tape delay that produced the illusion of sound as if respective other guitarists were playing at the same time, when in fact there was only one playing. In 1967 Les Paul recorded an album with Chet Atkins, Chester and Lester, called ‘Les Paul Now’ recorded for London Records. Les Paul was actively performing and playing live all around the 1980′s right up until his death in 2009. He played each Monday night at the Iridium Jazz Club, on Broadway in Times Square, New York City. He played with his trio, guitarist Lou Pallo, pianist John Colianni and bassist Nicki Parrott. An astounding accomplishment for a man who suffered from permanent hearing loss, arthritis and had heart bypass surgery after having had a heart attack. Les Paul’s contribution to the music industry was regularly recognized by innumerable award bodies and esteemed institutions. Guitarist Jeff Beck inducted Les Paul into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988. The Mix Foundation in 1991 produced an award called to honor “individuals or originations that had set the most eminent standards of excellency in the originative application of audio technology” called the Les Paul Award. The National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2005 inducted him for his contribution to solid body Sunburst electric guitar developments. The following year in 2006 he was named an honorary fellow member by the Audio Engineering Society and inducted into the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame. In 2005 share of his 90th birthday celebrations included a tribute concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City where Les Paul was given a commemorative guitar from Gibson Guitar Corporation. Steve Miller, Jose Feliciano and Peter Frampton and other contemporary vocalists and guitarists performed at the celebrations. The Rock guitarist Steve Miller was taught how to play guitar by Les Paul. He is Godfather to Miller after his father was best man at his wedding to Mary Ford in 1949. Still at the age of 90 in 2006 he received two Grammy Awards for his Les Paul & Friends: American Made World Played album. He had already received a lifetime accomplishment award, called the Grammy Trustees Award in 1983. Les Paul made a biographical documentary film called Chasing Sound which was freed on DVD in HD in 2007. It documents the life of the guitar superstar legend and tells his rags to riches story. From Waukesha his home town, to Chicago, then Nashville, on to Hollywood and then his induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Les Paul talks when it comes to his a great deal of outstanding lifetime achievements. His music and his biggest hits provide a sound track to his life story. It also features consultations with Jeff Beck, B. B. King, Tony Bennett, Merle Haggard, Bonnie Raitt and Steve Miller. November 2008 a tribute concert was kept in Paul’s honor at the State Theater in Cleveland Ohio, where Les Paul received the American Music Masters award from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. This fantastic accomplishment was celebrated with performances by the young and old guitarists that Paul had influenced including; Duane Eddy, Lonnie Mack, Eric Carmen, Jennifer Batten, Dennis Coffey, James Burton, Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, Billy Gibbons, Lenny Kaye, Barbara Lynn, Steve Lukather, Katy Moffatt, Richie Sambora, Alannah Myles, The Ventures, and Slash. In 2009 August 13, at the age of 94, the legend passed away due to pneumonia and added complications, he had been ill for sometime. Known as the ‘Wizard of Waukesha’, he was buried at Prairie Home Cemetery in his home town of Waukesha, in an open area that visitors may visit and compensate tribute to. Many guitarists and performers have paid tribute to the artisan that proceeds to make a lasting impression on their lives; Randy Bachman, Trey Anastasio, The Hard Lessons, Ace Frehley, John 5, Tad Kubler, B.B. King, Joe Satriani, Brian May, Tom Morello, Brian “Head” Welch, Joe Perry and Keith Richards. Slash from Guns N’ Roses said Les Paul “vibrant and full of positive energy”. The Edge, guitarist with U2 said, “his bequest as a musician and inventor will live on and his influence on Rock & Roll will never be forgotten”. The talent will be remembered for his contribution to music and the art of recording. He likewise initiated respective ground breaking guitar playing proficiencies and styles like; chord sequences, fretting, timing, trills and licks. All of which proceed to influence contemporary future guitarists. The Les Paul Gibson Sunburst electric guitar carries the name of a talent that is more than a brand name, it is the symbol of one mans life quest for perfection in a Sunburst electric guitar. The legend and guitar icon will live on and proceed to inspire and influence new and conventional musicians for some years to come. The life goal of Les Paul was simply, ‘to make persons happy’. It’s fare to say, whatsoever music style you are into, Les Paul achieved his goal. |
