Obit: Les Paul, age 94, passed away 13 Aug 2009

Subject: RE: Obit: Les Paul, age 94, passed away 13 Aug 200
From: Janie
Date: 23 Aug 09 - 07:46 PM

A full length documentary movie, Les Paul - Chasing Sound can be viewed for free at hulu.

Subject: RE: Obit: Les Paul, age 94, passed away 13 Aug 2009
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 23 Aug 09 - 06:38 PM

Hey, Severn!

I grew up in Milwaukee in the '50s & '60s where Les Paul was a "local" -- AND, of course, we had Robert Hall stores, so I also grew up listening to Les Paul and Mary Ford singing the Robert Hall jingles.

Here's a great memory prod -- Robert Hall jingle

(http://www.retrocom.com/retromilw/moremilwaukeememories3.htm)

Scroll down to the photo of the Robert Hall store and click on it.

Linn

Subject: RE: Obit: Les Paul, age 94, passed away 13 Aug 2009
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego
Date: 18 Aug 09 - 07:36 PM

First, I find that Fidel Castro and I share the same birth date, August 13th.

Then, I recall that the Berlin Wall was shut on my birthday while I was in the Army.

I don't know how many Friday the 13ths I have passed, mostly uneventfully.

Now, one of my early heroes goes off our mortal coil on the same date. What's the deal?

At 94, he stuck around a long while and was still playing actively until recent months, I'm told. I still recall how very different songs like "How High The Moon" and "The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise" sounded with his sound-on-sound technique in the early 1950's.   

Check out the "Wickipedia" piece on his life and career.

Subject: RE: Obit: Les Paul, age 94, passed away 13 Aug 2009
From: foggers
Date: 18 Aug 09 - 07:42 AM

We watched the BBC documentary some months ago; it was great and made me realise just how inventive, diverse and groundbreaking his work was in so many areas. He was charming, talented, funny and never stopped doing what he loved. It is a sad loss for the world of music but his long life and spectacular array of achievements are worthy of great celebrations.

So thanks for it all Les and I hope you play on for ever!

Subject: RE: Obit: Les Paul, age 94, passed away 13 Aug 200
From: Ron Davies
Date: 18 Aug 09 - 07:07 AM

WSJ 14 Aug 2009:   ..."According to Gibson, Mr. Paul is the only person who was named to the Grammy Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the National Inventors Hall of Fame and the National Broadcasters Hall of Fame, which summarizes both how diverse and interconnected his achievements were."....

Subject: RE: Obit: Les Paul, age 94, passed away 13 Aug 2009
From: Smithsonian Folkways
Date: 17 Aug 09 - 04:32 PM

Smithsonian Folkways remembers guitar master and innovator Les Paul, who died last week. The legendary musician, whose signature solid-body electric guitar and numerous recording studio innovations have forever changed popular music, performed on two Smithsonian Folkways recordings during the late 1940s. He leads a band through the improvised Jazz at the Philharmonic- Blues, Part 3 from the 1966 release The Asch Recordings, 1939 to 1947 - Vol. 1: Blues, Gospel, and Jazz and sings Born to Lose with his wife Mary Ford on the 1967 companion album The Asch Recordings, 1939 to 1945 - Vol. 2.

Subject: RE: Obit: Les Paul, age 94, passed away 13 Aug 2009
From: Rusty Dobro
Date: 15 Aug 09 - 09:11 AM

We always had Les Paul and Mary Ford records in the house when I was growing up in the 1950's, but I never really thought he was a real-life person that you could actually meet. However, my wife and I travelled from the UK to see him at the Iridium in the week of his 80th birthday. A wonderful evening - we enjoyed the stories and memories almost as much as the music. After the show, we got to speak to him for a while, and there is now a nice signed print of some classic LP Gibsons on my wall.

Huge technical advances, great music, and the affectionate memories of so many - not a bad legacy to leave behind.

Subject: RE: Obit: Les Paul, age 94, passed away 13 Aug 2009
From: Mary Katherine
Date: 14 Aug 09 - 11:44 PM

I drove my daughter and her young man down our hill into Hollywood tonight to drop them off at a restaurant for dinner; on Vine Street, about half a block north of Sunset Blvd, there is one huge wreath and a number of smaller flower and candle offerings surrounding Les Paul & Mary Ford's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. A lovely display.

Subject: RE: Obit: Les Paul, age 94, passed away 13 Aug 2009
From: Peace
Date: 14 Aug 09 - 11:35 PM

A guitar and a half from a musician and a half.

Subject: RE: Obit: Les Paul, age 94, passed away 13 Aug 2009
From: GUEST,iancarterb
Date: 14 Aug 09 - 11:27 PM

I got to play World is Waiting for the Sunrise with another guitar player at a jam last night as a memorial homage. First Les and Mary I ever tried, with my older brother, fifty-five plus years ago. We all should be so determined and lucky about playing to our own end. Wow. RIP.

Subject: RE: Obit: Les Paul, age 94, passed away 13 Aug 2009
From: 3refs
Date: 14 Aug 09 - 04:39 PM

Where ever you've gone, I hope there's a place to plug in your guitar!

RIP

Subject: RE: Obit: Les Paul, age 94, passed away 13 Aug 2009
From: GUEST,matt manning
Date: 14 Aug 09 - 12:08 PM

Les Paul designed a great guitar.
A great guitarist played it like the musical instrument is WAS until the 70's. PETER GREEN.

Subject: RE: Obit: Les Paul, age 94, passed away 13 Aug 2009
From: Mooh
Date: 14 Aug 09 - 08:55 AM

Remember when The Who sang "I hope I die before I get old"? Well, Les Paul never got old.

Peace, Mooh.

Subject: RE: Obit: Les Paul, age 94, passed away 13 Aug 2009
From: evansakes
Date: 14 Aug 09 - 08:52 AM

Forever associated of course with the Gibson guitar and undoubtedly a good player.

But for me his lasting legacy is as a true pioneer of multi-tracking recording techniques. In this area he was the King.

Subject: RE: Obit: Les Paul, age 94, passed away 13 Aug 2009
From: Mooh
Date: 14 Aug 09 - 08:52 AM

As an inveterate reader of Guitar Player Magazine from about '72 on, and being one of those guitar shop layabouts for years, I was one who worshiped Les Paul. When the Chester & Lester record came out I finally tried to interest my rocker friends in the style too. It always seemed to me that his playing transcended style. He had such great and musical ideas in his playing, to say nothing of his electronic prowess, and his entertainment smarts.

I wait for the endless tributes, though I hope Gibson doesn't go too over the top as they can do sometimes. There's very little more that can be said or done for and about the man.

Peace, Mooh.

Subject: RE: Obit: Les Paul, age 94, passed away 13 Aug 2009
From: Gedi
Date: 14 Aug 09 - 08:37 AM

Like Mick Woods above, I too only realised the full extent of Les Pauls' influence on guitar development and the use of electronic recording techniques after watching the recent BBC documentary.

This leads me to wonder what the next development in music will be to rival Les Pauls acheivement. Or indeed if it will ever be equalled.

RIP Les.

Subject: RE: Obit: Les Paul, age 94, passed away 13 Aug 2009
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 14 Aug 09 - 08:23 AM

So good he was still playing up to the end. Saw him on a BBC programme earlier in the year: looked amazing for his age.His The World is Waiting for the Sunrise was always one of my favourites- almost as good as the DeParis Brothers band version.

RtS

Subject: RE: Obit: Les Paul, age 94, passed away 13 Aug 2009
From: goatfell
Date: 14 Aug 09 - 03:53 AM

so sad RIP

Subject: RE: Obit: Les Paul, age 94, passed away 13 Aug 2009
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 14 Aug 09 - 01:53 AM

FYI, that New York Times article has linked to it a nice 15-minute video piece, based on a 2008 interview with him.

the link, again.

Subject: RE: Obit: Les Paul, age 94, passed away 13 Aug 2009
From: Severn
Date: 13 Aug 09 - 08:28 PM

A few years ago, I went up to New York City with my cousin, who wanted to make a pilgrimmage up to the Irridium Club to see him before he died. He not only put on a fine show with his band (which had two other guitarists to cover some of the original recorded effects in occaisional unison passeges), but talked with us afterwards and graciously autographed the pick guard from my cousin's Gibson Les Paul, which he'd brought up in hopes of having Les do so.

The other important Les Paul memory I have is hearing the radio on in my parents room as they got up each morning and hearing Les & Mary doing the Robert Hall clothing store jingle at the same time every weekday morning . Being a kid and not understanding finances and continually hearing them sing "Low overhead, low overhead", I wondered if you had to duck each time you went into the store, as our family never shopped there. We could tell if we were running on time ourselves dressing for school by hearing that and "Northwest Or-i-ent (bong bong,bong!) Air Li-i-i-ines....." every morning.


But the daily morning jingle that Les & Mary sang went something like:

When the values go up up, up
And the prices go down, down, down
Robert Hall this season
Will show you the reason
Low overhead, low overhead.


Anway, thanks for the music, the memories and the innovations. Rest in Peace.


I think I'll give my cousin in Atlanta a call and see if he's heard.....

Subject: RE: Obit: Les Paul, age 94, passed away 13 Aug 2009
From: catspaw49
Date: 13 Aug 09 - 06:27 PM

There are not enough words to tell the impact/influence and everything else he contributed.   He had a great run and the world of music is ten thousand fold better for his life.

Thanks for it all Les!

Spaw

Subject: RE: Obit: Les Paul, age 94, passed away 13 Aug 2009
From: GUEST,Mick Woods
Date: 13 Aug 09 - 06:19 PM

I saw a documentary about Les Paul a short while ago on BBC. I didn't realise how much he had achieved in his life. Fantastic speed guitar playing with multi tracking and spaced out effects in this was in the 1940s! Farewell to a legend.

Subject: RE: Obit: Les Paul, age 94, passed away 13 Aug 200
From: Genie
Date: 13 Aug 09 - 05:56 PM

Quote: [[His childhood piano teacher wrote to his mother, "Your boy, Lester, will never learn music." ]]

Which is probably why that person was a piano teacher and Les Paul was - well, Les Paul.

Les Paul didn't have to be taught music. He just created it and let it out.

G

Subject: RE: Obit: Les Paul, age 94, passed away
From: Brakn
Date: 13 Aug 09 - 03:19 PM

An ispiration. RIP

Subject: RE: Obit: Les Paul, age 94, passed away
From: alanabit
Date: 13 Aug 09 - 02:48 PM

What a life! The Les Paul electric guitar will always be my favourite.

Subject: Obit: Les Paul
From: lisa null
Date: 13 Aug 09 - 02:47 PM

News that the incomparable Les Paul just died--

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jBD78k8tewQ7FPeiKtJbK8QPmtzAD9A25G000

What a great force for musical innovation, let alone his own musical wizardry.

Subject: RE: Obit: Les Paul, age 94, passed away
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 13 Aug 09 - 02:27 PM

It's amazing to think that Les was born years before Charlie Parker and Hank Williams, and was only 5 years younger than Django.

Subject: RE: Obit: Les Paul, age 94, passed away
From: irishenglish
Date: 13 Aug 09 - 02:26 PM

The location changed a few years ago, but the Iridium used to be 5 blocks from my apartment, where Les would drive in from Mahwah and do his Monday night shows. Did I ever go? No. Do I regret it? Yes. My wife and I watched a profile of Les on American Experience last year on PBS. She's normally not interested with details of music making, and although I had played Les and Mary for her, which she enjoyed, it wasn't until she saw all the innovations Les came up with that she truly understood why he was so important. Like others have said, living and playing until 94 is nothing to shake a stick at. RIP Les, you left one hell of a legacy.

Subject: RE: Obit: Les Paul, age 94, passed away
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 13 Aug 09 - 02:24 PM

Of course, lots of Clapton fans think he produced his best music with a Les Paul!

Subject: RE: Obit: Les Paul, age 94, passed away
From: GUEST,Neil D
Date: 13 Aug 09 - 02:19 PM

Mary and Les

Subject: RE: Obit: Les Paul, age 94, passed away
From: GUEST,Neil D
Date: 13 Aug 09 - 02:15 PM

More Les and Chet

Subject: RE: Obit: Les Paul, age 94, passed away
From: Jamming With Ollie Beak (inactive)
Date: 13 Aug 09 - 02:12 PM

"Other than some mistakes such as "go to guitar for artist's such as Eric Clapton..."(?...he plays a Strat)."
- GUEST,jeff
Doesn't look like a Strat to me

Subject: RE: Obit: Les Paul, age 94, passed away
From: GUEST,Neil D
Date: 13 Aug 09 - 02:04 PM

Chester and Lester

Subject: RE: Obit: Les Paul, age 94, passed away
From: open mike
Date: 13 Aug 09 - 01:51 PM

listen to him here..also with Chet Adkins and Mary ford
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZ_5ubk2H4k&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AP7qI5RVtxw&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPZrgebMLAw&feature=related

Subject: RE: Obit: Les Paul, age 94, passed away
From: GUEST,jeff
Date: 13 Aug 09 - 01:10 PM

Other than some mistakes such as "go to guitar for artist's such as Eric Clapton..."(?...he plays a Strat). Most articles are a fitting tribute for THE industry changing inventor. Sargent Pepper, Are You Experienced?, Dookie, etc. all owe a huge debt of thanks to the inventor of modern music. And he GAVE away the technology. Every recording studio in the world should send his estate a royalty. We've lost a true giant.

My favorite Les Paul recording is the one he did with Chet Atkins called 'Chester and Lester'. When asked by Chet Atkins, "What about all those clams(mistakes)? Les replied, "Leave 'em in. Let 'em know we're human." Had a regular gig up to a couple of months ago. What a man. RIP, Mr. Paul.

Subject: RE: Obit: Les Paul, age 94, passed away
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 13 Aug 09 - 01:10 PM

Les Paul, Guitar Innovator, Dies at 94
By JON PARELES
New York Times, August 13, 2009

Les Paul, the virtuoso guitarist and inventor whose solid-body electric guitar and recording studio innovations changed the course of 20th-century popular music, died Thursday in White Plains. He was 94.

The cause was complications of pneumonia, the Gibson Guitar Corporation announced.

Mr. Paul was a remarkable musician as well as a tireless tinkerer. He played guitar with leading prewar jazz and pop musicians from Louis Armstrong to Bing Crosby. In the 1930s he began experimenting with guitar amplification, and by 1941 he had built what was probably the first solid-body electric guitar, although there are other claimants. With his electric guitar and the vocals of his wife, Mary Ford, he used overdubbing, multitrack recording and new electronic effects to create a string of hits in the 1950s.

Mr. Paul's style encompassed the twang of country music, the harmonic richness of jazz and, later, the bite of rock 'n' roll. For all his technological impact, though, he remained a down-home performer whose main goal, he often said, was to make people happy.

Mr. Paul, whose original name was Lester William Polfus, was born on June 9, 1915, in Waukesha, Wis. His childhood piano teacher wrote to his mother, "Your boy, Lester, will never learn music." But he picked up harmonica, guitar and banjo by the time he was a teenager and started playing with country bands in the Midwest. In Chicago he performed for radio broadcasts on WLS and led the house band at WJJD; he billed himself as the Wizard of Waukesha, Hot Rod Red and Rhubarb Red.

His interest in gadgets came early. At 10 years old he devised a harmonica holder from a coat hanger. Soon afterward he made his first amplified guitar by opening the back of a Sears acoustic model and inserting, behind the strings, the pickup from a dismantled Victrola. With the record player on, the acoustic guitar became an electric one. Later, he built his own pickup from ham radio earphone parts and assembled a recording machine from a Cadillac flywheel and the belt from a dentist's drill.

From country music Mr. Paul moved into jazz, influenced by players like Django Reinhardt and Eddie Lang, who were using amplified hollow-body guitars to play hornlike single-note solo lines. He formed the Les Paul Trio in 1936 and moved to New York, where he was heard regularly on Fred Waring's radio show from 1938 to 1941.

In 1940 or 1941 — the exact date is unknown — , Mr. Paul made his guitar breakthrough. Seeking to create electronically sustained notes on the guitar, he attached strings and two pickups to a wooden board with a guitar neck. "The log," as he called it, was probably the first solid-body electric guitar and became the most influential one. "You could go out and eat and come back and the note would still be sounding," Mr. Paul once said.

The odd-looking instrument drew derision when he first played it in public, so he hid the works inside a conventional-looking guitar. But the log was a conceptual turning point. With no acoustic resonance of its own, it was designed to generate an electronic signal that could be amplified and processed — the beginning of a sonic transformation of the world's music.

Mr. Paul was drafted in 1942 and worked for the Armed Forces Radio Service, accompanying Rudy Vallee, Kate Smith and others. When he was discharged in 1943, he was hired as a staff musician for NBC radio in Los Angeles. His trio toured with the Andrews Sisters and backed Nat King Cole and Bing Crosby, with whom he recorded the hit "It's Been a Long, Long Time" in 1945. Crosby encouraged Mr. Paul to build his own recording studio, and so he did, in his garage in Los Angeles.

There he experimented with recording techniques, using them to create not realistic replicas of a performance but electronically enhanced fabrications. Toying with his mother's old Victrola had shown him that changing the speed of a recording could alter both pitch and timbre. He could record at half-speed and replay the results at normal speed, creating the illusion of superhuman agility. He altered instrumental textures through microphone positioning and reverberation. Technology and studio effects, he realized, were instruments themselves.

He also noticed that by recording along with previous recordings, he could become a one-man ensemble. As early as his 1948 hit "Lover," he made elaborate, multilayered recordings, using two acetate disc machines, which demanded that each layer of music be recorded in a single take. From discs he moved to magnetic tape, and in the late 1950s he built the first eight-track multitrack recorder. Each track could be recorded and altered separately, without affecting the others. The machine ushered in the modern recording era.

In 1947 Mr. Paul teamed up with Colleen Summers, who had been singing with Gene Autry's band. He changed her name to Mary Ford, a name found in a telephone book.

They were touring in 1948 when Mr. Paul's car skidded off an icy bridge. Among his many injuries, his right elbow was shattered; once set, it would be immovable. Mr. Paul had it set at an angle, slightly less than 90 degrees, so that he could continue to play guitar.

Mr. Paul, whose first marriage, to Virginia, had ended in divorce, married Ms. Ford in 1949. Together they had a television show, "Les Paul and Mary Ford at Home," which was broadcast from their living room until 1958. They began recording together, mixing multiple layers of her vocals with Mr. Paul's guitars and effects, and the dizzying results became hits in the early 1950s. Among their more than three dozen hits, "Mockingbird Hill," "How High the Moon" and "The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise" in 1951 and "Vaya Con Dios" in 1953 were million-sellers.

Some of their music was recorded with microphones hanging in various rooms of the house, including one over the kitchen sink, where Ms. Ford could record vocals while washing dishes. Mr. Paul also recorded instrumentals on his own, including the hits "Whispering," "Tiger Rag" and "Meet Mister Callaghan" in 1951-52.

The Gibson company hired Mr. Paul to design a Les Paul model guitar in 1952, and Les Paul models have sold steadily ever since, accounting at one point for half of the company's total sales. Built of a thick layer of maple over a mahogany body, with Mr. Paul's patented pickups, his design is prized for its clarity and sustained tone. It has been used by musicians like Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page and Slash of Guns N' Roses.

In the mid-1950s, Mr. Paul and Ms. Ford moved to a house in Mahwah, N.J., where Mr. Paul eventually installed film and recording studios and amassed a collection of hundreds of guitars.

The couple's string of hits ended in 1961, and they were divorced in 1964. Ms. Ford died in 1977. Mr. Paul is survived by three sons, Gene, Russell and Robert, and a daughter, Colleen. In 1964, Mr. Paul underwent surgery for a broken eardrum, and he began suffering from arthritis in 1965. Through the 1960s he concentrated on designing guitars for Gibson. He invented and patented various pickups and transducers, as well as devices like the Les Paulverizer, an echo-repeat device, which he introduced in 1974. In the late 1970s he made two albums with the dean of country guitarists, Chet Atkins.

In 1981 Mr. Paul underwent one of the first quintuple-bypass heart operations. After recuperating, he returned to performing, though the progress of his arthritis forced him to relearn the guitar. In 1983 he started to play weekly performances at Fat Tuesday's, an intimate Manhattan jazz club. "I was always happiest playing in a club," he said in a 1987 interview. "So I decided to find a nice little club in New York that I would be happy to play in." After Fat Tuesday's closed in 1995, he moved his Monday-night residency to Iridium.

At his shows he used one of his own customized guitars, which included a microphone on a gooseneck pointing toward his mouth so that he could talk through the guitar. In his sets he would mix reminiscences, wisecracks and comments with versions of jazz standards. Guests — famous and unknown — showed up to pay homage or test themselves against him. Despite paralysis in fingers on both hands, he retained some of his remarkable speed and fluency. Mr. Paul also performed regularly at jazz festivals through the 1980s.

He recorded a final album, "American Made, World Played" (Capitol), to celebrate his 90th birthday in 2005. It featured guest appearances by Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Jeff Beck, Sting, Joe Perry of Aerosmith and Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top. The album brought him two Grammy Awards: for best pop instrumental performance and best rock instrumental performance. He had already won Grammy recognition for technical achievements.

In recent years, he said he was working on another major invention but would not reveal what it was. "Honestly, I never strove to be an Edison," he said in a 1991 interview in The New York Times. "The only reason I invented these things was because I didn't have them and neither did anyone else. I had no choice, really."

Subject: RE: Obit: Les Paul, age 94, passed away
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 13 Aug 09 - 01:09 PM

What a life! Nice job, Les! A life lived long and well is no cause for sadness.

Subject: RE: Obit: Les Paul, age 94, passed away
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 13 Aug 09 - 01:08 PM

Now, you are talking legend!

Subject: RE: Obit: Les Paul, age 94, passed away
From: jeffp
Date: 13 Aug 09 - 01:03 PM

A very nice man as well as possibly the greatest innovator in music. I met him at a music store grand opening and he spent about a half-hour with a bunch of young admirers, telling stories and signing autographs for anyone who approached. Then he got up and played some of the most amazing music I ever heard.

Seems to be the week for famous people that I've met. Damn.

Subject: RE: Obit: Les Paul, age 94, passed away
From: Mooh
Date: 13 Aug 09 - 12:57 PM

My God, what sad news! If ever there was someone who was a brother and father to all guitar players, it was Les Paul.

Heaven just got a lot jazzier. May he rest in peace.

Peace, Mooh.

Subject: RE: Obit: Les Paul, age 94, passed away
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Aug 09 - 12:56 PM

He had a great run, a wonderful life. This is to be commended, and celebrated.

SRS

Subject: RE: Obit: Les Paul, age 94, passed away
From: Genie
Date: 13 Aug 09 - 12:55 PM

Another legend gone but leaving a tremendous legacy of music.   How wonderful that Les Paul lived a long and musically fruitful live and overcame such obstacles to keep going so long. Now that "heavenly choir and band" has another great member.

Genie

Subject: RE: Obit: Les Paul, age 94, passed away
From: Dennis the Elder
Date: 13 Aug 09 - 12:43 PM

Obituaries are needed and indicate honour to the person concerned. Its good people dying that we get too much of.
We will be very lucky if we are blessed with any guitarists who are both better and more ingenuitive than Les Paul.

Subject: Obit: Les Paul, 1915-2009
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 13 Aug 09 - 12:38 PM

Guitar, studio wizard Les Paul dies at 94

By Todd Leopold

(CNN) -- Les Paul, whose innovations with the electric guitar and studio technology made him one of the most important figures in recorded music, has died, according to a statement from his publicists. Paul was 94.

Paul died in White Plains, New York, from complications of severe pneumonia, according to the statement.

Paul was a guitar and electronics mastermind whose creations -- such as multitrack recording, tape delay and the solid-body guitar that bears his name, the Gibson Les Paul -- helped give rise to modern popular music, including rock 'n' roll. No slouch on the guitar himself, he continued playing at clubs into his 90s despite being hampered by arthritis.

"If you only have two fingers [to work with], you have to think, how will you play that chord?" he told CNN.com in a 2002 phone interview. "So you think of how to replace that chord with several notes, and it gives the illusion of sounding like a chord."

Lester William Polfuss was born in Waukesha, Wisconsin, on June 9, 1915. Even as a child he showed an aptitude for tinkering, taking apart electric appliances to see what made them tick.

"I had to build it, make it and perfect it," Paul said in 2002. He was nicknamed the "Wizard of Waukesha."

In the 1930s and '40s, he played with several big band singers, including Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and the Andrews Sisters, as well as with his own Les Paul Trio. In the early 1950s, he had a handful of huge hits with his then-wife, Mary Ford, such as "How High the Moon" and "Vaya Con Dios."

His guitar style, heavily influenced by jazzman Django Reinhardt, featured lightning-quick runs and double-time rhythms. In 1948, after being involved in a severe car accident, he asked the doctor to set his arm permanently in a guitar-playing position.

Paul also credited Crosby for teaching him about timing, phrasing and preparation.

Crosby "didn't say it, he did it -- one time only. Unless he blew the lyrics, he did one take."

Paul never stopped tinkering with electronics, and after Crosby gave him an early audiotape recorder, Paul went to work changing it. It eventually led to multitrack recording; on Paul and Ford's hits, he plays many of the guitar parts, and Ford harmonizes with herself. Multitrack recording is now the industry standard.

But Paul likely will be best remembered for the Gibson Les Paul, a variation on the solid-body guitar he built in the late 1930s and offered to the guitar company.

"For 10 years, I was a laugh," he told CNN in an interview. "[But] kept pounding at them and pounding at them saying hey, here's where it's at. Here's where tomorrow, this is it. You can drown out anybody with it. And you can make all these different sounds that you can't do with a regular guitar."

Gibson, spurred by rival Fender, finally took Paul up on his offer and introduced the model in 1952. It has since become the go-to guitar for such performers as Eric Clapton.

Paul is enshrined in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Inventors Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

He admired the places guitarists and engineers took his inventions, but he said there was nothing to replace good, old-fashioned elbow grease and soul.

"I learned a long time ago that one note can go a long way if it's the right one," he said in 2002, "and it will probably whip the guy with 20 notes."

Subject: RE: Obit: Les Paul, age 94, passed away
From: Bobert
Date: 13 Aug 09 - 12:36 PM

Sniff...

Subject: RE: Obit: Les Paul, age 94, passed away
From: olddude
Date: 13 Aug 09 - 12:34 PM

just posted it also sorry please delete my thread

anyway ... best electric guitar ever made IMO

and what a life he had ... We can only celebrate his work and raise a glass to the guy

Rest in Peace

Subject: RE: Obit: Les Paul, age 94, passed away
From: Alice
Date: 13 Aug 09 - 12:33 PM

An amazing talent in many ways.

Subject: RE: Obit: Les Paul, age 94, passed away
From: Wesley S
Date: 13 Aug 09 - 12:31 PM

Talk about an innovator. He changed the sound of recorded music. And I understand he started as Bing Crosbys guitarist.

Subject: RE: Obit: Les Paul, age 94, passed away
From: Paco Rabanne
Date: 13 Aug 09 - 12:29 PM

Agreed, and his name will always be attached to THE electric guitar, the Les Paul Custom. It may be anathema to you lot but I've had a few of them in my time, and they ring out like no other guitar.

Subject: RE: Obit: Les Paul, age 94, passed away
From: SINSULL
Date: 13 Aug 09 - 12:29 PM

As a little girl I listened to Les Paul and Mary Ford on the radio and tried to figure out how she managed to sing harmony with herself. I was convinced it was a trick and tried forever to duplicate it.
RIP beyond the blue horizon.