Electric guitar legend Les Paul dies, age 94

[Refugee 7]

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Legendary guitarist and inventor Les Paul, who pioneered designs of electric guitars, has died of complications from pneumonia at a New York hospital, his lawyer said on Thursday. He was 94.

Attorney Michael Braunstein said Paul died at the White Plains Hospital in White Plains, New York. He added that Paul had been "in and out of the hospital" for about two months and had battled a number of illnesses.

"At 94, it's hard to fight a lot of stuff," Braunstein said. "He's a historical person. He certainly has left his mark here on Earth and had many, many friends."

Paul had been a dominant force in the music business since World War Two. He and wife Mary Ford enjoyed a string of hits in the 1940s and 1950s that included "Mockin' Bird Hill" and "How High the Moon."

A passionate tinkerer, he created one of the first solid-body electric guitars in 1941, and went on to pioneer multi-track recording.

Paul played a key role in the birth of rock 'n' roll in the early 1950s when he teamed up with Gibson Guitar Corp. to help design a sleek model that bears his name. An instant success, its basic structure has barely changed over the decades.

Despite arthritis and hearing problems, Paul remained an indefatigable musician, playing regularly at a New York jazz club into his 90s.

Paul is survived by three sons, a daughter and several grandchildren and great grandchildren, Braunstein.

[nurktwin 2,143]

R.I.P. 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."

[Athena 7]

I am in NYC right now and saw this as soon as I got up. I was hoping to catch one of his shows while I'm here but he wasn't scheduled. I wonder if there will be a memorial of some kind at the jazz club.

[angelic_22 0]

Wow what a sad day. Les was an amazing performer and I got to see him perform live many years ago.

From the source: http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Music/08/13/obit.les.paul/index.html He is quoted as saying,

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

I read that and thought that sounds like something that typifies Mike Campbell's playing - never a wasted note.

Go with God Les. You will be missed.

[Echosoftom 3]

Wow, 94 years old! What a brilliant and talented man. A true legend. R.I.P. Les.

[KansasPettyFan 1]

Rest in peace, Les Paul.

[Marion 1,411]

Very sad news. He sure gave a lot to the music industry. He is a true legend.

Tom Petty played a couple of his songs on his Buried Treasure show over the past couple of years. Here is one of them along with a little conversation with Les's wife Mary. It is so cute.

www.mudcrutch.com/marion/LesPaul.mp3

Rest in peace Les.

[Wildflower15 0]

94?!? I hope I make it that long!

RIP Les.

[WildflowerNJ 136]

Rest in Peace, Les.....

[ronald_wilson@charter.net 1]

about four years ago my nephew and his wife visited NYC on their honeymoon and went to the place where les paul played his monday night gig. my nephew a guitar player himself was excited at this chance for this to happen. of course his young wife really did not know les paul from the man in the moon. but they had a really nice dinner and then to see thiss genius of a man preform. my nephew got his autograph and got to shake the hand of a great inventor. he lights up still when he talks about it today.

[JohnsonBibbyWag 0]

what a long life! RIP les paul, you will forever be remembered and missed :heart:

[Doozie 0]

Les Paul.....will allways keep living thru his beautifull classic Gibson Les Paul guitars..

The Beautifull Sunburst and Gold top Les Paul standards......!!

I was privilledged to meet him one or two times while he was visiting Gibson USA IN Nashville TN!!