Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[variable_star]

At 94, it's not terribly surprising. But damn, here was a man.

NEW YORK - Les Paul, the guitarist and inventor who changed the course of music with the electric guitar and multitrack recording and had a string of hits, many with wife Mary Ford, died on Thursday. He was 94. According to Gibson Guitar, Paul died of complications from pneumonia at White Plains Hospital. His family and friends were by his side. He had been hospitalized in February 2006 when he learned he won two Grammys for an album he released after his 90th birthday, “Les Paul & Friends: American Made, World Played.”

“I feel like a condemned building with a new flagpole on it,” he joked. As an inventor, Paul helped bring about the rise of rock ’n’ roll and 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. With Ford, his wife from 1949 to 1962, he earned 36 gold records and 11 No. 1 pop hits, including “Vaya Con Dios,” “How High the Moon,” “Nola” and “Lover.” Many of their songs used overdubbing techniques that Paul the inventor 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.

The use of electric guitar gained popularity in the mid-to-late 1940s, and then exploded with the advent of rock in the 1950s. “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 traditional 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. - MSNBC

[MrBlu]

 

[NotAFanOfFenders]

this is not good

FUCK

[celticgeek]

Well, crap.  Another good man lost to the world.

[Windyo]

Lower the flags, a good man has passed, he has reached the last of frontiers... 

[JD]

Wow

[Johnny C]

It was bound to happen sometime.

Les Paul, you helped make much of contemporary music possible, and through both your inventions and your music inspired many of the artists I personally enjoy. Thanks for living the life that you did. Salut!

[greenMonkey]

This is the guy who, after a catastrophic car accident, had the doctors permanently set his arm in a position so he could still play guitar.  What a monolithic figure.

[Lummer]

The average level of "cool" and "awesome" just dropped 50% worldwide.

[MadassAlex]

Les Paul, you are responsible for me being the musician I am.

I think that's pretty cool. Thanks, dude.

R.I.P

[Orbert]

Nice tribute in today's comic, too.  I'm sure there were a lot of people who'd heard of him, but didn't realize everything this guy did.  I'm usually not a big fan of webcomix trying to be preachy or educational, but this was completely appropriate.  People need to know.

[Mr. Doctor]

The average level of "cool" and "awesome" just dropped 50% worldwide.

I second that... There aren't many brilliant dudes left in the world 

[philharmonic]

Looks to me like he had a long and full life. Well done !!

Unfortunaly I did not yet have the awesome pleasure of owning a guitar of his design.

[Mr. Doctor]

Oh yeah, I forgot to say that.
94 years... Few people have such a long life full of events.

[The Duke]

For those who since have rocked...we salute you, Les Paul.