The legend, Les Paul dead at 94

F1nut

An interview with Les Paul 9 months before his death.

"When I was a kid there was only one person in my hometown that played the guitar, and that was me. It was all piano in the old days. The guitar was rare.

What we did was take an acoustical instrument -- which was a very apologetic, wonderful, meek instrument -- and turned it into a pit bull. And that's what happened -- the guitar started to become more important in Waukesha, Wisc., the Chicago area, the Midwest. In 1930, I was already playing on the electric guitar, playing in a little bar in Cleveland, in Rochester, some state fairs. I played Ithaca, Binghamton, Rochester, all the way up to Boston, just everywhere you could play between Chicago and New York, exposing this instrument to all the players or those that would like to be players. Soon everybody wanted a guitar. It was just unbelievable. The people were running up and down the street going from one store to the other.

And there was no such thing as amplifiers, so I had to build my own -- I took my mother's radio and I turned it into one. I did the same thing with a guitar. I just took the guitar and said, 'Hey, it's not loud enough.' I was playing a little barbecue stand halfway to Milwaukee and some critic that was sitting in the backseat of a car, ordering a sandwich, wrote a note that said, 'You know, what you're doing right out there is great, but your guitar is not loud enough.' So I went home and told mom about it. She said, 'You'll figure it out, you'll figure it out.' What I figured out was how to make that guitar louder and better. First, I took an acoustical guitar and ended up filling it with Plaster of Paris. I tried everything, and it finally worked. I said, 'I'm gonna make two guitars, one out of wood and one out of a big long piece of railroad track and make both of them identical.' I used the same telephone for a pickup, the part that you listen to on the telephone, the magnet and the coil. I placed that under the string and I was just playing through my mother's radio. Between the wooden guitar and the metal one, the railroad track was much better. I ran to my mother, saying, 'I found it! I found it!' My mother said, 'The day you see a cowboy on a horse playing a railroad track,' and she blew me right out of the water with that. I said, 'It's got to be wood. Okay, we're gonna make it the most beautiful piece of dense wood that will be as close to that railroad track as we can get with that good sound.'

I remember I would go into a club in the very early days with my electric. I didn't care who was there with his saxophone or trumpet or piano or drums, I could drown them out. It became a monster, from a wimp to a monster.

I think of the impact often. I was lucky young kids came along -- Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck -- and said, 'I wanna do that.'"

Thanks for all that you did for the music. RIP

ESavinon

RIP. I have fond memories of les playing at the blue note.

Knucklehead

great article...RIP.

Toolfan66

RIP...

What's really sad is his death will get very little attention compared to MJ.
Les Paul's death is a huge loss to music. Not that MJ wasn't but this is just as big of loss to music if not a bigger loss. Just my opinon of course.

comfortablycurt

This is a huge loss to the world of music. Les Paul was a VERY big influence in the way we all play and enjoy music to this day. Without him...a lot of music may never have been. Sure, someone else may have come up with the solid body electric guitar...but who knows how much farther down the road it would have been?

Les Paul was an incredible guitarist, and a true pioneer in the music world. He thought outside the box, which is one of the things that makes music so great. You aren't held back by boundaries or limitations...it's freedom of expression, in whatever form you can imagine or invent. Les Paul understood this more than most people.

Les Paul was one of the biggest musical influences to me personally...I heard of his death on the radio at work today. It's been in the back of my mind ever since. I can't imagine where I'd be if Les had never created the solid body electric guitar. Thanks, Les, for giving me the device that I've gotten so much enjoyment out of through my life.

At least he managed to live a good full life. I doubt I'll live to be 94...

The heavenly choir has just gotten an incredible new musician.

RIP Les Paul. You'll be missed.:(

danz1906

Rest in Peace

lightman1

Les Paul made modern music what it is today.
A tip o' the hat to Mr. Paul.

fossy

'Hey, it's not loud enough.' --- Les Paul

Anyone that says that has just got to be a friend of mine.

A true class act.Where would this world be without the wonderful contributions of Les Paul ?? Alot worse off ..

R.I.P Mr. Les Paul

heiney9

Great article. I've seen many interviews, excerpts, etc. over the years and the man was so humble and just loved to play guitar. He had all the greats in awe of him and he still was as approachable as your next door neighbor.

I remember several interaction with he and Jimmy Page and they were both in awe of each other a true admiration from each towards each other. I think it's amazing that even right up until his death all he wanted to do was play guitar.

He was one of the all time greats and I felt a lump in my stomach when I read the news and that doesn't happen very often with me.

Something tells me this won;t get the press Michael Jackson did..........how fu*ked up is that!!!!!!

jacob.simpson

Rest in Peace

cnh

heiney9 wrote: »

Great article. I've seen many interviews, excerpts, etc. over the years and the man was so humble and just loved to play guitar. He had all the greats in awe of him and he still was as approachable as your next door neighbor.

I remember several interaction with he and Jimmy Page and they were both in awe of each other a true admiration from each towards each other. I think it's amazing that even right up until his death all he wanted to do was play guitar.

He was one of the all time greats and I felt a lump in my stomach when I read the news and that doesn't happen very often with me.

Something tells me this won;t get the press Michael Jackson did..........how fu*ked up is that!!!!!!

Absolutely, the coverage of this Musical Giant...was almost a throw-away compared with the weeks and weeks of M.J.

And few could have summed up his effect on music better than Curt above.

Nice article....

I too was stunned when I heard this on NPR! In my car?

Les Paul a real Mensch!

cnh

megasat16

All the good ones are gone....But at 94, I say he has a life time of fun before he decided to take a rest.


RIP Paul!

chef-nick

everything he did went to 11! RIP!

Danny Tse

NPR story on the passing of Les Paul, along with 20 mins "Fresh Air" interview

36 gold records....inductee to multiple Hall of Fames....Grammy winner....father of electric guitar and multitrack recording....

That's quite a legacy. RIP Mr. Paul