Waukesha Wisconsin was home for Les Paul but it would seem he didn't spend much time there once he learned to play guitar. He played on air as a live musician in St. Louis and Chicago radio in the 1930s even though he was born in 1915. He was a high school drop out.
He gets credit for the solid body electric guitar (1939). He developed multi track recording and many audio effects like phasing and delay. The details can be argued but there is little doubt that he was a pioneer in creating a whole new world of recorded music. In 1950, Les hosted his own radio show on NBC. While he kept inventing, he never stopped playing the guitar. He was a relentless performer and won 2 Grammy awards at age 90.
There are other honors of course. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, National Inventors Hall of Fame, and the Grammy Hall of Fame are all on the list. He was a creative tornado that even a severe car accident in 1948 could not stop. Paul had only limited use of his right arm after that and had doctors set it in such a way that he could still hold his guitar.
You can get more details on Wikipedia and many other sites. We just wanted to take a moment to applaud his talent and passion.
To seem him in action demonstrating the Les Paul-verizer watch this.
Les Paul died at age 94 on August 13, 2009.
No comments:
Post a Comment