August 13, 2009

Today is a day of sadness. Les Paul, a creator of the soild body Gibson Les Paul guitar,  passed away at the age of 94. He was greatly loved, greatly respected, deeply admired, an amazing talent and musician. His great influence to the world with his design and ideas will be forever cherished. I thank you Les for your heart and spirit and thanks God for your walk on this earth. I will always love  you Les for your gift to me and to the world.

Smokehouse

Guitar Legend Les Paul Dies at 94

In this Nov. 5, 1951 file photo, Les Paul and his wife, Mary Ford, perform with their guitars.

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 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 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 Jimmie 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.

Response From Charlie Craft

I appreciate the e-mail, and I went to your link and checked that out also.  I had already heard about Mr. Paul.  But what's been going through my mind is that with Mr. Paul and Mr. Atkins gone, and knowing that no one can take their place or fill their shoes, who do we look up to now?  Or do we just recognize and see each of these great icons in those left behind that carry on what these two introduced to the world of guitar players?  It's truly a great loss.  But through people like you that had the respect for this man for all he did for the industry through out his life, through your music he'll live on everytime you pick a string on your guitar.  You have been given a "great gift" from a "great man".  Continue to use it and carry it to the next step.  I think that would be a fitting legacy for Mr. Paul.  It's gonna be up to you to make sure the young guns know who the man was.  A man they have never seen, much less heard of.  And it'll be up to you how Mr. Paul will be portrayed to them.  I believe that each "true" guitar player has now taken on the cloak of this man.  Each of you have the honor and the task to introduce this man to the world through each lick you play.  To pass on the gift that he gave you.