Les Paul

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Les Paul
Topic Started: Aug 13 2009, 11:19 AM (158 Views)
mort bakaprevski	Aug 13 2009, 11:19 AM Post #1
Soony Roony! Posts: 1,433 Group: Members Member #73 Joined: January 1, 2006	WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) -- Les Paul, who invented the solid-body electric guitar later wielded by a legion of rock 'n' roll greats, died Thursday (8/13) of complications from pneumonia. He was 94.
	“You’ve got to take the bitter with the sour.”


panzer the great & terrible	Aug 13 2009, 11:36 AM Post #2
Mouth Breather Posts: 10,356 Group: Members Member #13 Joined: September 3, 2005	Now that is sad news. I saw him live many times when I lived in New York; what a character he was!
	We Wear Short Shorts Flying Purple People Eater


JazzGuyy	Aug 13 2009, 12:37 PM Post #3
Balcony Gang, Foist Class Posts: 2,180 Group: Members Member #110 Joined: June 1, 2006	mort bakaprevski Aug 13 2009, 11:19 AM WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) -- Les Paul, who invented the solid-body electric guitar later wielded by a legion of rock 'n' roll greats, died Thursday (8/13) of complications from pneumonia. He was 94. It is sad. I do want to correct one thing though. Paul did not invent the solid-body electric guitar, which he would readily acknowledge. That Paul invented the solid-body electric is one of the great urban myths. He was among those who improved it and made it really practical. There were solid-body instruments almost a decade before Paul's experiments. He did invent multitrack recording which became the industry standard and that alone guarantees his immortality.



mort bakaprevski	Aug 13 2009, 12:52 PM Post #4
Soony Roony! Posts: 1,433 Group: Members Member #73 Joined: January 1, 2006	panzer the great & terrible Aug 13 2009, 11:36 AM ... what a character he was! C'mon P, share some anecdotes!! When I was a kid, he definitely was my hero. I still think "How High the Moon" is one of the all-time, most exciting numbers ever recorded.
	“You’ve got to take the bitter with the sour.”


panzer the great & terrible	Aug 13 2009, 02:46 PM Post #5
Mouth Breather Posts: 10,356 Group: Members Member #13 Joined: September 3, 2005	Mine too, and I was nuts for "How High." Still am. I don't know a musician who doesn't love that record. I'm racking my brains for a story. Last time I saw him was in 71. The first thing, he was a completely manic smartass on stage, though pretty normal off. Always a sport shirt and khakis, always a line of free-associative patter. You felt like he was being terribly witty, but you never remembered anything he said. I may still have his autograph; I'll look. His fretwork was astonishing, and he seemed to know every chord there is, plus he fingered some chords oddly, just to show off I guess. Played maniacally difficult music without breaking a sweat though his facial expressions sometimes changed and dramatized what he played. Other times his face was was as impassive as Jerry Lee Lewis. He only did one set, one night a week (maybe Wednesday? A week night anyhow, I think) at around five in a West Village club I forget the name of. Not a place I usually frequented. Maybe Eddie Condon's come to think of it. He walked in, played his set, walked out. Never had a drink. Sometimes he played a whole set solo, without bass or drums. I believe I saw that twice. Once I walked into the bathroom and there he was, writing on the wall with a felt-tip pen. After he left I went to see what he wrote. Somebody had scribbled "My mother made me a homosexual" and under it he put, "If I got her the wool, would she make me one too?" Sometimes if a suit was uncool enough to repeatedly demand "How High" he would "forget" to play it, which was cool in an evil sort of way. He was not a guy to mess with. I think he saw himself as more a techie than an entertainer. He played more to show what his equipment could do than to please the people. One tune he did a lot around 1970 was "Skylark" and that's how I remember him. He kept finding new stuff in it. When he chose, he was a swing player, but he could and did play almost anything. One night when the drummer didn't show he had an acoustic and played some flamenco. Never heard him play classical, but I bet he did at home. Very unusual guy. More of a scientist than an artist, I'd say, but he was still an artist in spite of himself. It's been interesting thinking about him again. Edited by panzer the great & terrible, Aug 13 2009, 10:14 PM.
	We Wear Short Shorts Flying Purple People Eater


Black Tiger	Aug 13 2009, 06:18 PM Post #6
Charter Member Posts: 1,818 Group: Members Member #50 Joined: September 15, 2005	Les Paul will be missed. He was still a long-time weekly act at the jazz club Iridium in NYC until a couple of weeks ago. A real jazz icon.



panzer the great & terrible	Aug 13 2009, 10:09 PM Post #7
Mouth Breather Posts: 10,356 Group: Members Member #13 Joined: September 3, 2005	Where is Iridium, BT?
	We Wear Short Shorts Flying Purple People Eater


mort bakaprevski	Aug 14 2009, 08:58 AM Post #8
Soony Roony! Posts: 1,433 Group: Members Member #73 Joined: January 1, 2006	Anyone catch the PGA Champtionship broadcast on TNT yesterday? Late in the procedings, there was a shot of the leaderboard while Les & Mary rendered "Tiger Rag"... with Mary chanting "Where's that Tiger?" Afterwards one of the announcers mentioned the death of Les. Gotta admit, it kinda brought a lump to my throat!!
	“You’ve got to take the bitter with the sour.”


Chandu	Aug 14 2009, 01:19 PM Post #9
Knowledge Seeker and rascal at large Posts: 10,276 Group: Members Member #297 Joined: October 19, 2007	Growing up, Les Paul and Mary Ford were among my earliest musical heroes. Mom and dad had recordings of How High The Moon, Whispering, Tiger Rag and The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise and they're still favorites of mine to this day. Even though he was 94, I was saddened to learn of his demise. BTW, if PBS drags out their bio of him and re-airs it, it's well worth watching.
	Not plane, nor bird, nor even frog. It's just little ol' me...


Sgt King	Aug 17 2009, 08:05 PM Post #10
Charter Member Posts: 371 Group: Members Member #29 Joined: September 5, 2005	On some radio station this female commentator was saying how she loved him and he will be missed, etc. Then she referred to his as Paul Les!



mort bakaprevski	Aug 18 2009, 08:02 AM Post #11
Soony Roony! Posts: 1,433 Group: Members Member #73 Joined: January 1, 2006	WOW, I'm really impressed by who (or what) coordinates the ads with these threads. Sure enough, today there was an ad at the bottom of this thread for Gibson Les Paul guitars.
	“You’ve got to take the bitter with the sour.”


JazzGuyy	Aug 18 2009, 09:34 AM Post #12
Balcony Gang, Foist Class Posts: 2,180 Group: Members Member #110 Joined: June 1, 2006	mort bakaprevski Aug 18 2009, 08:02 AM WOW, I'm really impressed by who (or what) coordinates the ads with these threads. Sure enough, today there was an ad at the bottom of this thread for Gibson Les Paul guitars. I'm assuming there is some kind of automated scanning of the posts looking for keywords, since lots of the ads seem to track closely to things mentioned in the posts. Not sure if it is the whole post or just the title that gets tracked, probably only the latter. I suspect it's something similar to how Google brings up ads related to your search terms.



Black Tiger	Aug 18 2009, 11:06 AM Post #13
Charter Member Posts: 1,818 Group: Members Member #50 Joined: September 15, 2005	panzer the great & terrible Aug 13 2009, 10:09 PM Where is Iridium, BT? Here's the webpage for the Iridium Jazz Club, Paul: http://iridiumjazzclub.com/



mort bakaprevski	Aug 21 2009, 05:15 PM Post #14
Soony Roony! Posts: 1,433 Group: Members Member #73 Joined: January 1, 2006	Well shucks, can't have a thread on Les without this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEHJ1RtDElc
	“You’ve got to take the bitter with the sour.”


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