Les Paul: A Tribute
| Posted in Guitar
There are dates in history that become milestones in music, and some special events that will be remembered for a lifetime; like the deaths of Buddy Holly, Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon and more recently Michael Jackson. For me, 13th August 2009 will be one of those dates.
Lester William Polfus, ‘Les Paul’, has died aged 94. Up until recently he was playing with his trio every week in a tiny jazz club in New York, still dazzling rapt audiences with his fluid playing and amusing them with his off the wall humour and an endless stream of anecdotes.
It is still a sticky subject as to whether he actually designed the Gibson Les Paul guitar which has born his name since 1952. Gibson say they took it to him more or less finished and just wanted him to put his name on it. Les of course had a different story!
Whatever its origins it doesn’t really matter, The Les Paul has become an American icon, the most significant advance ever in glued neck electric guitar construction, and an aspirational and inspirational instrument for musicians all over the world.
1959 was Gibson’s ‘golden year’. The Les Pauls from that year are now the most revered and expensive electric guitars in the world. They only made a few hundred and at the time weren’t that popular and went out of production the following year. Maybe if Eric Clapton and Peter Green hadn’t ‘discovered’ them and put them to such good use on the Bluesbreakers albums they may have never reappeared. Exactly 50 years later, the man who put his name to one of the greatest guitars ever made, has passed on.
Les Paul’s pioneering nature, his inventiveness, and his skill as a musician and designer, all contrute to making him one of the greatest figures in the history of music. Most of us never knew him, but we all know what he did.
R.I.P Les.
It’s amazing what contribution he made to the world of multi-tracking and studio techniques.. Hopefully now he’ll get the full recognition for that too as well as the Gibson guitar association- RIP Les
Stevie