Les Paul--the original guitar hero--dies at 94

Les Paul: 1915-2009

Les Paul, a virtuoso guitarist and inventor who changed the course of music with the electric guitar, multitrack recording and a string of hits, died from complications of pneumonia Thursday in White Plains, N.Y. He was 94 years old.

Following is information about his life and accomplishments compiled from several news sources.

Paul was a remarkable musician as well as a tireless tinkerer. He played guitar with leading prewar jazz and pop musicians from Louis Armstrong to Bing Crosby. In the 1930s he began experimenting with guitar amplification, and by 1941 he had built what was probably the first solid-body electric guitar, although there are other claimants. With his electric guitar and the vocals of his wife, Mary Ford, he used overdubbing, multitrack recording and new electronic effects to create a string of hits in the 1950s.

Paul called his first solid-body guitar "the Log." It was made of a four-inch-thick piece of wood from a nearby railroad track, a neck he borrowed from an Epiphone guitar and two pickups to give it the electric pulse. Audiences and music executives laughed at the ungainly device, and he spent years honing its visual appeal.

Paul actively promoted such guitars for the Gibson company, and the Les Paul line of guitars became commonplace among such musicians as Eric Clapton, Pete Townshend and Jimmy Page.

"When most people think of the electric guitar, they think of Les Paul," said Dan Del Fiorentino, historian for the National Association of Music Merchants, a trade group for the music-products industry. "He wasn't the inventor of the solid-body electric guitar, but he certainly made it famous."

Paul said his efforts were toward one goal: to change the way people saw the guitar.

"I wanted people to hear me," he told the publication Guitar Player in 2002. "That's where the whole idea of a solid-body guitar came from. In the '30s, the archtop electric was such an apologetic instrument. On the bandstand, it was so difficult battling with a drummer, the horns, and all the instruments that had so much power"

"With a solid-body, guitarists could get louder and express themselves," he said. "Instead of being wimps, we'd become one of the most powerful people in the band. We could turn that mother up and do what we couldn't do before."

Paul played a key role in developing the eight-track tape recorder and used the device to play many parts on the same recording, a process now called multi-tracking. Such early work in overlaying sound contributed to the richness and distinctiveness of his recordings and changed the face of rock 'n roll music.

"Without him, it's hard to imagine how rock 'n' roll would be played today," the late Ahmet Ertegun, founder of Atlantic Records, said when Paul was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988 for his early influence on rock.

Les Paul was born Lester William Polfuss on June 9, 1915, the younger son of George Polfuss, who owned a car repair service in Waukesha, Wisconsin, and Evelyn Polfuss. The couple separated when he was 8.

He learned to play the harmonica by listening to blues and country on the radio by the time he was 9. Not long after, he paid a few dollars for his first guitar from Sears, Roebuck.

By his late teens, Paul had dropped out of school and was on the radio in St. Louis and then performing in Chicago. During the day, he would play country music as Rhubarb Red, and at night he would jam in the jazz clubs as Les Paul. In the late 1930s, he formed the Les Paul Trio and made his way to New York City.

He finally achieved his long-sought chance to work with Bing Crosby, backing the crooner on his NBC radio shows and recording "It's Been a Long, Long Time" with him in 1945, which quickly hit No. 1 on the charts.

Paul built his own sound studio in the garage of his Hollywood home, where he recorded many tunes, including the 1946 hit song "Rumors Are Flying" with the Andrews Sisters. By then, he had linked up with singer Colleen Summers, whom he later gave the stage name Mary Ford.

By the early 1950s, the couple had mastered the sound that opened the door to their huge popularity. "How High the Moon," which was made with a dozen overdubs, stayed at the top of the charts for more than two months in 1951. "Vaya Con Dios" was another hit.

They divorced in 1964. Ford died in 1977.

In 1984, when he was nearing 70, Paul returned to the stage, appearing in clubs in New York City. In 2005, as he was turning 90, he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

Paul is survived by his three sons, a daughter, five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

Sources: New York Times, Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle
Copyright © 2009, Primetime Oracle
All Rights Reserved