I'm always happy to fill in for Mark, but I think I'm going to have to demand the next time he calls looking for a substitute it under sunnier circumstances. The Blogcritics family sends out a huge exhale of relief that you are both safe and wishes you a speedy recovery. We'd also like to offer one piece of advice from years of collective experience: do what we do and skip those high school reunions!
Article comments
1 - MarkSaleski
great stuff josh! makes me want to plug in my guitar....too bad my right hand isn't up to the task.
2 - Josh Hathaway
Thanks, Mark. I know you aren't a Gibson gtr. guy, but I knew the guitarist in you would appreciate a tribute to a guy like that and some who followed.
I'm sorry you're on the DL. Maybe guitar work can be part of the physical therapy when you get out of that cast.
3 - MarkSaleski
yes, i would have written about Les Paul had this not happened....despite being a Fender guy
4 - Tom Johnson
Get well soon, Mark. And your next car should be a tank.
It's not the list I would make, but no one's would be the same, obviously. Mine would probably put Adrian Belew in the #1 slot. Anyone who can play with a crazy assortment of groups like Talking Heads, David Bowie, Frank Zappa, Paul Simon, Nine Inch Nails, Tori Amos, and King Crimson (among MANY others) is pretty special. The guy is a truly amazing guitarist - self-taught, he can pretty much do anything he sets out to do, it seems. (And Mark, you need to get yourself a copy of his new album, "e." Right up yer alley. It's only available on his site.)
5 - Bliffle
Boy, is this article ever overblown! I couldn't finish it for fear of getting an insulin attack!
"Godlike genius"?
Les Paul was a damn good jazz guitar player, which was exactly what he aspired to be.
He was also a world-class braggart (not a category to be sneered at, incidentally) as those of us who read his interviews back in the 50s and 60s (and beyond!) would attest. Apparently, he invented almost everything in the music business, by his own account.
Electric guitars had been in use for many years by the time he decided to do away with the soundbox and amplify the sound straight from the strings, augmented by subsequent electronics. He invented multi-track because he realized that he himself was the only player good enough to accompany Les Paul and fill in the parts.
Les Paul told this story on himself: by about 1940 he had decided he was the best guitar player in the world and never to be equalled, so he looked for new worlds to conquer, so he started studying piano. Then he went to hear Art Tatum and gave up his piano ambitions.
6 - Josh Hathaway
It's not bragging if you can back it up. The man's accomplishments speak for themselves.
7 - MarkSaleski
maybe people should be required to shower off the cynicism & sourness after leaving the bc politics section before commenting here
8 - Glen Boyd
Nice work on this Josh. And Mark, if you are reading this, my best wishes on a speedy recovery.
-Glen
9 - Bliffle
I never miss a chance to listen to Les Paul. His jazz playing is excellent.
What puzzles me is that so many R&R folks think he belongs to them. As far as I know he never played a R&R lick in his life, unless you include the riffs that various R&R guys copied. Chuck Berry ended his songs with a jazz riff, but that was an homage.
10 - Josh Hathaway
This isn't about claiming him for rock and roll but recognizing his influence on it and all of music. I'd love it if someone wanted to focus on the jazz side of Paul in an article. That's not the one I wrote because I'm not well-schooled in my jazz. If someone wrote it, I'd read it, though.
Tom, I could have spent hours agonizing and trying to come up with some way to evaluate my list. In the end, it was as much a visual thing as an audio. I envision Slash with a Les Paul, even though he's by no means one of the all-time great guitarists. It's also an era thing. The Edge is unique, so I liked that. Joe Perry has always been cool, to me, and Dickey Betts was kind of my unconventional pick. He's a house favorite from time to time. Jimmy Page is again a visual and an aural phenom with Gibson/Les Paul. If I had to make this list three months from now, I'd probably make many changes.
11 - Josh Hathaway
Oh, and I appreciate it, Glen.
12 - Bliffle
It isn't about the guitar.
13 - Diane
thanks for reminding me of some great artists, visual and audible. after all, isn't Rock and roll a combo of both?
14 - Josh Hathaway
Well then I guess you're just going to be disappointed, Bliffle. This the article I wrote. I'm just as sorry as I can be that I've somehow... uh.... not done it the way you would have.
Thanks, Diane.
15 - Bliffle
Les Paul was an excellent music man and a talented Jazz Guitarist. He realized that to get the ultimate clean recorded representation of his musical ideas he needed to eliminate the exigencies of the guitar soundbox and put at his disposal an ultra-clean instrument that would allow him to capture the purest part of the string sound and manipulate it and control it to produce exactly what he wanted. He exploited multi-track recording because he realized that no one else could complete his musical ideas in ensemble except Les Paul. Similar reasons apply to using his wife, Mary Ford, for vocals and vocalese.
When all is said and done, Les Paul created superb jazz classics. They swing!
16 - Mike D
Why is Dickey Betts an unconventional pick? I know you chose, In memory of Elizabeth Reed, to focus on but what about his other compositions? Jessica, Blue Sky, Ramblin' Man, Revival...Dickey Betts wrote some of the greatest Instrumentals in rock history and has inspired droves of young guitarist to pick the Les Paul as their axe. Gisbon, the manufacturer of the Les Paul, has a Dickey Betts signature model that has been out for years. He may not be as well known as the others, except among guitar players.
I for one put him #1 when it comes to a Rock Les Paul playing Icon, no matter his level of notoriety. EAPFP (Eat-A-Peach-For-Peace)
17 - malcontent
Les Paul was a delusional braggart that never invented anything. Even the Les Paul guitar was developed by Ted McCarty and a team of Gibson techs. Les Paul ONLY endorsed it. He had an ego problem, but now everyone believes the little ass.
18 - John Wilson
Les Paul WAS a braggart(delusional?) with a huge ego, but he was a great jazz musician and he'll be listened to long after a lot of more famous guitar players are forgotten.
And that will be because of his musicianship, not just virtuoso riffs and technical tricks.