Les Paul, the father of the electric guitar and multitrack recording, dressed in a thick, oatmeal-colored ribbed turtleneck sweater (and it's in the high-70s and humid on this June 3rd day), navy blue trousers and black loafers, and wearing wire rimmed aviator-style glasses, is doing a sound check at 6:00 p.m., before the first of his two shows every Monday night at the Iridium Club on Broadway and 51st in Manhattan.
"Is my amp flat"? He asks. "It's flat, Les." Comes the reply from his soundman.
"On the dot?" "On the dot, Les."
"It should be 4 decibels clean," Paul replies. "In other words, when I hit this note" - Paul bangs the high E-string of his signature guitar - "it should be minus-four on the meter. On the tape machine, it should be zero. But I know this guitar is like a minesweeper, sometimes!"
Hard to believe this slight looking, but authoritative man is about to celebrate his 87th birthday next week. And even harder for me, as a part-time guitarist myself, to believe I was about to be interviewing him.
Who Is Les Paul?
To baby boomers, he's the name on their, or their favorite guitarist's instrument (as his recent commercial for Coors Beer made light of). To the previous generation, he's a musician with a string of pop hits in the 1950s. And there are lots of older folks around who still remember his days from the 1930s, playing in Fred Waring's Orchestra, and backing up Bing Crosby.
Clearly, while most people would be happy with one successful career, Les Paul is a man who can look back on several simultaneous lives.
Born Lester William Polfus on June 9, 1915 in Waukesha, Wisconsin, he began to teach himself not only the guitar, but electronic engineering when he was just a child. He later shortened his name to Les Paul (after a brief spell known as Rhubarb Red!) and played with big bands in the 1930s, such as Fred Waring's outfit in the 1930s and with Bing Crosby in the 1940s.
Simultaneously, he also did much developmental work on the concept of the electric guitar. His electrical engineering skills led him to finally develop the electric solidbody guitar, designed initially to reduce feedback and increase the sustain of notes and chords.
Later in that same decade, he began developing the concept of sound on sound recording, first painstakingly overdubbing part after part on a 78 rpm record cutting machine, and then later on magnetic tape. The Beatles' complex and masterful recordings of the late 1960s, as well as virtually all popular music recorded since, use the very methods he developed. Led Zeppelin's albums, with layer upon layer of overdubbed, multitracked guitars, and often recorded in large country homes instead of professional recording studios, would be unthinkable without Paul's first efforts away from a studio.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Howard Owens
Fine piece. I've linked to it from my blog.
2 - J Bowen
Maybe you chose not to mention it, but I understand that not only is he about 87 years old, but he has a degenerative disease that affects his hands beyond his years. I can't imagine him stopping though.
Good work.
3 - Ed Driscoll
J,
Thanks for the kind words, I really appreciate them. As far as Les' birth name, I think I've seen it spelled Polsfuss myself--however, I took the spelling from the Internet Movie Database's page on Les.
While I'm far from an expert on his life, the only degenerative disease that I've read that Les has is arthritis, but that, combined with a right arm that can't move at the elbow would be enough to stop most musicians half his age in their tracks--but somehow, he keeps on playing.
And hopefully will for sometime to come!
Ed
4 - jerry
i love les and chet,they are awesome...liked your interveiw,,are they doing a tv special on les? i would love it .. take care..ps am a finger picker..
5 - Howard Owens
Good piece. Les Paul is the original Guitar God.
6 - Billy Beck
I own a 1977 Les Paul Custom and a 1962 ES-355: the LPC is my preferred battle-axe, the first thing I reach for when I'm working out arrangements or headed off to a jam. That's not exactly the best year for Gibson products, but this is a good one and I'll never part with it.
I'll tell you what, though: if I thought I'd end up playing half as well as Les, I'd go out and crash my car this very afternoon.
God bless him. He's a certifiable treasure.
7 - Steve Teeter
I don't want to seem to minimize the achievements of Les Paul, which are enormous, but while he may have "developed," as in furthered, sound on sound recording, he certainly didn't invent it.
On April 18, 1941, jazz great Sidney Bechet recorded two sides as "Sidney Bechet's One Man Band," playing clarinet, soprano sax, tenor sax, piano, string bass, and drums. It was an overdubbing job using 78 phonograph equipment, and was fearsomely difficult, done largely as a stunt dreamed up by his recording producer.
Later musicians, including Les Paul, certainly developed the technique far beyond that relatively primitive attempt, but the title of "first" goes to Bechet.
8 - Billy Beck
Steve,
What Bechet did (with RCA engineers) was not multi-track recording. He was grooving 78's with new parts every time around for each take, and the parts could not be separated. What Paul did was authentic multi-tracking: the use of distinct magnetic heads resulted in discrete tracks on the tape that could be separately mixed or otherwise processed after recording. The old 78 process (which Paul had also experimented with) was a notable extension of existing technology, but Paul invented completely new hardware, and an unprecedented process along with it.
There really is no comparison between the two.
9 - x
What Billy said. Tango singer Carlos Gardel also cut a record where he overdubbed his own voice, back in the '30s (or '20s), singing along with a previously recorded 78. Cool low-tech trick, but definitely not multitrack recording.
Great article, by the way. I have to go see Les Paul some day (may he live to be 120).
10 - Steve Teeter
Ah. That IS different.
11 - Don J
Great article about a music pioneer!
12 - BWR
Really nice piece on a fine musician and innovator. For some additional information about the development of the original Les Paul guitars in the early 1950s, check out Tom Wheeler's book "American Guitars" or A.R. Duchossoir's book "Gibson Electrics" - - there's a wealth of information there about Gibson's development of the instrument and its pitch to Les Paul to endorse them.
13 - Bill Gwaaltney
I only saw Les once with Mary in 1950 and still have the autographed picture along with all of his records which I cherish very much. Bill Gwaltney
14 - duane
Billy Beck, I owned a 73 Les Paul and a 63 ES-335 (not the 355) and a couple of Strats, as well, and an Ibanez. I loved them all, but there's no doubt that the Gibsons have their role.
Since there are a number of experts looking at this blog, I was wondering if Les got rich as the inventor of the guitar bearing his name.
15 - Ed Driscoll
Duane,
I believe that Les receives royalties from the sale of each Gibson and Epiphone (the cheaper, authorized "clones" of the higher-end Gibson line) guitar. And there have been a pretty fair number of those sold over the years!
I'm no expert on Les's finances, but I would assume that between the royalties and the name recognition of the guitar, which has kept Les's name in the spotlights far longer than most other 1950s superstars, his weekly gig in New York, and the sales of his back catalog of music, Les is not hurting financially.
Ed
16 - john
Sure wish there was more about Mary Ford on the site!
17 - Bill Harris
I bought one of the first edition Les Paul Gibson guitars and later sold it because of the strings being under the bridge. HOW DUMB!!!! Have been a fan of Les Paul forever.
Bill
18 - KRIS ODEL
JOHN, WITH REGARDS TO MARY...LES SORT OF HAPPEND UPON HER WHEN HE WAS ARRANGING A REPRISAL OF A COUNTRY WESTERN SHOW HE'D DONE IN THE 30S & 40S. A FRIEND OF HIS, GENE AUTRY, SUGGESTED ONE OF HIS BACK-UP SINGERS. COLLEEN SOMMERS WAS INVITED OUT TO LES' HOUSE (I BELIEVE IT WAS IN HOLLYWOOD, CA AT THE TIME). THERE IS THIS GREAT STORY ABOUT THAT DAY THAT COLLEEN SHOWED UP AT LES' AND HE WAS OUT MOWING THE LAWN. COLLEEN ASK IF LES LIVED THERE AND MOTIONED HER BACK TO THE GARAGE (WHERE HE REHEARSED AND RECORDED ON THAT RECORD CUTTING MACHINE). HE FINISHED UP HIS YARD WORK AND WENT BACK TO THE GARAGE WHERE COLLEEN HAD JUST BEEN LIFTED THROUGH THE WINDOW (THE ONLY WAY INTO THE BUILDING DUE TO ALL THE EQUIPMENT). WHEN LES FOLLOWED, COLLEEN ASKED WHERE LES WAS. LES INTRODUCED HIMSELF. COLLEEN SAID SHE THOUGHT HE WAS 'THE GARDENER'. SHE DIDN'T BELVIEVE HIM UNTIL HE PLAYED HIS GUITAR FOR HER. EVIDENTALLY, THERE AFTER SHE WAS HOOKED.
THERE LIFE TOGETHER AS LES & MARY BEGAN WHEN LES DECIDED THAT COLLEEN'S NAME WAS TOO PLAIN FOR THE ACT (THE WESTERN SHOW) SO SHE BECAME MARY LU. LATER WHEN THEY WERE DONE WITH THE WESTERN GIG LES THOUGHT THEY SHOULD GIVE MARY A VERY PRESTIGEOUS LAST NAME. THEY STARTED LOOKING AT NAMES LIKE ROCKERFELLER AND THE LIKE BUT LANDED ON 'FORD'.
MOST OF WHAT THE RECORDED TOGETHER WAS EITHER AT THE HOUSE OR ON THE ROAD AS WELL AS WHAT WAS TRANSCRIBED FOR THEIR RADIO SHOW.
THEY MADE AN UNBELIEVABLE NUMBER OF HITS IN THE FIFTIES AND EARLY SIXTIES. MARY BY THE END OF THAT TIME WANTED TO SLOW DOWN AND STOP TOURING AND RECORDING SO MUCH. LES ADMITS HE COULDN'T STOP. SO LES KEPT GOING AND MARY RETIRED. MARY PASSED AWAY IN THE LATE 70S OF A DIABETES RELATED DEATH.
IF YOU WANT TO KNOW HOW LES FELT & STILL FEELS ABOUT MARY JUST WATCH THE VIDEO TAPE FROM 1992, "LES PAUL...THE LIVING LEGEND OF THE ELECTRIC GUITAR"
JOHN & ALL I HOPE THIS FILLS IN SOME OF THE GAPS ABOUT MARY. I'M NOT A CREDITED
WRITER AND I'M SURE THERE ARE THINGS MISSING OR SOME FUZZY FACTS BUT I'VE READ QUITE A BIT ABOUT THEM (LES & MARY) AND I THINK I'VE GOT IT RIGHT FOR THE MOST PART. I HOPE THIS WETS YOUR APPETITE FOR SOME MORE RESEARCH.
19 - Scott Wilhite
Great article! I'm a big Les Paul fan. In the late 80's or early 90's there was a special on Cinemax Sessions called "A Tribute to Les Paul". It featured many great guitarists including Steve Miller, Eddie Van halaen, David Gilmour and several others. Does anyone out therehave any ideas where to obtain a copy of this show? I would greatly appreciate any leads.
20 - Amgad Maher
I'm sorry ,I just need to know some Gibson egent to fix my guitar at Germane Case I have Frind in Germany will help me