Guitar Legend Les Paul Dies at 94

Guitar Legend Les Paul Dies at 94

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NEW YORK — Les Paul, the guitarist and inventor who changed the course of music with the electric guitar and multitrack recording and had a string of hits, many with wife Mary Ford, died on Thursday. He was 94.

According to Gibson Guitar, Paul died of complications from pneumonia at White Plains Hospital. His family and friends were by his side.

He had been hospitalized in February 2006 when he learned he won two Grammys for an album he released after his 90th birthday, "Les Paul & Friends: American Made, World Played."

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"The use of electric guitar gained popularity in the mid-to-late 1940s, and then exploded with the advent of rock the 1950s.

"Suddenly, it was recognized that power was a very important part of music," Paul once said. "To have the dynamics, to have the way of expressing yourself beyond the normal limits of an unamplified instrument, was incredible. Today a guy wouldn't think of singing a song on a stage without a microphone and a sound system."

A tinkerer and musician since childhood, he experimented with guitar amplification for years before coming up in 1941 with what he called "The Log," a four-by-four piece of wood strung with steel strings.

"I went into a nightclub and played it. Of course, everybody had me labeled as a nut." He later put the wooden wings onto the body to give it a tradition guitar shape.

In 1952, Gibson Guitars began production on the Les Paul guitar.

Pete Townsend of The Who, Steve Howe of Yes, jazz great Al DiMeola and Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page all made the Gibson Les Paul their trademark six-string.

Over the years, the Les Paul series has become one of the most widely used guitars in the music industry. In 2005, Christie's auction house sold a 1955 Gibson Les Paul for $45,600. "


Rest in peace, my old friend. We owe you so very much.

Thank you for what you did for us. Thank you, thank you, thank you.



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Oh... How very sad...

The first guy I had an extreme crush on had a Les Paul Special... It sounded like a bell.

If it wasn't for Les Paul, we'd still be in the stone age with recording, and even guitars! This man was purely awesome, and will definetly go down in music history - obviously.

I have an EPIPHONE Les-Paul Custom. - Not a Gibson, but an Epiphone.
Still, I actually planned that once I get $60 to spare, I would see him play at the Iridium and ask him to sign my guitar.

I even told my friend that we have to do this soon because time is running out.

Damn, this guy was a legend in itself.

Hehe, I remember I was checking him out on Youtube about a month ago, and came across this video that was filmed in the 50's.
Les Paul is doing some kind of shred solo that Kirk Hammet from Metallica does/(did) alot. My mouth fell to the floor when I saw it:

www.youtube.com...

Check out at about 1:11!



RIP Les Paul!

Arggh - I lost my embedding skills. Please click the link and check it out. It's worth it.

[edit on 8/13/2009 by impaired]

Wow, I just watched that video and I believe that Mr. Les Paul should be the definition of "before his time", that was some incredible guitar work, far better than the majority of guitar players today. R.I.P. , you will be missed.

Yeahh RIP Les Paul

Was playing in a cover band tonight using a Les Paul CLassic and Olly the drummer mentioned him dying.Seemed fitting me hearing the news while I wore one of his beutifull and heavy guitars round my neck

Also fathered multy track recording too while recording with his wife

What a man,him and leo fender shaped music for all of us

Have to say the papers here didnt give him the respect he deserved.It was word for word the same as the info online I saw.

Les Paul had even greater inpact on music than even Leo Fender,sure the Stratacaster guitars were more popoular but Les Paul kicked off the Multi track recording and came up with ideas like speeding up the tape to make some guitar parts faster while recording that to another track