So long to a legend. Farewell Les Paul.

There's never really been a personality or entertainer that passed away that I truely felt a heavy loss over. It's just hard for me to feel too much loss over someone I never knew in person. Maybe because he's a guitar player that I've often watched and tried to pick up a little of his technique, I really do feel a loss over the passing of this man. However his influance in guitar playing will be with us forever.





Guitar legend Les Paul dies at age 94
Aug. 13, 2009, 11:17 AM EST
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) -- Les Paul, who invented the solid-body electric guitar later wielded by a legion of rock 'n' roll greats, died Thursday of complications from pneumonia. He was 94.

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

As an inventor, Paul also helped bring about the rise of rock 'n' roll with multitrack recording, which enables artists to record different instruments at different times, sing harmony with themselves, and then carefully balance the tracks in the finished recording.

The use of electric guitar gained popularity in the mid-to-late 1940s, and then exploded with the advent of rock in the mid-'50s.

"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 traditional 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 Di Meola 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.

Full story:



http://music.msn.com/music/article.aspx?news=425984>1=28102

CarolinaHound wrote:There's never really been a personality or entertainer that passed away that I truely felt a heavy loss over. It's just hard for me to feel too much loss over someone I never knew in person. Maybe because he's a guitar player that I've often watched and tried to pick up a little of his technique, I really do feel a loss over the passing of this man. However his influance in guitar playing will be with us forever.





Guitar legend Les Paul dies at age 94
Aug. 13, 2009, 11:17 AM EST
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) -- Les Paul, who invented the solid-body electric guitar later wielded by a legion of rock 'n' roll greats, died Thursday of complications from pneumonia. He was 94.

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

As an inventor, Paul also helped bring about the rise of rock 'n' roll with multitrack recording, which enables artists to record different instruments at different times, sing harmony with themselves, and then carefully balance the tracks in the finished recording.

The use of electric guitar gained popularity in the mid-to-late 1940s, and then exploded with the advent of rock in the mid-'50s.

"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 traditional 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 Di Meola 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.

Full story:



http://music.msn.com/music/article.aspx?news=425984>1=28102

nice post ch

My boys were devastated when I told them the news today. Les Paul has been, and will continue to be, their mentor. The one thing that impressed me the most was the common sense they demonstrated when they wondered, my youngest son Alex actually did, why all the lingering hype over 'legends' like Michael Jackson, and so little news today over Les Paul, since (according to them) Les Paul was responsible for the electric guitar, multi-track recording, and more. Of course, they realize that it is drugs and vulgarity that makes and sells the news today and they were asking a rhetorical question, but the answer they already knew did not soften the blow or make much sense to them. Or to me. RIP, Mr. Les Paul.

Thank you Par.

I was thinking the same thing HP. Les Paul was a man that was a great role model for anybody, and they have barely mentioned his name.

Right, doggieboy. You know, they've been channel surfing all day and on the internet and they just can't get over the lack of coverage. It really does speak to the kind of society we live in today.

Yea it does. It's a shame.

Farewell to a legend. In memory of him.........