Les Paul and Me... — Vinyl Magic

Ever since I was a freckle-faced, red-headed kid, I just attacked the guitar. I was terribly aggressive about it. There were certain things that, if they intrigued me, whether it was music or electronics, I just went for the throat.
Les Paul

***The New Sound (1950 10” vinyl) signed by Les***

Right from the start I wanted to get different sounds and I wanted to get different effects. The first thing that hit me was that if I played a note and I played an octave higher than that, playing the two notes together — even three octaves apart — it created big sounds and different sounds, making the whole thing very special because it had never been heard before. It was a new kind of music, and that turned me on…
Les Paul

***Jazz At The Philharmonic (1944 recordings) signed by Les***

Once Miles Davis asked me, “What’s the secret, Les? People love you.” I said, ‘It’s simple, but it’ll be difficult for you.’ And he says, “Well, tell me, tell me, what should I do?” I said, ‘Play ‘Mockingbird Hill.’ “I don’t play that goddamned thing,” he says to me. I say back, ‘I’m only kidding, Miles. The secret is, I don’t play for myself; I play for the people. I do my best to entertain.’
Les Paul

***Les Paul And Trio (1957) signed by Les***

Les Paul did not invent the electric guitar, it only seems that he did. Most musicologists credit George Beauchamp with the first design in 1931 and cite Beauchamp's partnership with Paul Barth and Adolph Rickenbacker in 1932 as the first commercial production. Born Lester Polsfuss in Waukesha, Wisconsin, Les Paul was an early achiever. playing guitar as a precocious youngster: " When I got my first guitar my fingers wouldn't go to the sixth string so I took off the big E and played with just five strings. I was only six or seven."

***The New Sound Vol. 2 (1951) signed by Les***

An inveterate inventor, Les was always exploring ways to make his equipment sound bigger and better. He began his career in 1928 as a guitar player named "Red Hot Red" or "Rhubarb Red" playing mostly hillbilly and country songs. Frustrated by orchestras who drowned out his sound, Les was only fourteen in 1929, when he tore apart his mother's telephone to amplify his guitar. His tinkering didn't stop there, it was just beginning.

***The Hitmakers! (1953 - 10” vinyl) signed by Les***

Les designed his first solid body electric guitar, dubbed "The Log' after the the 4 x 4 solid piece of pine used in its construction. As Les recalled, "When I developed my first solid-body guitar in 1941, I took it to Gibson and they dismissed it. They called it that “broomstick with the pickups on it.” From 1941 to 1951, I couldn’t convince Gibson to do a damn thing about putting out a Les Paul guitar. Finally, Leo Fender decided to come out with the Fender solid-body line, and immediately Gibson said, “Find the character with the broomstick with the pickups on it!” And so they asked me to design a guitar. I thank Leo for coming out with his Broadcaster, because it woke Gibson up. Gibson was asleep and Fender was not asleep. That’s the way it goes. Fender was the first to market, but I was way, way out front."

***Bye Bye Blues (1952) signed by Les***

The Gibson Guitar Company finally introduced the Gibson Les Paul in 1952, and it has become the de facto rock star guitar: Duane Allman, Jeff Beck, Chuck Berry, Eric Clapton, Jerry Garcia (before switching to Fender Stratocasters and Doug Irwin Customs), Jimi Hendrix (although better known for his Fender Stratocasters), Jimmy Page, Keith Richards.... even Ras Bob Marley played a Gibson Les Paul. It is probably easier to list those who didn't play or record with a Gibson Les Paul than those who did!

***The New Sound (1955 - 12” vinyl) signed by Les***

In 1945, Les played on Bing Crosby's radio show and they became friends, recording "It's Been A Long, Long Time", a number one hit. Shortly thereafter, Bing was given a confiscated German tape recorder - the Magnetophon - a spoil of the recently ended World War II by US Army Major Jack Mullin. Bing brought it to the Ampex Corp. to manufacture fifty machines because he wanted to record his radio show rather than record live in a cramped studio. Bing gave Les one of the machines, and of course Les customized it, adding an extra recording head and Les began experimenting with "sound on sound", or overdubbing. Les was one of the first to introduce this multi-tracking technique in 1948 on "Lover" using eight different guitar parts to fill out this track. Later, Ampex outfitted his home with the first eight track studio and many artists and musicians would visit with Les to draw on his vast production and sound knowledge. He would remain a restless and relentless inventor throughout his life.

***50 Years Of Jazz Guitar (1974) signed by Les, Kenny Burrell, Jim Hall, Pat Martino***

A near fatal automobile accident in 1948 curtailed his playing for eighteen months. Les had his arm set at a ninety degree angle so that he would always be able to cradle and pick his guitar. A little extreme but what dedication! In 1949, Les married Colleen Summers (renamed Mary Ford) and she became his singing and touring partner. Les Paul & Mary Ford became a marquee act and they had more top ten hits in 1951 than The Andrews Sisters, Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra combined, selling over six million records. As rock and roll emerged in the mid-1950s, Les and Mary's recording career waned and they became less commercially viable. I guess their divorce didn't help either...

***The Hit Makers! (1955 - 12” vinyl) signed by Les***

The first time I saw Les play, he was appearing at Fat Tuesday's, a now defunct jazz bar on the lower East Side of Manhattan. He played there almost every Monday,night from the club opening in 1984 to its closing in 1996. In search of a new venue, Les took his act uptown to the original Iridium in Lincoln Center and to the newer Iridium on Broadway near Times Square. Les performed there every Monday night until several weeks before his death in 2009, capping an incredible performing career spanning more than eighty years!

***Multi-Trackin’ (1968 recordings, 1979 release) signed by Les***

In these intimate clubs, it felt like a pilgrimage as fans and musicians came to see him, pay homage and ask for his blessings. Most often, he played with a trio, Lou Pallo on rhythm guitar, Brian Nowinski on upright bass, and they played his hits: "How High The Moon", "It's A Long, Long Time", "in A Mellow Tone", and "Over The Rainbow." Sometimes, a special guest would sit in and perform, and I remember just missing Tony Bennett as he had visited Les the previous Monday.

Les' chops were still formidable well into his 80s. He would play fleet runs and highlight his dexterous finger picking and fret work. No vocals, just pure instrumental bliss by his trio as they played jazz standards from the Great American Songbook. In between songs, Les would banter with the audience. It was a weird combination of "Angry Old Man" and "Drunk Uncle" mixed in with some hayseed cornpone, as Les' filter was dimmed by the inexorable march of time. Politically correct, he was not...

***Warm and Wonderful (1962) signed by Les***

After the show, Les would hang in his dressing room and sign autographs. There would be an endless procession of guitar cases brought to the altar of Les. It seemed as though we were in a Gibson Guitar showroom, not a nightclub. Each time I brought him some albums, Les was cheerful, he liked looking at the album covers, but he didn't share any insights. After all, there was another show to do and the Sisyphean task of signing all those guitars and memorabilia lay ahead.

***Swingin’ South!! (1963) signed by Les***

As he said so prophetically years ago, "When rock came in, people didn't know what to do. Even Sinatra, he didn't know what to do. The music was changing, and it's changing now." Les Paul knew exactly what to do. He went on playing, inventing, recording and multi-tracking. He was always "way, way out front."