Journals: Les Paul

“Les Paul didn’t invent rock‘n’roll music – but he made it possible”

The DNA of rock 'n' roll

When reggae artist Bob Marley was laid to rest in 1981, five of his most precious possessions were also placed in the coffin: a bible, a ring given to him by Prince Assfa-Wossen of Ethiopia, a football, a marijuana bud and his guitar. The make of guitar? A Gibson Les Paul, no less.

Born Lester William Polsfuss in 1915 in Waukesha, Wisconsin, he would simply become known as Les Paul after he developed the first solid–body version of the electric guitar in 1941. Initially, he used a big piece of railroad timber as guitar body, which famously became known as ‘The Log’. But it didn’t look very good. Les Paul explains: “I put wings on it, and fastened two sides on it so that it looked like a guitar. I realised that many people hear with their eyes.” On it, instead of using the hollowness of acoustic guitars, he put magnetic pickups that electronically resonated the sound. The string’s vibrations turned it into sound when electronic signals were sent to an amplifier and speakers.

Early version

Paul’s prototype – later christened the Gibson Les Paul Standard – was then mass-produced by Gibson and, even though Paul never officially worked for them, it is today their signature guitar. Together with the Fender Stratocaster, their instruments have been played by rock legends from the past, as well as the bands currently topping the charts. David Bowie wrote ‘Hunky Dory’ on his, Slash played most of the legendary Guns N’ Roses riffs on one. The Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards and Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page are both Les Paul devotees. The list goes on and on.

“You could go out and eat and come back and the note would still be sounding,” Paul once described its sound. But the legend of Les Paul goes beyond his innovative skills. The man could play them as well. In the threshold of his career, he made a living as a studio musician and the following years saw him jamming with the likes of Bing Crosby, Louis Armstrong and Nat King Cole.

Licks and thrills

But he reached his biggest commercial success while touring and recording with his wife, Mary Ford. Their eleven hit singles included ‘Mockingbird Hill’, ‘How High the Moon’ and ‘Vaya Con Dios’. It was while in this romantic and musical partnership that Les Paul started working on his famous recording and performing techniques. “I’ve never let anybody know exactly what kind of pick-ups I use or how I get my sound on records or onstage. That big, fat, round, ballsy sound with the bright high end is the Les Paul sound – nobody else has it,” he said about his licks and trills.

" That big, fat, round, ballsy sound with the bright high end is the Les Paul sound – nobody else has it."

Les Paul’s sound obsession started early. At the age of nine he is alleged to have set himself the task to find out why his window rattled every time the train passed by. But childhood mythology aside, in the end, it always came back to the guitar – and his insatiable desire to play it. Case in point: in 1948, he was involved in a near-fatal car crash which crushed his right arm and elbow. The doctors, unable to fully reconstruct his body, told him that the arm would have to remain fixed in one position if it wasn’t to be amputated. Les Paul didn’t hesitate, telling the medical team to set his arm in a 90-degree angle, which enabled him to at least play his guitar. It took him a year and a half of physiotherapy to get the full use of his arm back.

Technically, Les Paul invented equipment that revolutionised the way recording studios operated. The eight-track recording device, delay effects and overdubbing – which is essentially sound on sound - are some of his innovations. His first multi-track recording took place as early as 1947. Paul went into his studio and used up over 500 test discs as he cut a version of his song ‘Lover’, featuring eight guitar melodies, all recorded by him. A year later, the song was a bona fide Billboard hit – the technique was used by everyone, and Les Paul was crowned the true Wizard of Waukesha.

Les Paul didn’t invent rock‘n’roll music – but he made it possible. He’s one of a handful of artists who has a permanent exhibition in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. No small feat, but perhaps the biggest accolades come from fellow musicians and colleagues. After Les Paul’s death in August 2009, Henry Juskiewicz, Gibson Guitar’s CEO, summed him up thus: “He was a futurist and, unlike some futurists who write about it and predict things, he was a guy who actually did things.”