Les Was More
Les Paul has died. A great guitarist, but an even greater innovator. I don't think there's a bigger name in guitars.
He started in the jazz age, and ended up being treated as a god by rockers. Makes sense, since the electric guitar and other related items might not exist without him. But by all accounts, he was personally quite modest.
There's also a story that, many years ago, he was seriously injured in a car accident, his arm shattered. The doctors said he would never be able to regain movement, so he asked them to set him arm permanently at an angle where he could play guitar. Sounds like Les.
posted by LAGuy @ 12:29 AM
3 Comments:
Self-Embarrassment department.
While I read a lot about music as teen, I didn't get to hear a lot. Used to love the the overwrought analyses by the Rolling Stone reviewers and I had picked up that a "Les Paul" was a very snazzy type of guitar and knew nothing about the name or the person behind it and for years, in my unbearable teen affected manner, thought it had to with French intellects & pronounced it "Lay Pol"
Awesome story, NEG. I remember thinking, the first time I heard of a "Les Paul" guitar, "what's Paul? And why would you want less of it?" Took about 4 more years to get my answer.
The way I heard the story was that there were two doctors in the emergency room and Les Paul was unconcious. One of the doctors recognized him because he had just seen him perform and suggested they set the arm in the shape to let him keep playing. One could only speculate on a different outcome...
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