Guitar Legend Les Paul Dies

The Guitarist and Inventor Died of Complications from Pneumonia at Age 94

(CBS/AP)  Last updated 1:54 p.m. EDT

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 a statement from Gibson Guitar, Paul died of complications from "severe" pneumonia at White Plains Hospital. His family and friends were by his side.

"Besides being a wonderful musician and innovator he was one the kindest people I ever knew," Paul's agent Tom Cassidy said in a statement. "He had a great heart and was working up until two months ago. He had a wonderful career."

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 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.

In the late 1960s, Paul retired from music to concentrate on his inventions. His interest in country music was rekindled in the mid-'70s and he teamed up with Chet Atkins for two albums. The duo were awarded a Grammy for best country instrumental performance of 1976 for their "Chester and Lester" album.

With Mary Ford, his wife from 1949 to 1962, he earned 36 gold records for hits including "Vaya Con Dios" and "How High the Moon," which both hit No. 1. Many of their songs used overdubbing techniques that Paul had helped develop.

"I could take my Mary and make her three, six, nine, 12, as many voices as I wished," he recalled. "This is quite an asset." The overdubbing technique was highly influential on later recording artists such as the Carpenters.

Released in 2005, "Les Paul & Friends: American Made, World Played" was his first album of new material since those 1970s recordings. Among those playing with him: Peter Frampton, Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton and Richie Sambora.

"They're not only my friends, but they're great players," Paul told The Associated Press. "I never stop being amazed by all the different ways of playing the guitar and making it deliver a message."

Two cuts from the album won Grammys, "Caravan" for best pop instrumental performance and "69 Freedom Special" for best rock instrumental performance. (He had also been awarded a technical Grammy in 2001.)

Paul was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2005.

Paul was born Lester William Polfus, in Waukseha, Wisconsin, on June 9, 1915. He began his career as a musician, billing himself as Red Hot Red or Rhubarb Red. He toured with the popular Chicago band Rube Tronson and His Texas Cowboys and led the house band on WJJD radio in Chicago.

In the mid-1930s he joined Fred Waring's Pennsylvanians and soon moved to New York to form the Les Paul Trio, with Jim Atkins and bassist Ernie Newton.

Meanwhile, he had made his first attempt at audio amplification at age 13. Unhappy with the amount of volume produced by his acoustic guitar, Paul tried placing a telephone receiver under the strings. Although this worked to some extent, only two strings were amplified and the volume level was still too low.

By placing a phonograph needle in the guitar, all six strings were amplified, which proved to be much louder. Paul was playing a working prototype of the electric guitar in 1929.

His work on taping techniques began in the years after World War II, when Bing Crosby gave him a tape recorder. Drawing on his earlier experimentation with his homemade record-cutting machines, Paul added an additional playback head to the recorder. The result was a delayed effect that became known as tape echo.

Tape echo gave the recording a more "live" feel and enabled the user to simulate different playing environments.

Paul's next "crazy idea" was to stack together eight mono tape machines and send their outputs to one piece of tape, stacking the recording heads on top of each other. The resulting machine served as the forerunner to today's multitrack recorders.

In 1954, Paul commissioned Ampex to build the first eight-track tape recorder, later known as "Sel-Sync," in which a recording head could simultaneously record a new track and play back previous ones.

He had met Ford, then known as Colleen Summers, in the 1940s while working as a studio musician in Los Angeles. For seven years in the 1950s, Paul and Ford broadcast a TV show from their home in Mahwah, New Jersey. Ford died in 1977, 15 years after they divorced.

In recent years, even after his illness in early 2006, Paul played Monday nights at New York's Iridium jazz club. Such stars as Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page, Dire Straits' Mark Knopfler, Bruce Springsteen and Eddie Van Halen came to pay tribute and sit in with him.

"It's where we were the happiest, in a 'joint,'" he said in a 2000 interview with the AP. "It was not being on top. The fun was getting there, not staying there - that's hard work."

[Jerrybass1955]

I had the honor of seeing Les perform three times over the last several years at the Iridium in NYC. Despite the obviously serious arthritis in his hands and the lasting results of the injuries from the auto accident of many years ago, Les still managed to put on a hell of a show. He always made the audience laugh, told great stories of the road, attracted amazing guests and usually managed a surprisingly good guitar performance despite the physical limitations - even at 90+ years of age. He was a performer you wanted to see over and over again. I hoped to see him again in November (three times was just not enough!!), but alas it was not to be.
If you loved Les as I did, do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of the American Masters DVD about him. If you are too young to remember his stunning talent as a younger man, this DVD will leave you in absolute awe. Fellow guitar players or not, this means you. Everyone that I have shown the DVD to without exception has loved it.
Rest in Peace Les. I hope you are finally free of the limitations imposed by your arthritis and injuries and are showing your comrades in the afterlife how a guitar is meant to be played. We mortals will miss you here in our Earthly shells.

[platteman]

I tried to learn to play the guitar and I listened to Les, wow what a man. I never ever learned to play it, I gave up. Les and Chet were two great players.

God Speed Les Paul.

[Slinky2011]

If Les Paul "invented" the electric guitar, then why did Harry DeArmond hold patent rights and design pickups (which ultimately created the electric guitar)?

Harry DeArmond was the unsung hero of the electric guitar and all that it has brought to music. A simple man, yet with an enormous musical talent in his own right, he sat back, prefering to share his ideas with other musicians and not his muscial talent through performing, so he could be with his family and not on the road. So he focused on designing pickups for all stringed instruments.

I am his daughter and my father passed away in 1998 with no fanfare or national aclaim. But ask any guitarist and they will tell you that DeArmond electronics for stringed musical instruments was the Cadillac of pickups.

When I see news shows like what was presented this evening on CBS, I want to scream. News reporters need to do their homework. Yes Les Paul had enomous talent and was a pioneer in his own right. But he DID NOT "invent" the electric guitar. My father, Harry DeArmond did.

Suzanne Barnhart (DeArmond).

[Lawyers-Guns-n-Money]

As an ever burgeoning musicologist I'm acutely aware of your father's additions to the music world. Who knows when or if there would have ever been an 'Eruption' that made my parents ears bleed.

Les, on the other hand, gave us art -- sculptures in the form of musical instruments...and so much more.

His innovations and musicianship, like your father's, was such an essential ingredient in ANYTHING that's plugged in. There would have been a huge void in the rock (or blues, or country etc.) world without either of their contributions.

[Henri_Rochard]

Les Paul had more talent in his little finger than I will ever have, even if I live to be 100.

Goodspeed, Mr. Paul.

Probably jamming with Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughn now; showing them how it's done on one of HIS guitars !!

[guitarzan58]

Right on! You just KNOW heaven is rocking tonight, and I'll bet Elvis, Chuck Berry, Bing, and lots of others are in on that jam, too!!

[marrianna1]

Les, you will always be with us, you touched us all.
You will be missed. RIP. & love you

[Wolfear]

RIP to the original Guitar Hero.

[TheMasses2016]

He was 94.
He lived a lavish and long life.

[guitarzan58]

Our world is now less with the passing of another great American icon, inventor, musician, and beautiful human being - Mr. Les Paul.
I've played his wonderfully designed electric guitars for 35 years, and there's nothing quite like them. What a great long life you lived, Les; the void you leave will never be filled, and thanks for enriching us all!

[anacrinymic]

Music would be an absolutely different world if not for Les Paul. Bands such as The Beatles would likely never have happened without Les Paul created innovations. Anyone who appreciates modern music should pause for the memory of Les Paul.

[rightbehind]

He design them right. Thanks Les. You will be missed.

[SkirtLifter]

Les Paul's inventions, on the surface, do not seem as important, as Watson and DNA mapping, or Salk and the Polio Vaccine, but the things he came up with made generations of folks happy. He made us happy. Thanks Les. I'll play my 1980 Les Paul Custom (Left Handed) thru my JCM 800 (2203 red reissue) and LET 'ER RIP!!! Peace.

[renegaston]

"While My Guitar Gently Weeps" ...

... THE WHOLE WORLD MOURNS !!!

Way To Go LES !!!

You have Made This World a Lot Better With Your INSPIRATION, IMAGINATION, INGENUITY, TALENT & PERSONALITY.

God and All in Heaven Are Rocking & Relling With YOU!!!

LES PAUL Will Live FOREVER in our Hearts, Minds & Soul !

RENE GASTON

[excoachken]

R.I.P. Les---- You've left behind a Blue Bayou.

[marbru-2009]

I grew up listening to Les Paul and Mary Ford - they were awesome! What an innovator he was.

[sly_64]

Great man , musician and inventor. Funny, why do they mention the Carpenters in this article ? How about the Beatles (extreme overdubbing of all kinds)

[I_am_me1953]

RIP Les, your inventions will continue to give us many years of musical pleasure.

[Samuel-HiLL]

I'm going to play my Les Paul guitar for 24 hours straight in his honor.

Goodbye Les, my world would not have been the same without you.

[p94932]

We have lost a titan of which we will never see another. Both Les Paul and Leo Fender gave us two of the most prolific icons in rock. We honor them with their gifts in music and legacy as new players reach for the heavens and bring us a bit more humanity in this insane world. May the lord grant you peace.

[Samuel-HiLL]

Leo never even learned to play guitar

[Blatensphere]

An awesome man who changed the world of guitar playing. RIP Les.