Les Paul died

[Robert****]

Rest in peace.

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

[bigG]

Rest in peace, Les.

To live as long as he did, and leave the legacy he left in the music world...I'd say he had a pretty good run. That great band in the sky just got alot better.

[Tone2TheBone]

Just read it now and came to post. I was dreading the day he'd leave. He lived a long life though! Thanks for everything you did for us Les. R. I. P.

[duhvoodooman***]

Rest in peace, Les.

To live as long as he did, and leave the legacy he left in the music world...I'd say he had a pretty good run. That great band in the sky just got alot better.

+1

Well put.

[helliott***]

Not unexpected, but still a huge loss to the music and guitar world. Just saw his exhibit in Cleveland a week or two back. Now Les Paul is gone. Very sad.


@Body:
<B>BC-US-Obit-Les-Paul, Urgent<P>
code:1
<B>Urgent<P>
<B>Update:ADDS background, quotes; byline; photos. AP Video. For global distribution.<P>
<B>HL:Guitar legend Les Paul dies at age 94; Innovator was a key force in creation of rock ’n’ roll<P>
<B>By Luke Sheridan<P>
<B>THE ASSOCIATED PRESS<P>
WHITE PLAINS, New York — 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 Gibson Guitar, Paul died of complications from pneumonia at White Plains Hospital. His family and friends were by his side.
He had been hospitalized in February 2006 when he learned he won two Grammys for an album he released after his 90th birthday, “Les Paul&Friends: American Made, World Played.”
“I feel like a condemned building with a new flagpole on it,” he joked.
As an inventor, Paul helped bring about the rise of rock ’n’ roll and 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.
With Ford, his wife from 1949 to 1962, he earned 36 gold records and 11 No. 1 pop hits, including “Vaya Con Dios,” ”How High the Moon,“ ”Nola“ and ”Lover.“ Many of their songs used overdubbing techniques that Paul the inventor 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.
The use of electric guitar gained popularity in the mid-to-late 1940s, and then exploded with the advent of rock in the 1950s.
“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 (10 centimetre-by-10centimetre) 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.
 12:22ET 13-08-09

[Kazz]

Just read that article on MSN.....sad day.

[sunvalleylaw]

I concur with the rest of you. Peace and rest to a legend.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQ6H68AcvQE


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0ffd...eature=related

[WackyT]

Very sad day for the music world.

RIP, Les.

You will live on in infamy for what you contributed throughout your life.

[ted s]

RIP Les, I was just looking at my photos yesterday from last summer at the Iridium in NYC.

[marnold***]

Live to be 94 doing what you love the whole time--we should all be so fortunate.

[Jimi75]

R.I.P Les Paul! LP was a beautiful character a spirit who seemd to have lived a life that was full of great experiences. He brought a lot of joy to the people and he without him RNR wouldn't be the same!

: : : : : : : :

[8d2studios]

Rest in peace.

He will ever be the greatest musician and inventor in our electric and recording music history.

We will miss you. :

[Pickngrin]

http://music.msn.com/music/article.a...5984&GT1=28102

oops, sorry, repost... sad day

[8d2studios]

[evenkeel]

Rest in peace, Les.

To live as long as he did, and leave the legacy he left in the music world...I'd say he had a pretty good run. That great band in the sky just got alot better.

Very well put. One of my BIG regrets is when I lived in NYC I never got out to see Les at his regular weekly gig.

[Bloozcat]

I've been so busy the past 3-months or so with work, home, and the social committments that I haven't had much time to spend here. When I saw that Les Paul had died, I knew I needed to check in and join the mourning with those who feel his lost most...my fellow guitar players.

RIP, Les. You'll be missed, but remembered fondly by all who you've inspired.

(and I'll try to check in more often now that I've come up for air... )

[Mr Grumpy]

A great man with a legacy that has touched us all. RIP

[mrmudcat]

Ok that just sux but thank you Les for all you have done ..............:


Might also save my tail on a recent purchase..........wow cant believe I said that:


R.I.P. brother and go jam with Duane in heaven!!!!

[Tig***]

Rest in peace.

Wow, what a loss. I'd rather look at what gains we are all blessed with thanks to everything Les did.

There is no guitar related icon who has more richly deserved the many honors bestowed upon him than the Les Paul. The world will always be a better place because he was here.

Here's a wonderful retrospective...



"He could burn the frets right off a guitar" - Steve Miller

"He put the tools in our hands" - Keith Richards

"...he's The Source." - Anderson Cooper, CNN

"... still The Man." - Los Angeles Times

"...he's the Boss!" - B.B. King