I love Phil Spector's "wall of sound" and Berry Gordy's Motown sound, and the joyous harmonies of the Beach Boys and the early Beatles. But long before them creating liquid harmonies and layered sounds was Les Paul, who died yesterday in White Plains, New York, at the age of 94. Watch him here performing with his then wife, Mary Ford. The music is very Fifties, but the performance is virtuoso. It was the forerunner to rock 'n' roll.
His biggest claim to fame today may be the Gibson Les Paul electric guitar loved by legendary performers like Eric Clapton, Keith Richard, Pete Townshend, Van Morrison, Bob Marley and Jimi Page. But he also pioneered multi-track recordings and "sound on sound", dubbing live tracks over recorded tracks, creating hits like How High the Moon in the 1950s. Such innovations made possible the distinctive harmonies of bands like the Beach Boys and the Beatles, says a BBC music correspondent.
Ironically, his childhood piano teacher wrote to his mother, “Your boy, Lester, will never learn music.” But he picked up harmonica, guitar and banjo by the time he was a teenager and started playing with country bands in the Midwest, says the New York Times. It says:
In the 1930s he began experimenting with guitar amplification, and by 1941 he had built what was probably the first solid-body electric guitar, although there are other claimants. With his electric guitar and the vocals of his wife, Mary Ford, he used overdubbing, multitrack recording and new electronic effects to create a string of hits in the 1950s…
In 1940 or 1941 — the exact date is unknown — Mr. Paul made his guitar breakthrough. Seeking to create electronically sustained notes on the guitar, he attached strings and two pickups to a wooden board with a guitar neck. “The log,” as he called it, was probably the first solid-body electric guitar and became the most influential one. “You could go out and eat and come back and the note would still be sounding,” Mr. Paul once said.
The odd-looking instrument drew derision when he first played it in public, so he hid the works inside a conventional-looking guitar. But the log was a conceptual turning point. With no acoustic resonance of its own, it was designed to generate an electronic signal that could be amplified and processed — the beginning of a sonic transformation of the world’s music.
But the Gibson Les Paul electric guitar went on sale only years after the Second World War, in 1952. By then, as the BBC recalls, Leo Fender's rival Telecaster model was already on the market.
Here are two more songs recorded by Les Paul and Mary Ford – Vaya Con Dios and Tennessee Waltz. I love them both.
And here are the lyrics.
Vaya Con Dios
Now the hacienda's dark
The town is sleeping
Now the time has come to part
The time for weeping
Vaya con dios, my darling
Vaya con dios, my love
Now the village mission bells are softly ringing
If you listen with your heart
You'll hear them singing
Vaya con dios, my darling
Vaya con dios, my love
Wherever you may be, I'll be beside you
Although you're many million dreams away
Each night I'll say a pray'r
A pray'r to guide you
To hasten every lonely hour
Of every lonely day
Now the dawn is breaking through a gray tomorrow
But the memories we share are there to borrow
Vaya con dios, my darling
Vaya con dios, my love
[Musical Interlude]
Vaya con dios, my darling
Vaya con dios, my loveTennessee Waltz
I was dancin' with my darlin' to the Tennessee Waltz
When an old friend I happened to see
I introduced her to my loved one
And while they were dancin'
My friend stole my sweetheart from me.
I remember the night and the Tennessee Waltz
Now I know just how much I have lost
Yes, I lost my little darlin' the night they were playing
The beautiful Tennessee Waltz.
(Instrumental Interlude)
I was dancin' with my darlin' to the Tennessee Waltz
When an old friend I happened to see
I introduced her to my loved one
And while they were dancin'
My friend stole my sweetheart from me.
I remember the night and the Tennessee Waltz
Now I know just how much I have lost
Yes, I lost my little darlin' the night they were playing
The beautiful Tennessee Waltz
The beautiful Tennessee Waltz
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