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| Les Paul's Photo |
Born in Wisconsin in 1915, the "Wizard of Waukesha" played country music gigs at a drive-in restaurant as a teenager. He experimented with electric amplification to reach the outdoors audience by placing a pickup behind the strings of his acoustic guitar and wiring it to a radio speaker.
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| Les Paul's Photo |
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| Les Paul's Photo |
Break
Dissatisfied with the scene in Wisconsin, Paul and two friends left for New York. In the Big Apple, they failed an audition for one big band, only to encouter Fred Waring, another big band leader while waiting for the elevator, and, after a lightning-fast recital — timed to end before the elevator arrived — landed a gig on Waring's NBC show.
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| Les Paul's Photo |
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| Les Paul's Photo |
Les Paul's Guitar;
Paul's second great gift to the musical world was the solid-body electric guitar. Although the hollow-body electric guitar had existed for a number of years, Paul complained that it "was such an apologetic instrument. On the bandstand, it was so difficult battling with a drummer, the horns, and all the instruments that had so much power...With a solid-body," — such as this 1952 Gibson Les Paul — "guitarists could get louder and express themselves," he said. "Instead of being wimps, we'd become one of the most powerful people in the band. We could turn that mother up and do what we couldn't do before."
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| Les Paul's Photo |
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| Les Paul's Photo |
Come Back
After retiring for a while in the 1960's Paul re-emerged in the mid 80's Paul with a regular gig at the Greenwich Village club Fat Tuesday's, above.
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| Les Paul's Photo |
Friends in High Places
Paul shared a 1976 Grammy with Chet Atkins, shown above at right, for their album "Chester and Lester."
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| Les Paul's Photo |
Les Paul's Masters
Paul was honored at a 1988 tribute concert by guitar titans like B.B. King, above.
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| Les Paul's Photo |
Farewell
Game-changing inventor and virtuoso performer, Les Paul was, in the words of Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page, "the man who started everything. He's just a genius." He was 94.
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