Biography
Paul, born Lester William Polsfuss (the last name simplified later by his mother to Polfus) in Waukesha, Wisconsin, first became interested in music at the age of eight, when he began playing the harmonica. After an attempt at learning to play the banjo, Paul began to play the guitar. By 13, Paul was performing semi-professionally as a country-music guitarist. At the age of 17, Paul played with Rube Tronson's Cowboys. Soon after, he dropped out of high school to join Wolverton's Radio Band in St. Louis, Missouri on KMOX.
In the 1930s, Paul worked in Chicago, Illinois in radio, where he performed jazz music. Paul's first two records were released in 1936. One album was credited to Rhubarb Red, Paul's hillbilly alter ego, and the other was in the backing band for blues artist Georgia White.
Les Paul's 'The Log', one of the first solidbody electric guitars.Paul was unsatisfied by the electric guitars that were sold in the mid 1930s and began experimenting with a few designs of his own. Famously, he created The Log which was nothing more than a length of common "4 by 4" fence post with bridge, guitar neck, and pickup attached. For appearances he attached the body of an Epiphone jazz guitar, sawn lengthwise with The Log in the middle. This solved his two main problems - feedback, as the acoustic body no longer resonated with the amplified sound, and sustain, as the energy of the strings was not dissipated in generating sound through the guitar body.
In 1938, Paul moved to New York and landed a featured spot with Fred Waring's Pennsylvanians radio show. Paul moved to Hollywood in 1943, where he formed a new trio. As a last-minute replacement for Oscar Moore, Paul played with Nat King Cole and other artists in the inaugural Jazz at the Philharmonic concert in Los Angeles on July 2, 1944. Also that year, Paul's trio appeared on Bing Crosby's radio show. Crosby went on to sponsor Paul's recording experiments. The two also recorded together several times, including a 1945 number one hit, "It's Been a Long, Long Time." In addition to backing Crosby and artists like the Andrews Sisters, Paul's trio also recorded a few albums of their own in the late 1940s.
In 1941, Paul designed and built one of the first solid-body electric guitars (though Leo Fender also independently invented his own solid-body electric guitar around the same time, and Adolph Rickenbacker had marketed a solid-body guitar in the 30s). Gibson Guitar Corporation designed a guitar incorporating Paul's suggestions in the early fifties, and presented it to him to try. He was impressed enough to sign a contract for what became the "Les Paul" model (originally only in a "gold top" version), and agreed never to be seen playing in public, or photographed with, anything other than a Gibson guitar. That persisted until 1961, when Gibson changed the design without Paul's knowledge. He said he first saw the "new" Gibson Les Paul in a music store window, and disliked it. Though contract required him to pose with the guitar, he said it was not "his" instrument, and asked Gibson to remove his name from the headstock. Gibson renamed the guitar the " SG", and it also became one of the company's best sellers. Later, Paul resumed his relationship with Gibson, and endorses the instrument even today (though his personal Gibson Les Pauls are much modified by him - Paul always uses his own self-wound pickups on his guitars). To this day, the Gibson Les Paul guitar is used all over the world, both by novice and professional guitarists.
In 1947, Capitol Records released a recording that had begun as an experiment in Paul's garage, entitled "Lover (When You're Near Me)", which featured Paul playing eight different parts on electric guitar, some of them recorded at half-speed, hence "double-fast" when played back at normal speed for the master. This was the first time that multi-tracking had been used in a recording. Amazingly, these recordings were made, not with magnetic tape, but with wax disks. Paul would record a track onto a disk, then record himself playing another part with the first. He built the multi-track recording with overlaid tracks, rather than parallel ones as he did later. There is no record of how few 'takes' were needed before he was satisfied with one layer and moved onto the next.
Paul even built his own wax-cutter assembly, based on auto parts. He favored the flywheel from a Cadillac for its weight and flatness. Even in these early days, he used the wax disk setup to record parts at different speeds and with delay, resulting in his signature sound with echoes and birdsong-like guitar riffs. When he later began using magnetic tape, the major change was that he could take his recording rig on tour with him, even making episodes for his 15-minute radio show in his hotel room.
Paul was injured in a near-fatal automobile accident in January 1948 in Oklahoma, which shattered his right arm and elbow. Paul spent a year and a half recovering. Paul instructed the surgeons to set his arm at an angle that would allow him to cradle and pick the guitar.
In the early 1950s, Paul made a number of revolutionary recordings with wife, Mary Ford. These records were unique for their heavy use of overdubbing, which was technically impossible before Paul's invention of multitrack recording. Paul's multitracking system was made possible by the introduction of reel-to-reel audio tape recording, developed by Jack Mullin and the Ampex company in the late 1940s, with the backing of radio, film and recording star Bing Crosby.
Crosby gave Les Paul what was only the second of the now-famous Ampex Model 200 recorder, which was the world's first commercially-produced reel-to-reel tape recorder. Using this machine, Paul developed his tape multitrack system by adding an additional recording head and extra circuitry, allowing multiple tracks to be recorded separately and asynchronously on the same tape. Paul's invention was quickly developed by Ampex into commercially-produced two-track and three-track recorders, and these machines were the backbone of the professional recording studio, radio and TV industry in the 1950s and early 1960s.
In 1954 Paul, continued to develop this technology, by commissioning Ampex to build the first eight track tape recorder, at his expense. His idea, later known as "Sel-Sync," in which a specially-modified recording head could simultaneously record a new track and play back previously recorded ones, was the core technology for multi-track recording for the next thirty years.
During his early radio shows, Paul introduced the mythical "Les Paulverizer" device, which was supposed to multiply anything fed into it, like a guitar sound or a voice. This even became the subject of comedy, with Mary Ford multiplying herself and her vacuum cleaner with it so she could finish the housework faster (a typical joke in the pre-feminist era). Later Paul made the myth real for his stage show, using hidden equipment which over the years has become smaller and more visible. Currently he uses a small box attached to his guitar - it is not known how much of the device remains off-stage. He typically lays down one track after another on stage, in-sync, and then plays over the repeating forms he has recorded. With newer digital sound technology, such an effect is available commercially.
In the late 1960s, Paul went into semi-retirement, although he did return to the studio occasionally. He recorded an album Lester and Chester with Chet Atkins. He and Mary Ford (born Iris Colleen Summers) divorced amicably in December 1964, as she could no longer tolerate the itinerant lifestyle their act required of them.
In 1978, Les Paul and Mary Ford were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. He received a Grammy Trustees Award for his lifetime achievements in 1983. In 1988, Paul was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by Jeff Beck, who said, "I've copied more licks from Les Paul than I'd like to admit." Les Paul was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in May 2005 for his development of the solid-body electric guitar.
As of 2006, At the age of 90, Les Paul won two Grammys at the 48th Annual Grammy Awards for his album Les Paul & Friends: American Made World Played. He also performs weekly at the Iridium Jazz Club on Broadway in New York City, despite the arthritis that has stilled all but two of the fingers on his left hand.
Source: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Paul
Caravan
Les Paul Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
The myst'ry of their fading light
That shines upon our caravan
Sleep upon my shoulder as we creep
Across the sand so I may keep
The mem'ry of our caravan
You are so inviting
Resting in my arms
As I thrill to the magic charms
Of you beside me here beneath the blue
My dream of love is coming true
Within our desert caravan
The lyrics of Les Paul's song Caravan captures the romance of the desert where the night and stars above shining so bright that they seem to embrace the world with their mystique, and the mystery of their fading light that shines upon our caravan. It is a song about two lovers embarking on a journey across the sand in a caravan, and the memories that they make. The singer invites his love to sleep on his shoulder as they cross the desert to keep the memory of their adventure alive.
As the two journey across the desert, the lyrics paint a picture of a romantic landscape with the stars shining above and the blue sky stretching out forever. The desert night, so beautifully captured in the lyrics, has a mystical charm about it that captures the heart and soul of the listener. It is a song about living in the moment and not holding back on your passions, and how that can lead to the realization of your deepest dreams. The lyrics conjure up the imagery of a surreal landscape where anything is possible, and love can thrive.
Overall, Caravan is a captivating love song that embodies the thrill of adventure, the power of love, and the wonder of the natural world.
Line by Line Meaning
Night and stars above that shine so bright
Setting the scene - describing the sparkling stars and the dark, all-encompassing night sky
The myst'ry of their fading light
Reflecting on the ephemeral, fleeting nature of stars and the mystery behind the light they emanate
That shines upon our caravan
Linking the otherworldliness of the night above with the grounded presence of the caravan, as if suggesting that they are connected by some deep, mysterious force
Sleep upon my shoulder as we creep
Inviting the listener into a moment of intimacy, where they can visualize two people snuggled up together as they slowly travel through the desert
Across the sand so I may keep
Hinting at a desire to hold onto the fleeting moment by reminiscing about it afterwards
The mem'ry of our caravan
Emphasizing that it's more than the visual experience that's being coveted - it's the memory of it that is precious
This is so exciting
Expression the exhilaration the singer feels from this experience
You are so inviting
Describing the allure and attraction of the person next to them
Resting in my arms
Reaffirming the closeness of the moment
As I thrill to the magic charms
Describing the enchantment that the artist feels from being in the company of this person
Of you beside me here beneath the blue
Setting the scene for the listener once more, reminding them that they are together under a vast blue sky
My dream of love is coming true
In a moment of reflection, the artist realizes that they are experiencing a moment that they always wished for and dreamed of
Within our desert caravan
Bringing it all full circle by reminding the listener that it is the caravan that is the conduit for all of these experiences and feelings.
Lyrics © Royalty Network, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: RACHEL MARY BERKELEY PORTMAN
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
U2WB
Phenomenal. Even with crippling arthritis he could still play the crap out of a guitar, smoke the fretboard, and sound like the Les Paul we all know and love. RIP Les, and thank you for revolutionizing everything for us kids.
pepeduffel
Well said brother
redfishradical
An innovator in recording, invented the solid body, one of the VERY first out-front guitarists. Then toss in his guitar playing and staying young playing with so many new artists over the years while playing in so many genres. Genius visited us in him. Thanks Paul, enjoy jamming with SRV, Jerry Reed, Jimi, Bo & the gang!
Crackers2549
Les Paul chased sound!.. He found it, coralled it, refined it, and then made it like nobody else!.. Les got more sound and better sound than anybody whoever played an electric guitar and his style was ummistakeable and FABULOUS!... He will always be the MAN!... My all time favorite!.. Not eneough people know how great he was as a musician and inventor!.. The "Wizard of Waukesha", Wisconsin!
Crackers2549
One other comment; Les was a genius inventor!... Not only the king of guitar players in the 40's but such an innovater that the entire electric guitar community is indebted to him!... I love this version of Caravan... LOVE IT! In his 70's too at the time!
EJ_57
Les Paul was a great guitarist an an innovative self-taught engineer. His contribution to modern music is well appreciated by all true music lovers. Thanks Les!
pepeduffel
Well said brother
Crackers2549
Les Paul was an innovated, an inventor and a fabulous guitarist! When Chet Atkins says "Les Paul was his inspiration" that's a compliment from an absolute virtuoso guitarist..! Les is the MAN as far as I'm concerned!
Cargen
how u can even dislike these songs.... they are outstandingly the best classics songs i've evar heard, thank you 4 such good music. :)
Sam Fosdick
Even with painful arthritis this man killed it. Les is More!