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
Cottage for Sale
Les Paul Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Is lonely and silent, the shades are all drawn,
And my heart is heavy as I gaze upon
A cottage for sale
The lawn we were proud of is waving in hay,
Our beautiful garden has withered away,
Where you planted roses,the weeds seem to say,
From every single window, I see your face,
But when I reach a window, there's empty space.
The key's in the mail box the same as before,
But no one is waiting any more,
The end of the story is told on the door.
A cottage for sale.
Les Paul & Mary Ford's song 'Cottage for Sale' is a sad and poignant tale of a couple's abandoned dream home. The opening verse describes their 'little dream castle' which now lies empty and silent, the curtains drawn and the sense of loneliness pervading. The second verse manifests the signs of neglect and abandonment as the lawn has grown wild and the once-beautiful garden is lost to weeds. The chorus repeats the refrain 'A cottage for sale' emphasizing the finality of the situation. The final verse reveals that although the house is empty, the memories of the relationship still linger on. The windows of the cottage may no longer hold the figure of the lover, but their ghostly image remains. The final lines paint a sad and vivid picture of the definitive end of the story, the key still in the mailbox waiting for someone who will never come. The 'Cottage for Sale' becomes a symbol of love lost and a lost dream.
One of the interesting things about the song and its history is that the song was written in 1929 by Larry Conley and Willard Robison but was popularized in the late 1940s by Les Paul & Mary Ford. The song debuted as a B side to the Les Paul & Mary Ford hit 'How High the Moon' and went on to become a hit record in its own right. Another interesting fact is that the songwriters of the song both committed suicide in the early 1940s, a dark coincidence which reflects the themes of the song. The song has been covered by many other artists including Louis Armstrong, Frank Sinatra, and Barbra Streisand, and continues to be regarded as a classic.
Chords: we couldn't find the exact chords for this version but here are the chords for Louis Armstrong's version (which is in G major, while Les Paul & Mary Ford's version is in D major, so you may need to transpose the chords or use a capo):
Verse: G / G7 / C / Cm / G / E7 / Am / D7
Chorus: G / G7 / C / Cm / G / E7 / Am / D7 / Am / D7 / G / D7 / G / G7 / C / Cm / G / E7 / Am / D7 / G
Line by Line Meaning
Our little dream castle with every dream gone,
Our once hopeful and joyful home is now a sad and empty place.
Is lonely and silent, the shades are all drawn,
The house is now silent and dark, there's no one left to share it with.
And my heart is heavy as I gaze upon
As I look upon this house, I can't help but feel a heavy sadness inside me.
A cottage for sale
This house, which once held so much promise, is now up for sale.
The lawn we were proud of is waving in hay,
The lawn we once took care of with pride is now untended and overgrown with hay.
Our beautiful garden has withered away,
Our once beautiful garden is now dead and dry, with no sign of life.
Where you planted roses, the weeds seem to say,
Where we used to have rose bushes, there are now only weeds, which seem to mock us.
A cottage for sale.
This once lovely home, with its garden and lawn, is now offered for sale.
From every single window, I see your face,
Every time I look out a window, I see your face, haunting me with memories of what we used to have.
But when I reach a window, there's empty space.
However, when I go to touch or hold you, there is nothing there, just an empty space.
The key's in the mail box the same as before,
The key to this house is still in the mailbox, just where it has always been.
But no one is waiting any more,
No longer are you waiting for me in this empty house.
The end of the story is told on the door.
The final closing of the chapters of our story is now written on the door: 'Cottage for Sale'.
Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: LARRY CONLEY, WILLARD ROBISON
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind