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
So Long Baby So Long
Les Paul Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Since I held you
It’s been so long
Since I told you
How much I love you
Love you, love you, love you
Maybe we don’t talk enough
It’s not the words you say
But the spaces in between
That say more to me
Than what you think you mean
That say more to me
Than what you think you mean
Maybe it’s all become too familiar
Maybe our thoughts have become too similar
Maybe it’s time to start a-new
Let’s leave the kids at home
And go somewhere alone
Just me and you
It’s been so long
Since I held you
It’s been so long
Since I told you
How much I love you
Love you, love you, love you
Love you, love you, love you
Come raise your glass and say ‘cheers’
Here’s to the next fun packed years
Up to now it’s been a rough ride
But I’d go to the ends of the earth
With you by my side
Paul Robert Thomas
In Les Paul's song "So Long Baby So Long," the lyrics express the longing for a connection that has been lost over time in a relationship. The repetition of "It's been so long since I held you, since I told you, how much I love you," emphasizes the absence of physical touch, emotional expression, and reaffirmation of love. The singer acknowledges that perhaps they don't communicate enough and find it difficult to express their feelings. However, they also recognize that it's not just the words spoken but the spaces in between, the unspoken emotions, that hold more significance.
The lyrics hint at a sense of familiarity that might have made the relationship stagnant. They suggest that thoughts have become too similar and that it may be time to start anew. The mention of leaving the kids at home and going somewhere alone symbolizes the need for a break from routine and responsibilities, just the two of them reconnecting. It's a call for rediscovering each other and reigniting the love that has been neglected for so long.
Overall, "So Long Baby So Long" reflects the yearning for deeper connection and the realization that actions often speak louder than words in expressing love and emotions.
Line by Line Meaning
It’s been so long
It has been a significant amount of time
Since I held you
Since I embraced and held you closely
It’s been so long
It has been a significant amount of time
Since I told you
Since I expressed my feelings to you
How much I love you
The depth of my affection for you
Love you, love you, love you
A repetition of my love for you
Maybe we don’t talk enough
Perhaps we don't communicate adequately
Maybe we find it tough
Perhaps we struggle with it
It’s not the words you say
The significance is not solely in your spoken words
But the spaces in between
But the pauses and silences in our conversations
That say more to me
That convey deeper meanings to me
Than what you think you mean
Than what you believe your words convey
Maybe it’s all become too familiar
Perhaps our relationship has become overly routine
Maybe our thoughts have become too similar
Perhaps our thinking has become too alike
Maybe it’s time to start anew
Perhaps it is time to begin fresh
Let’s leave the kids at home
Let's not involve the children in this
And go somewhere alone
And find a place for just the two of us
Just me and you
Only you and me
Come raise your glass and say ‘cheers’
Let's celebrate and make a toast
Here’s to the next fun packed years
Here's to the upcoming exciting years
Up to now it’s been a rough ride
Until this point, it has been a challenging journey
But I’d go to the ends of the earth
I would go to great lengths
With you by my side
As long as you are with me
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Written by: Paul Robert Thomas, Paul Odiase
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@IAm-qf2xb
Mary wanted more but she settled for Les.
@ztahs
Oh, that was totally unnecessary! A good one never the less
@jirusjirus9322
Just absolutely funny.
Traveled to New York to see Les when he was 89...a real treat, thanks to two wonderful Jeff Beck fans.
@mikefrech1123
@Greg Gregory There's something wrong with you. Get help.
@thatunicornhastheaudacity
@@jefflindeman no just report them.
@kychu749
A pun
@jimvandemoter6961
I saw Les and Mary on the Ed Sullivan Show just before Christmas, 1960. I started nagging my parents to let me take guitar lessons. Six months later in June 1961 I had my first guitar lesson on my 9th birthday. Since that time I joined my first band, played my first gig in 1965, played professionally for ten years starting in 1966, went on to major in music in college and taught for over 25 years. I'm now 68 and I still play. Not as much as I used to, but I still pick it up a few times a week. All thanks to Les, Mary and two of the greatest parents ever.
@bartvansliedregt5482
Thank you for telling this short but sweet and inspiring story!
@gui18bif
Lovely story
@TemjaSverd
Is there any way I can listen to your music??