I am not a massive fan of Les Pauls, too heavy, but they sound amazing. I love the double cut away ones 
http://www.nme.com/news/various-artists/46675
RIP dude
http://www.nme.com/news/various-artists/46675
RIP dude
Les Paul is dead
- Thread starter futha
- Start date
New X Girl
New Member
Yeah, just found out, Les Paul is dead, but long live The Guitar! What a legend - and he made it to 94!
starfish2000
Well-Known Member
He also pretty much invented multi track recording and signal processing. His first echo unit was a length of concrete pipe under his house
Man was a fucking genius
Man was a fucking genius
ATOMIC SUPLEX
Member Since: 1985 Post Count: 3
Just reading an article in this months tape op magazine (printed before he died I assume as it mentions nothing about his death).
Very interesting. Wow, he was so much more than the guitar.
Very interesting. Wow, he was so much more than the guitar.
i will lend you taht book i was telling you about at the buffalo bar, it has a big bit on les paul doing his first recordings. was I telling you about it?
ATOMIC SUPLEX
Member Since: 1985 Post Count: 3
I remember you telling me about les paul and the early recordings (which I think contradict stuff in the tape op interview, or maybe some bits were just skipped). I don't remember you mentioning a book though. I expect I just forgot or got mixed up as usual.
Minnie_the_Minx
someinenhhanding menbag and me ah bollox
Until Friday, I had absolutely no idea who Les Paul was but my b/f's brother got a Les Paul Gibson guitar for his birthday so now I'm enlightened 
ATOMIC SUPLEX
Member Since: 1985 Post Count: 3
Nice work. My wife can finish with her ugly betty and I can swoop in.
And I was so impressed with your knowledge of the hill and Portuguese bakeries. Now you have to go and spoil it by demonstrating the musical knowledge of a Maroon 5 fan.
Minnie_the_Minx
someinenhhanding menbag and me ah bollox
And I was so impressed with your knowledge of the hill and Portuguese bakeries. Now you have to go and spoil it by demonstrating the musical knowledge of a Maroon 5 fan.
I have zero musical knowledge. I don't know who or what Maroon 5 is/are
Maggot
The Cake of Liberty
I have zero musical knowledge. I don't know who or what Maroon 5 is/are
Minnie_the_Minx
someinenhhanding menbag and me ah bollox
is that a good thing?
Definitely.
Lack of musical knowledge and liking inane boybands like Maroon 5 tend to go hand in hand though...
Minnie_the_Minx
someinenhhanding menbag and me ah bollox
Fucking hell - this is a GREAT documentary!
ATOMIC SUPLEX
Member Since: 1985 Post Count: 3
Really? I thought it was one of the worst documentaries I have ever seen. Considering the access they had, what an amazing bloke he was and everything he had done in his life it was bloody terrible.
An enormous scatter-gun mess, it was all over the place, never finishing or coherently telling the stories of his incredible innovations. They tagged on him making the Les Paul guitar in five minutes at the end (after he had been seen throughout his career playing the Les Paul).
I know there was a lot to get into the doc, so why the amount of pointless padding and repeating itself?
I love guitars, music and recording innovation history but I was so god damn bored. I as actually relieved when it was over and I could go to bed.
I also had a quite a few aspect ratio errors.
ATOMIC SUPLEX
Member Since: 1985 Post Count: 3
Maybe too much and not enough of anything else (but I guess thats because there was more footage of that than anything else).
I think they were trying to do one of their 'no VO' docs, which generally I prefer, but without a presenter leading anything it got quite messy. Les Paul is great but he is an old man (or rather - he was) and not the best person to tell his rather long and interesting life story coherently. At times they cut Les Paul interviews which were obviously shot on other days in different locations together.
Interviews with other friends and celebrities were just laying on the praise, and though it was well deserved, it didn't add to or give any the viewer any more insight.
Paul ". . .and then I invented the overdub"
Slash "Les paul is amazing"
McCartney "Les paul invented overdubbing, he was amazing"
Etc etc etc
I know Les Paul was amazing but it just got boring, hearing it over and over again. I would rather hear more about why he was amazing.
I suppose it's just one of those programmes you just have to watch and make your own mind up about. It's still on iPlayer until 8th Sept: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00dzzv0/Les_Paul_Chasing_Sound/
I would agree that they didn't go into too much technical detail, but I think they were trying to appeal to a broad audience who might have been turned off by too much tech talk. The dilemma they faced was that he was so innovative and had such a multi-facetted career that there was probably too much content to fit within the constraints of a 90 minute documentary. Personally I loved the scatter-gun approach - Keith Richard fawning over him in one shot - then Richard Carpenter air-guitar'ing the next - then Bonnie Raitt etc etc. Maybe they could have dug a bit deeper into the period in the '60s when his career cooled and he stopped playing guitar to give a more balanced view of Paul, but this is only a minor complaint, really.
I didn't particularly want to know "why he was amazing" in too much detail. His music speaks for itself. Even in his '90s he was playing some lovely live stuff in some of the footage, and still joking and flirting with the other musicians!
I would agree that they didn't go into too much technical detail, but I think they were trying to appeal to a broad audience who might have been turned off by too much tech talk. The dilemma they faced was that he was so innovative and had such a multi-facetted career that there was probably too much content to fit within the constraints of a 90 minute documentary. Personally I loved the scatter-gun approach - Keith Richard fawning over him in one shot - then Richard Carpenter air-guitar'ing the next - then Bonnie Raitt etc etc. Maybe they could have dug a bit deeper into the period in the '60s when his career cooled and he stopped playing guitar to give a more balanced view of Paul, but this is only a minor complaint, really.
I didn't particularly want to know "why he was amazing" in too much detail. His music speaks for itself. Even in his '90s he was playing some lovely live stuff in some of the footage, and still joking and flirting with the other musicians!
ATOMIC SUPLEX
Member Since: 1985 Post Count: 3
That's what I mean, his music and his innovation speak for themselves, but I don't think it really explained why what he came up with and played with was so remarkable. I just kept hearing famous people saying "I love this guy". I wasn't looking for a detailed look into the recording process ( know about this already, a layman's explanation (or anything) would have been nice.
No 90 minute documentary should feel that padded out and miss so much interesting stuff out.
Anyway I don't think that his music does simply speak for itself. Personally I'm not a fan of his music but if i dismissed Les Paul for that (letting his music speak to me) I would be missing out on a lot.
this one is pretty good, make sure you keep listening it goes mental halfway through:
ATOMIC SUPLEX
Member Since: 1985 Post Count: 3
Ha, actually I do know this one and I do like it. I think I have a moog version of lover somewhere on a strange album of covers.
Wilf
Slouching towards Billingham
Didn't see this, but i did see the history of the guitar series a few months ago (think there was also a shorter Les Paul prog around the same time?). What amazed me was that only 65 years* or so ago people didn't know what a solid body electric guitar was - and that the making of one was pretty much trial and error (things like how much wood to use, what shape etc). Somehow, from there you get one of the design classics of the 20th century, pretty much produced (originally) in a bloke's back room.
*bit hazy on the dates!
*bit hazy on the dates!
tbf, they did play an archive clip of Paul and Ford explaining the overdub process to a chatshow host. They laid down the guitar part, then the vocal, then the vocal harmony.
Much of the fascination with them at the time appears to be due to the fact that their recording gear was portable "this one we recorded in the kitchen....this one in the bedroom" - quite unusual even today - must have seemed completely freakish to the TV audience in an era when recording engineers still wore white coats.
You are quite right, the program was all over the place and I kept waiting for a lot more info about the planks and the pickups etc.
But the guy could play and I enjoyed the clip with BB King.
ATOMIC SUPLEX
Member Since: 1985 Post Count: 3
I think that was just about the only thing that explained in any real sense, and that was done thanks to a clip from another programme so I don't think we can thank the producers too much for that one.
