Obituary: Les Paul, 1915-2009

The guitar world lost a remarkable innovator and musician in Les Paul, who died on Thursday aged 94.

The acclaimed guitar player, entertainer and inventor passed away in a New York hospital surrounded by family and loved ones. He had been suffering from pneumonia.

One of the foremost influences on 20th century sound and one of America´s most influential and accomplished electric guitarists, Les Paul was best known as an early innovator in the development of the solid body guitar.

His groundbreaking design would become the template for Gibson´s best-selling electric, the Les Paul model, introduced in 1952. Today, countless musical legends still consider Paul´s iconic guitar unmatched in sound and prowess. Among Paul´s most enduring contributions were those in the technological realm, including ingenious developments in multi-track recording, guitar effects, and the mechanics of sound in general.

Born Lester William Polsfuss in Wisconsin, on 9 June 1915, Les Paul was already performing publicly as a honky-tonk guitarist by the age of 13. He dropped out of high school at 17 to play in Sunny Joe Wolverton´s Radio Band in St. Louis. As Paul´s mentor, Wolverton was the one to christen him with the stage name “Rhubarb Red,” a moniker that would follow him to Chicago in 1934.

His first recordings were done in 1936 on an acoustic, and the next year he formed his first trio. By 1938 he had moved to New York to begin his tenure on national radio with one of the more popular dance orchestras in the country, Fred Waring´s Pennsylvanians.

Unhappy with the first generation of commercially available hollowbodies because of their thin tone, lack of sustain, and feedback problems, Paul began constructing his own electric guitar in the late 30s.

Les Paul´s tireless experiments sometimes proved to be dangerous, and he nearly electrocuted himself in 1940 during a session in the cellar of his Queens apartment. During the next two years of rehabilitation, Les earned his living producing radio music. Forced to put the Pennsylvanians and the rest of his career on hold, Les Paul moved to Hollywood.

By 1943 he had assembled a trio that regularly performed live on the radio. By his mid-thirties, Paul had successfully combined Reinhardt-inspired jazz playing and the western swing and twang of his Rhubarb Red persona into one distinctive, electrifying style. In the Les Paul Trio he translated the dizzying runs and unusual harmonies found on Jazz at the Philharmonic into a slower, subtler, more commercial approach. His novelty instrumentals were tighter, brasher, and punctuated with effects. Overall, the trademark Les Paul sound was razor-sharp, clean-shaven, and divinely smooth.

He began to experiment with dubbing live tracks over recorded tracks - his hit instrumental 'Lover (When You´re Near Me)' featured Les playing on eight different electric guitar parts.

In 1948 a devastating car crash shattered his right arm and elbow, but he convinced doctors to set his broken arm in the guitar-picking and cradling position.

Laid up but undaunted, Paul acquired a first generation Ampex tape recorder from Bing Crosby in 1949, and began his most important multi-tracking adventure, adding a fourth head to the recorder to create sound-on-sound recordings. While tinkering with the machine and its many possibilities, he also came up with tape delay.

All the while, he pined for the perfect guitar. Though The Log came close, it wasn´t quite what he was after. In the early 1950s, Gibson Guitar would cultivate a partnership with Paul that would lead to the creation of the guitar he´d seen only in his dreams.

In 1948, Gibson elected to design its first solidbody, and Paul, a self-described “dyed-in-the-wool Gibson man,” seemed the right man for the job. Gibson avidly courted the guitar legend, even driving deep into the Pennsylvania mountains to deliver the first model to newlyweds Les Paul and Mary Ford.

The Gibson Les Paul model — the most powerful and respected electric guitar in history — began with the 1952 release of the Goldtop. The mahogany-topped Custom followed in 1954. The Les Paul Junior (1954) and Special (1955) were also introduced before the canonical Les Paul Standard hit the market in 1958. With revolutionary humbucker pickups, this sunburst classic has remained unchanged for the half-century since it hit the market.

With the rise of the rock ´n´ roll revolution of 1955, Les Paul and Mary Ford´s popularity began to wane with younger listeners, though Paul would prove to be a massive influence on younger generation of guitarists. Still, Paul and Ford maintained their iconic presence with their wildly popular television show, which ran from 1953-1960.

In 1977, Paul resurfaced with a Grammy-winning Chet Atkins collaboration, Chester and Lester. Then the ailing guitarist, who´d already suffered arthritis and permanent hearing loss, had a heart attack, followed by bypass surgery.

Ever stubborn, Les recovered, and returned to live performance in the late 1980s. Even releasing the 2005 double-Grammy winner 'Les Paul & Friends: American Made World Played', featuring collaborations with Keith Richards, Buddy Guy, Billy Gibbons, Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, and Joe Perry.

In 2008, The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame paid tribute to Les Paul in a week-long celebration of his life which culminated with a live performance by Les himself. Until recently Les continued to perform two weekly New York shows with the Les Paul Trio, at The Iridium Jazz Club in New York City.

Les Paul has since become the only individual to share membership into the Grammy Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the National Inventors Hall of Fame, and the National Broadcasters Hall of Fame.

He is survived by his three sons Lester (Rus), Gene and Robert, his daughter Colleen Wess, son-in-law Gary Wess, long time friend Arlene Palmer, five grandchildren and five great grandchildren.

Memorial tributes for the public will be announced at a future date. The family asks that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Les Paul Foundation, 236 West 30th Street, 7th Floor, New York, New York 10001.