Grateful Dead Music Forum

Passed away today. Amazing what he did for music...

Sad ....
Another guy I could have seen but never got around to it .....
Didnt he invent multi track recording too ?

Saw a documentary on the guy once. Truly amazing. Dude was still playing out.

Oh NO!! I just wanted to meet this amazing, beautiful soul... just once. I just lost one of my dreams :(

Bummer

sad indeed.

This sucks, Me and my dad were going to go to new york to see him play in the next month too...

he was a pioneer for sure.

And yes he did invent multitrack

jackr wrote:he was a pioneer for sure.

And yes he did invent multitrack

Did you ever see him ?

Les with the 1st electric guitar, "The Log":



RIP

Sorry to hear about this he was a great pioneer and live an long life R.I.P. Les

I wrote my dad about Les's passing and he wrote me back this:

"Thanks for the update, sad as it is. One of the things on my "Bucket List" was to see him play at the Iridium on Monday nights, before I moved down here, and I did. He was amazing! Not only a fantastic performer, but one of the nicest people you would ever want to meet. I remember him telling the crowd that if they wanted to take flash pictures while he was performing, he didn't mind because he couldn't see that well anyway! Then, some guy in the audience, from Kansas I believe, brought his banjo and asked if he could sit in. Well, during the set Les Paul invited him up and they played a couple of numbers together. He talked to anyone who wanted to talk to him, both before and after the set, and signed anything you wanted signed and took pictures with anyone who wanted to take pictures of or with him. (One of my big mistakes was not bringing a camera, because in most of these venues they throw you out if you even try to take a picture.)

Besides the famous Les Paul guitar, which was his design, (Although he didn't invent the electric guitar, his design is still the standard for the industry.) he really revolutionized the entire music industry by being the first to do sound-on-sound and sound-over-sound. He did it in his basement with two Revox reel-to-reel 15" tape recorders! His recordings with his wife, Mary Ford, were the very first ever done this way. They still sound pretty good. (It must have been a bitch synching up the tracks!)

He will definately be missed, especially by me!"

Rest in Peace Les...and thanks

Tennessee Jedi wrote:

jackr wrote:he was a pioneer for sure.

And yes he did invent multitrack

Did you ever see him ?

Yes, I saw him several times. I used to live in the suburbs in NJ. He played in the City every week. I forget now but I think he played either every monday or tuesday night. He lived about 10 minutes away from me in NJ.

It was great to see him but I was not really a big fan of his style although I surely appreciated it and wished I can play like that, especially with one bum arm.

Yep, truly sad ( but not a shock, he was 94! ). I think he truly seems to have been just an all around great guy, and definitely we all owe him more than a lot as musicians and music lovers. I never got to see him play live, but he always served as inspiration to me that he still did it at his age and with the health issues that he had.

Actually, Phil is starting to remind alot of Les in that way.....