Les Paul: Musician, Guitar Designer, Friend
Last night the world lost an amazing, innovative musician and guitar designer; I lost a friend and second father. I had the great fortune to know Les. He was a smart, funny man, a "clown prince" of the electric guitar. He had so much humor in his playing, so much inventiveness and yet always brilliant and inquisitive.
Born in 1915 in Wisconsin, Les joined the Fred Waring orchestra where he backed up Bing Crosby. By the 1950's and his Listerene TV show, he was a major star. He built his home in Mahwah where the show was filmed, where he lived with his wife, Mary Ford and raised his family. It was the same house I often visited him at where he played me old tapes of the shows while we were sitting in the room where the shows were filmed! Priceless! Downstairs, in the kitchen he grilled me about how to treat his archive of old recordings, sitting me down in front of him, talk-show style, pumping me for info for three and a half hours! Other times, he sat and regaled me with stories. Stories, like the time back in about 1934 or so, he was living in Hollywood (I think this was on Sunset Blvd) working on building a Lathe. Being a night owl, this was about 2 in the morning. Next to the garage where he was at work was a train store - a model train store. While he's working, some guy starts hammering on the door of the train store, attempting to wake the owner who lived upstairs. Getting no answer, he sees the light on in Les' garage and comes over. He asks Les what he's up to and Les tells him he is building a Lathe to cut records. The guy is interested and says that he has some mechanical engineers in his family and they end up going into business together. The guy? Groucho Marx!
So many memories and funny stories to tell. I'll try to document some of them here so others might know the Les I had the privilege to get to know. A true gentleman and sharp as a tack until the end. 94 years young who played weekly at the Iridium in Manhattan until last month.
Being a "studio owner" he always had friends over to jam and record. He always made two copies of the lacquers. One for the artist and one for his "library". These discs still exist. Him fooling around with Ella Fitzgerald or Bing Crosby.
The fun he had with Chet Atkins making "Chester and Lester".
