RFI (etc.): Les Paul

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His recording of "How High the Moon" is incredible. Not only the famous guitar pyrotechnics (which definitely anticipate rock 'n' roll but never mind that) but the subtle vocal effects on Mary's voice.

Is everything he did this awesome? What exactly did he pioneer? What recordings should I seek out?

amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 19 September 2003 22:01 (twenty-two years ago)

i read somewhere (tho beware: i am a fountain of unsubstantiated rumors today) that he had his whole house jerry-rigged with microphones, so that m.ford could sing vocal tracks from any room in it without having to drop whatever she was doing everytime he needed her!

there's a great record called Lover's Luau - not sure if it ever got issued on cd - which is "hawaiian-themed" in that technicolor 50's exotica way obv but also sort of understated and very pretty. the Capitol Masters hits cd is a bit patchy (some of their stuff can get a bit shrill and grating to me, once they start going to town w/ the varispeed overdubs) but it has "i really don't want to know" on it, which sounds like a lost p.cline number floating in from an MGM backlot and just floors me every time i hear it

jones (actual), Saturday, 20 September 2003 00:05 (twenty-two years ago)

Funny that this, of all threads, should suddenly make me miss my unplugged-deplugged-nonplugged record player so much.
Then again, the old Melodiya vinyl compilation is the only Les Paul platter I have. A good copilation, too...

t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Saturday, 20 September 2003 00:17 (twenty-two years ago)

he pioneered tape loops (or something, i used to know a whole bunch of this stuff but lost it in favor of andrew wk lyrics)

gygax! (gygax!), Saturday, 20 September 2003 00:56 (twenty-two years ago)

never let down

amateurist (amateurist), Saturday, 20 September 2003 02:39 (twenty-two years ago)

he pioneered sound-on-sound multi-tracking / overdubbing. as well as half-speed recording, in the pop arena; his song 'lover' dates from 1947. lots of odd records were exploring these areas but les paul really went to town with it, and had the biggest chart hits: Les Paul's 'New Sound'. his engineering on those records are inspiring, surreal, and very modern. there's also this legacy here: http://www.gibson.com/products/gibson/lespaul/

the huge mutli-tracked chorus-of-marys on 'how high the moon' always kills me... everyone's used to a vocalist laying down their own harmony & backup vocals these days, no one blinks (even though I think it's quite a bizarre thing to have accustomed oneself to). but there's something so brilliantly weird about the way mary goes multiple on that song, there's something audibly 'first' about it... and les' guitar solo is so condensed and micro-composed.

I love the 'Best of the Capitol Masters' CD (great liner notes from Paul), but I hear the box set it's compiled from is solid too, and filled with lots of crazy experiments. 'Lovers Luau' is fun.

and as far as I know he still plays every monday night in new york... can someone confirm this?

jl (Jon L), Saturday, 20 September 2003 06:32 (twenty-two years ago)

thank you!

amateurist (amateurist), Saturday, 20 September 2003 06:47 (twenty-two years ago)

hey he does! monday nights at the iridium jazz club. (link includes a bio w/ brief rundown of his tech innovations, ama)

jones (actual), Saturday, 20 September 2003 14:45 (twenty-two years ago)

excellent link!

been listening to 'capitol masters' today. might have to spring for that box set. 'lover', 'nola', 'whispering', 'tiger rag', 'bye bye blues' sound good very loud. the intensity of the sound actually does burn out your ears a bit with consecutive listening, these were all meant as radio singles (very few of these songs go much over 2 minutes in length). but everything here is great.

jl (Jon L), Saturday, 20 September 2003 21:25 (twenty-two years ago)

"Bye Bye Blues" is the greatest song ever

dave q, Saturday, 20 September 2003 21:28 (twenty-two years ago)

ok "I Really Don't Want To Know" doesn't sound quite like i remember it sounding, but it still floors me

jones (actual), Saturday, 20 September 2003 21:59 (twenty-two years ago)

(if i heard byebye blues while i was depressed it would probably drive me right over the edge, but maybe not if i was depressed in the 50's and bingeing on egg-creams or vanilla cokes or what-have-you)

jones (actual), Saturday, 20 September 2003 22:11 (twenty-two years ago)

three months pass...
Help:
Where would I find a good download sample of Les Paul's "How High the Moon"? There is one on www.fye.com, but this is just a solo piece from out of the middle of the tune, and without Les Pauls's typical dubbing technique.

Alex Koelb, Monday, 5 January 2004 01:40 (twenty-one years ago)

six months pass...
iridium tonight, 10pm show. who's with me?

(Jon L), Monday, 19 July 2004 05:28 (twenty-one years ago)

how about in spirit?

amateur!st (amateurist), Monday, 19 July 2004 05:47 (twenty-one years ago)

eleven months pass...
been listening to that box set a lot recently, which I bought a few weeks before his 90th birthday this month on june 9th

teh best. took me a while to work through the box in 15 minute shifts, it's like huffing pure oxygen, your lungs burn, everything's so accellerated, jacked up, adrenalized cartoony... how could these have been chart hits without everyone going insane? david lynch never used his music because it's already much, much, much too weird

it was a wonderful show at iridium last year. five piece band, playing the classics, more like his 40's jazz stuff than his home studio overall, though he has a sideman playing through pedal delay _replicating_ the sound of the high staccato plucks into tape-delay -- that, and Les had a micro-mixer mounted on a mic stand at waist level which he'd use to tweak the band's levels during the show -- still Les Paul's New Sound.

Les broke his right arm ten years ago, and needed a cast. the doctor told him he'd lose flexibility in his elbow, and wouldn't be able to reach the guitar to pluck in the same way he used to. Les' response was to have the doctor cast his arm at a 45 degree angle, stuck in playing position for the rest of his life. His solos sounded fantastic.

milton parker (Jon L), Thursday, 30 June 2005 19:24 (twenty years ago)

haha. i knew you revived this thread. i'm currently writing you an email about the Les Paul disc i just bought.

The Amazing Jaxon! (jaxon), Thursday, 30 June 2005 19:28 (twenty years ago)

the liner notes are pretty cool. they talk about how he "put together his frist electric guiar by merging a phonograph arm and his acoutsic guitar" and "he taught himself to play the piano by using a mechanical piano player, marking the piano with numbers as they were depressed by the paper roll." Also, he was dubbing as many as 12 guitar and 12 vocal tracks per song on a 2 or 3 track recorder. pretty amazing. one of the best discs i've heard in a long, long time.

The Amazing Jaxon! (jaxon), Thursday, 30 June 2005 19:34 (twenty years ago)

when you listen to his chart hits in order, they're all pretty hi-fi with not too many sound-on-sound overdubs, until you get to 'how high the moon' -- which starts fuzzy, obviously because he knew this was the one & he went for it with about layer after layer, and the initial rhythm tracks are have been dubbed into oblivion... the spacey sound suits the music though, & when you listen in sequence, that song starts and you're like 'uh-oh, watch out'

the guitar solo in that song is an encyclopedia, he compiles every trick anyone had ever done and gives each one half a bar

milton parker (Jon L), Thursday, 30 June 2005 19:46 (twenty years ago)

correction: went for it with layer after layer

best of the capitol masters has just been reissued with a few extra tracks, including one of his very silly radio comedy/variety shows where mary steals the magic 'Paulverizer' and uses it to multiply her voice into a chorus. the jokes are groaners but the effects and the solos are weird and good. this is the best place to start for a good balance of the bizarre early experiments and the razor sharp pop hits.

a quality compilation of the first two "New Sound" eps if you want to focus on the home studio aspect: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00004X0TR/102-3048447-4706548?v=glance&s=music&vi=samples#disc_1

milton parker (Jon L), Thursday, 30 June 2005 20:00 (twenty years ago)

two months pass...
so, unfortunately, the disc i bought, "The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise" is covered in tape-hiss and hum. did i get a bunk disc (it was only 2.99$), or are all of his recordings this shoddy, just because they're so old?

JAXON (jaxon), Thursday, 8 September 2005 05:28 (twenty years ago)

also, i love the shit out of these songs. i realized there are three main reasons i do:

1. the songs
2. the amazing studio fuckery
3. the guitar playing

so what else can i find that has these things, especially #1? what other artists should i check out from this time period?

JAXON (jaxon), Thursday, 8 September 2005 05:28 (twenty years ago)

bump

JAXON (jaxon), Thursday, 8 September 2005 15:44 (twenty years ago)

as far as #2 -- precious little outside of Studio GRM, but there is this one must-hear record:

http://www.spaceagepop.com/gugliemi.htm
http://www.bellybongo.com/guglielmi.html

as far as other artists doing consistent versions of these songs, I'm listening for other suggestions as well!

milton parker (Jon L), Thursday, 8 September 2005 17:06 (twenty years ago)

maybe not even these specific songs, but who was recording music around this time period even. in this proto-rock style or even just early 50s pop. it seems that the majority of most people's pop knowlege starts in the 60s.

JAXON (jaxon), Thursday, 8 September 2005 17:34 (twenty years ago)

five months pass...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oA3HX-Knw2k&search=les%20paul
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5GSnEaTWqw&search=les%20paul

milton parker (Jon L), Saturday, 25 February 2006 08:33 (nineteen years ago)

two years pass...

Just One More Chance, Vaya Con Dios, and I'm a Fool to Care are just perfect songs. Les Paul is obv a genius and a great guitarist, but Mary Ford is great, too. Her voice is so swoony.

Granny Dainger, Thursday, 19 June 2008 17:47 (seventeen years ago)

two years pass...

^yes, co-sign. are there any other singers similar to Mary??

hope this helps (Granny Dainger), Tuesday, 27 July 2010 18:34 (fifteen years ago)

ten months pass...

Rock out:

http://www.google.com/

Ned Raggett, Thursday, 9 June 2011 13:46 (fourteen years ago)

http://www.google.co.uk/webhp?hl=en

Mark G, Thursday, 9 June 2011 13:56 (fourteen years ago)

http://www.google.co.uk/logos/2011/lespaul11-sr.png

Mark G, Thursday, 9 June 2011 13:57 (fourteen years ago)

Happy Birthday, Les!

http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2006/09/14/tenants-run-apartment-network/

Another Muzak from a Diffident Lichen (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 9 June 2011 14:10 (fourteen years ago)


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