The Night Shift

[Gator]

M.C. Hammer?

The Rappin' Nitro Car?
Ohhh
maybe?


music
music music

[Rapid Randy Baker]

WC, I was driving to the races this weekend listing to a count down from the 70's or something. It said Les Paul {SP} and his wife, Capt and Teneal, and Sonny and Cher were the only husband and wife teams to make a #1 hit.

It made me think of you and wonder if that was the Guitar making guy??

Rapid

[Gator]

Les Paul and Mary Ford.."How high the moon"...
Les was some Virtuoso(sp.?)... huh 'Cat?

(When they make a comemrative piece and name it after you..You're good!)

[Rapid Randy Baker]

Thanks Wally, I figured it had to be the guy.

[jim sanders]

http://www.cbs.com/specials/48grammys/featured.shtml

[Gator]

Les Paul.......cool guy
In my world He was the 1st I loved.. later.. Charlie Bird ( I've always been a Jazz kind of guy)

I'm a wildCat guy now.......

'Cat..I hope you meet Jimmy Bennett ( Vicki's ,Bennett brothers), someday.
I call him "Jimmy Ray Bennett" (very respectfully)


Happy B'Day Randy !!!!!!

[Rapid Randy Baker]

Thanks Wally, my B/Day month is coming up next!!

[WildcatOne]

Yes, that's the same guy who designed the Gibson Les Paul guitar. I have a '69 Les Paul that has served me well until recently...rather than have it completely rebuilt (I beat the daylights out of it for 15 years and Andy had it for 20 years before that), I opted to buy an off-the-shelf new guitar that gets the job done. That's another story altogether...some stuff about Les Paul that might not be in Doc's link, although that link pretty much sums up his gigantic contribution to modern popular music...he is idolized by Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Billy Gibbons and many more of the greatest rock 'n roll guitar players. His style and his sound influenced several generations of musicians. He still plays, too. In 1947, he was driving to a gig in a blinding snowstorm, I think it was in New York State. His car went out of control at a bridge, skidded off the road, hit the embankment and ended up in freezing water in the river below with him critically injured inside. He sat there in that water for something like 12 hours and was nearly frozen to death besides having multiple injuries to boot. They didn't think he was going to survive, but he did. His right arm was crushed at the elbow and shoulder to go along with his broken ribs and leg. They told him they were going to have to amputate his right arm at the elbow and he made a deal with them. Put a 75 degree bent piece of metal in where the elbow was. Set the arm and shoulder in guitar playing position, put it in a cast, and leave it that way forever. It eventually solidified and "healed". He kept the arm and could only use his hand if he lifted the arm to the task to be done. Otherwise it was only good for one thing from then on, playing guitar. Les Paul is a genius and one in a million, for sure. He is the living Thomas Edison of guitar and recording technology. His inventions reshaped the whole deal for all of us. As a man, he's an OK guy, hangs out with his band, raises hell and plays gigs, jams and loves the night life in New York. He's 91 now. Amazing! Thanks for bringing that up, Rapid, great posts by all. Cheers, WC1
PS: Happy Birthday, Rapid!

[jim sanders]

GREAT READING John

[WildcatOne]

Thanks, Doc...there were 3 guys who were all working on making electric guitars, back in the beginning. Les Paul (Lester Polfus), whose music teacher sent him home with a note telling his parents that there was no way he'd ever be a musician, Leo Fender out in Fullerton, California, and his collaborator, Merle Travis, the country star. Between Leo, who was not a musician but an extraordinarily creative guy, and Merle, who gave him a lot of his ideas concerning solid-body, styling and the violin-shaped headstock, Leo Fender started producing handmade solidbody electrics other than the lap-steel and pedal-steel guitars he'd already been doing, in around 1947-48. His first creation was called the "Nocaster" because it didn't have a name yet, but it soon reached stores as the Broadcaster. With the advent of TV, it became the Telecaster. The basic design principles and construction haven't changed since then on the Tele...there have been a few improvements, but mine is essentially the same brand-new as the ones Leo made back in the late 40s. His next creation was the electric bass guitar, which came in a Telecaster-style except the body had "double cutaways" like a Stratocaster, which started appearing around selected venues in around 1954. The Fender Precision and Jazz bass models have yet to be topped, in my opinion. Same thing with the Strat, it really hasn't changed. They make more powerful shielded pickups for these instruments now...back then they were hand-wound and dipped in wax to seal off the copper and protect the magnets. The first guy I remember that helped popularize the Strat in rock 'n roll, outside of the country music environment that all these instruments were designed for was Buddy Holly. Then Ritchie Valens picked one up, and it took off from there. A Stratocaster is a unique and yet simple instrument...Jimi Hendrix took it to undreamed of levels of sonic ecstasy with his powerful Marshall amps and a few simple effects...but originally, Leo Fender made those guitars for country music. The Telecaster has "twang", it's a certain tone that kind of snaps to the note and produces a ringing, almost echo-like sound when the string is plucked...Telecasters sound best "clean"...played straight into a Fender amp...a Strat, on the other hand, will blow a hole in your mind through your ears. The Strat is virtually limitless in its power, tonal capability and it has a unique look, along with the Tele and the Les Paul and later the SG, that has been imitated but never bettered. The Les Paul guitar has a "fat" sound that can be manipulated to sound like 10 guitars playing at once...the playability and sound of a Les Paul made it one of the top 4 electric guitars of all time...along with the others, the Gibson SG (Solid Guitar) is another creation of Les Paul worthy of note, even though he never liked it. I LOVED my SG, the Six-String Devil. By the time I auctioned it off at Blues For Becky in early 2004, I'd had it for nearly 30 years and I had played it to death...it was ready to be replaced, I had planned to give the guitar to my son Kyle but I ended up giving him the Les Paul, and I gave Nick (I don't have to say "I mean Chris" anymore, he decided to keep Nick as his name) my Strat. The Telecaster's mine now, but Kyle claims it when I, uh, won't be playing it anymore...Kyle has a couple of modern hardcore guitars, an Ibanez Giger model that looks like something they'd mount on an assault vehicle, and the ESP LTD-400 chiseled-look electric we got him for his 18th birthday. Nick wants a Jackson V, like Randy Rhoads played in Ozzy's band. He totally shreds on guitar, and he's playing drums now all the time. They make guitars now that will get you thrown in jail for how loud they are, but it has to do with the pickups and amps...as for me, I'm playing an American Fender Telecaster, new, into a mid-70s Fender American Twin Reverb with Peavey Scorpion speakers...best sound I ever had...I could rave on all night, but I wanted to blab some more about electric guitars...that Les Paul post opened up Pandora's box over here! Cheers, WC1

In an interview back in the 70s, Les Paul was hanging out at his shop, working on stuff...like Big Daddy, he kept EVERYTHING...he was fixing his guitar to double-track live or something and his son, who was the drummer for his band, pulled up in his car outside. Les Paul turned to the interviewer and said "I've got a quarter of a million dollars' worth of guitars here, and he's got to beat on those G.D. things..." Cat