Les Paul was born on June 9, 1915 in Waukesha, Wisconsin to George and Evelyn Polsfuss. His parents divorced when he was a child. His first introduction to music was at age 8 when started playing the harmonica. He then began playing guitar after a failed attempt at learning the banjo. By age 13 he was playing semi-professionally, and by 17 he had dropped out of high school and began playing with a radio band in St. Louis, Missouri. He started using the stage name Les Paul. He released his first two solo albums in 1936, one under an alter-ego and one with a blues accompianist name Georgia White. In January of 1948 Les Paul was almost killed in an automobile accident. He shattered his right arm in the crash and was told by doctors that he would never be able to move it again. So in true legendary fashion, he had them perform surgery on it to make it permanently angled at 90 degrees. This way he could hold his pick and rest it on the guitar. The way his arm was angled, led to the small body that was apart of the orignal Les Paul guitar construction. He also created one of the most notorious early electric models "the log" which solved the problem he had with acoutics that were made in the 30's and 40's. Later in his career he did quite a bit with radios and recording materials. In 1978 he was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and ten years later he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Besides being one of the most influential people music has ever seen, Paul was a philanthropist and God-Father of Steve Miller of the Steve Miller Band. In fact he gave the guitarist his first guitar lesson. While one post won't do this legend justice, I just hope it will open the eyes of some younger people who haven't heard of him or his music. Thanks for everything Les, your in our Hearts.
- Telow
references used for articles.
1. Voices from the Smithsonian Associates. Les Paul, Musician and Inventor. Archived at www.archive.org.
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