Thursday, October 13, 2005

Les Paul Keeps Rocking at Age 90

By CHARLES J. GANS, Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK - Take it from Peter Frampton. Or from Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Peter Townsend or Jimmy Page — they all owe a debt to Les Paul, father of the electric guitar.

....At age 90, the man who developed the solid-body electric guitar has finally released his first rock album, "Les Paul & Friends: American Made, World Played" — which is remarkable considering that he is a longtime inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He appears with Frampton, Beck, Clapton, Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top, Bon Jovi's Richie Sambora and other guitar legends on the new CD.

....Paul built one of the first prototypes for the solid-body electric guitar in 1941. After repeated rejections, Gibson finally began mass-producing a guitar based on Paul's design in 1952, and the electric guitar went on to become the lead instrument in rock 'n' roll. Paul also developed many of the recording techniques such as multi-tracking and echo delay that made possible such classic rock albums as the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." - complete article

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