I was a young boy when I figured out what I wanted to do with my life. Experiencing Ed Sullivan introduce the Beatles, unlike other boys, I wasn’t interested in being in the band. I wanted to introduce great talent to the world.
Jazz guitarist and inventor, Les Paul, brought us more than his electric “Log” guitar fashioned out of two pickups, and the triptych coupling of a slab of 4 x 4 lumber and the two halves from an Epiphone hollow body guitar. He brought us more than a delightful legacy of jazz, but a mountain of amazing guitar techniques to examine and study. His deep curiosity and rich inventiveness roamed the world of electronics and sound, luring him like sirens to seemingly insurmountable production and recording challenges. Good for us that Mr. Paul’s intense curiosity was welded to an equally tenacious spirited drive.
With five Grammy Awards, 23 W.C. Handy Awards [the most of any artist], 65 albums, a place in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and disciples like Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan, Buddy Guy ranks as one of the music legends of our time.
Peter Frampton’s musical odyssey has been graced with a series of pop hits and world-wide recognition. His career milestones have progressed from that of a mere guitar hero to a cultural icon. He has been referenced in everything from Wayne’s World to The Simpsons’. Frampton’s acting credits include: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band as Billy Shears, Baa Baa Black Sheep as Peter Buckley and Reg in the coming-of-age rock movie, Almost Famous.
Born the grandson of immigrants in 1915, Lester William Polfuss exhibited an inborn Germanic talent for analytical thinking at a precociously early age.
Solidbodies: The 50 Year Guitar War is an entertaining and enlightening new DVD by Lightning Lab Productions that offers a captivating look into the history of the two most significant solidbody guitars in history: the Fender Stratocaster and the Gibson Les Paul. For over fifty years, Fender and Gibson guitars have dominated the electric guitar market. Despite the hundreds of other guitar builders trying to better the mousetrap, the Stratocaster and Les Paul have continued to dominate the global marketplace.
Les Paul was a giant in the music industry long before rock and roll was even a glimmer in the eye of record company executives or a restless youth culture.
