"Some guys like Les Paul, confinement couldn't hold them so they had to invent stuff," said blues guitar veteran Joe Louis Walker from outside Manhattan's Hard Rock Café, where he and dozens of other musicians gathered on June 9th for the Les Paul 100th Anniversary Celebration event. "If it wasn't for Les Paul, what would we all be playing?" Walker continued. "Acoustic boxes don't do too good at Madison Square Garden."
According to legend, Paul was once playing an acoustic blues gig and someone handed him a napkin with the message "turn it up" written on it. Frustrated by the volume limitations of the instrument he created a solid body electric guitar that could be plugged directly into a speaker. The Les Paul – the instrument of choice for artists ranging from Eric Clapton to Randy Rhoads – was born. But that wasn't his only innovation: the inventor also came up with multitrack recording, which allowed artists to record separate takes of music at different times but have them play back as if they were created in tandem.
Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/inside-the-all-star-les-paul-100th-anniversary-celebration-20150610#ixzz3coDGf1NC
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