![Фото: Queen's Brian May, left, jams with Les Paul, right, inventor of the electric guitar, at Fat Tuesday's, a jazz club in New York City.]( "Фото: Queen's Brian May, left, jams with Les Paul, right, inventor of the electric guitar, at Fat Tuesday's, a jazz club in New York City.")
Фото: Queen's Brian May, left, jams with Les Paul, right, inventor of the electric guitar, at Fat Tuesday's, a jazz club in New York City.
Les Paul frequently welcomed fellow musicians, of all styles, to his stage. Besides Brian May, other guests have included Jimmy Page, Steve Miller, Eddie Van Halen and Keith Richards.
(Photo © 1992 by Jim O'Donnell)
Панегерик от Брайана Мэя
I'd like to add my tribute to the great man, Les Paul, who died this week.
The world would be significantly different today without the input of this man's life's work. As a kid, I heard rumours of a great guitarist .. only rumours, because the music scene was ruled by Rock and Roll as I was growing up ... which at a stroke had swept away (temporarily) the visibility of more mellow forms of music. So I never heard Les Paul on the radio ... but I went to my favourite mystical magical place, the record shop Waldren's in Hounslow .... and bought the only Les Paul record I could find. It was an EP - extended play 45 vinyl disc, in a colour sleeve, showing Les and his wife, Mary Ford. I spent hours just looking at the cover trying to figure out what was happening on the guitar which Les had in his lap! The record included "Johnny is the Boy for Me" sung by Mary - very appealing and old-fashioned, I thought, with rippling accompaniment from Les on his guitar. And three instrumentals ... including "Little Rock Getaway". It was this track which grabbed me most . The guitar was multitracked but also speeded up to various degrees ... it was a very futuristic production. Les had played the tracks with quite a lot of finger-damping, making a sort of pizzicato effect, and there was a multi-return echo on it too ... a set of tape delays which lifted the sound into an 'unworldly' place. All this stuff was Les's invention. I still have the record, and when I met Les in New York a lifetime later, I talked about it to him. I told him I had tried to play it, as a kid, but without complete succes!
I only discovered yesterday that there is a clip on YouTube of me playing with Les. I had no idea. If you watch it - it's only a fragment - you'll see that I'm mostly singing, not playing, like most guitarists did when they were guests at this, his "Fat Tuesday's" club. The reason was I didn't feel worthy of competing! I was a guest along with two other players, both of whom could trade flurries of Jazz notes with Les - and did, to great effect. It was not my thing ... so I played and sang an old Blind Blake blues song which I have always held dear ... "Early Morning Blues". Listening to this, I realise for the first time what lovely counterpoint and detail Les was adding to the song ... at the time I was too busy wondering if I could remember all the words, probably!!
It was my only time of meeting with the venerable Mr. Paul. I don't think he was particularly impressed with me, except for the fact that I too had invented a guitar ... but I don't think he welcomed that thought with much pleasure either!! Les Paul will always have my greatest respect - an innovator, a wonderful distinctive player, and an essential pillar in the foundations of modern rock. God bless 'im!!
RIP Les Paul
Bri
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