LES PAUL ELECTRIC DREAMS

Les Paul, the man who shaped the sound of rock’n’roll, gave his last major interview to RC’s Jonathan Wingate . . .

In recent years, Les Paul’s liquid licks may not have flowed quite as freely from his fingers as they once had, but until a few months before his recent death at the age of 94, his trademark style and effervescent enthusiasm for the guitar could still be witnessed every Monday night in New York’s Iridium Jazz Club, where people queued around the block to hear this true legend play.

“I think Monday night is the greatest therapy for me. It gives me a reason to get out of bed. Between going to the bathroom and playing on Mondays at the Iridium, at my age, those are the two greatest things that you can look forward to.”

In what would prove to be his last major interview – a fascinating four-hour conversation that stretches long into the night – he casually flicks through his memories like old photographs, pausing every now and then to recall any number of chapters in his incredible life story. From working with Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby and Nat ‘King’ Cole through to the many inventions he dreamed up, Paul’s importance in the development of modern music simply cannot be overestimated. Without Les Paul, as Keith Richards once noted, “generations of flash little punks like us would be in jail or cleaning toilets.”

Born Lester Polsfuss (which was anglicised to Polfuss, then …

by Jonathan Wingate
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