R.I.P. Les Paul | Hacker News Reader

R.I.P. Les Paul

news.yahoo.com

196 pointsjamesbritt34 comments

I heard a great story about Les Paul's invention of multi-tracking in an old (long ago defunct) basement coffee shop in Harvard Square called Passim, featuring Guy van Duser (guitar) and Billy Novick (whistle, vocals).

Guy is a local Boston guitar phenomenon, playing stride guitar with 3+ parts at times. (Rounder Records carries his stuff--highly recommended.)

Anyway, Guy told the story of growing up adulating Les Paul, struggling for years to learn to play some of his recordings, until he got it right. He finally got to meet Paul, told him of his admiration, and showed Paul his licks. Paul's jaw dropped as he told Guy, "I double-tracked that recording!" Of course, that left Guy floating on air...

there ought to be a place to save little gems like this. Thank you for that!

This man was phenomenal. Not just a great musician, but a real hacker, inventing the solid-body electric guitar and multitrack recording.

And he loved what he did, and kept doing to the end.

And he had taste too. The original Les Paul guitars still look and sound great today.

A real hacker indeed, at least he lived a long fulfilling life.

At least? What more could anyone ask for?

To live forever?

Remembered something by Tolkien. "Death was a gift to men. Though elves did not die, as they aged they became more sorrowful". [paraphrased]. I don't think that living forever is a good thing.

Fine. Those who want to die, be my guest. Those of us who want to live forever, we'd like the option anyway, please.

Living forever is only hell if you remain human. By the time I turn one million I will be an entity of nearly infinite wisdom, more powerful than the God of the Christians.

A nice (though hella-long) follow-up to this thought: http://lesswrong.com/lw/xy/the_fun_theory_sequence/

I've read it. I wish more people were asking the questions asked by Eliezer.

Why not just reboot and live another interesting sequence of experiences every thousand years or so?

Absolutely, I believe that is an important part of living forever. My immortal soul will get bored sometimes and have part of himself reincarnated.

Interesting knowledge will continue to exist into the future for a while. If no one has built a particle accelerator the size of a planet yet by the time I get my PhD in Physics, I'll build one for my dissertation. Then once we find the second and fourth dimensions, we may discover the actual secrets of the universe. Or AI will do it for us.

Ultimately I think the thing to do will be to colonize the universe for humanity. To try and reach the next type on the Kardashev Scale. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kardashev_scale

If men lived forever, earth would be hell.

Why?

God will be switching the angels over from harps within a week.

From the CNN report:

Paul is enshrined in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Grammy Hall of Fame, the Inventors Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

"I had to build it, make it and perfect it," Paul said in 2002.

"I learned a long time ago that one note can go a long way if it's the right one," he said in 2002, "and it will probably whip the guy with 20 notes."

A hacker if there ever was one. Most of us still enjoy the output of his output. RIP.

"I learned a long time ago that one note can go a long way if it's the right one," he said in 2002, "and it will probably whip the guy with 20 notes."

A sentiment proven time and again by Status Quo (the 3-chord band) :)

A serious hacker. RIP.

I think recently, another interesting proof for this is the Joker's note. Watching the Dark Knight behind the scenes commentary, Hans Zimmer talks about how he thought the most chill-inspiring theme for Joker wouldn't be an intricate composition, but one slightly sour note played at length. Other sounds and effects were layered upon it to fit with the soundtrack, but the effect is amazing, simultaneously warning the audience of the joker's presence and inspiring suspense at the same time.

This is the kind of seemingly non-hacker RIP post I love seeing. I didn't know much about him before seeing this post, but the comments made me read more about him and I'm glad I did. Great stuff.

If he isn't a hacker, I don't know who is. Multitracking was innovative and early multitracking was a straight up hack. The first solid-body guitar was made out of a 2x4 mounted into an acoustic guitar. He may not have hacked computers, but he was a great hacker.

Les Paul has been a personal hero of mine since I was a kid. It's really sad to see him go, but at least we can continue to enjoy all of the wonderful creations and creative spirit that he brought into the worlds of music and engineering.

Though less well known than Les Paul, Tom Dowd (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Dowd) was another amazing recording industry hacker. If you're interested in the Les Paul story, you might also like the documentary about Tom Dowd: Tom Dowd and the Language of Music.

I watched that a few months ago. Quite good.

I can't even count the ways his innovations shaped my life and how I express myself.

I live in New York, I heard that he used to play here every week, as recently as a year ago. I regret that I never saw him play. I regret even more that I never took my fater to see him play.

They were talking about this on the Bob & Tom show this morning and apparently he played as recently as June 1, '09 and did so every Monday. They told a story about how Jimmy Buffet sat in and Les was cracking jokes...great stuff. I hope to have so much spunk should I make it that far.

...and just when I was thinking about buying that black-to-blue sunburst Les Paul I saw recently...I bet the price tag has already been changed. ;) RIP Les, you were a Legend long ago and always will be.

I watched an old documentary about Les Paul the other week. He's really fantastic. (http://www.mininova.org/tor/2607255)

I got to hear Les Paul at the Iridium when I was in New York in April. So glad I got hear him live at least once. Thanks for the music and the inventions. Play on!

I think it's interesting that so many people on HN recognize Les Paul - it shows how many hackers are music lovers as well, which is definitely a curious data point.

RIP Les.

What does Les Paul have to do with Erlang?

He invented concurrency in music recording.

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