Les Paul changed the course of musical history by inventing the electric guitar (others have a claim to that title also, we realise, but let's ignore that for the time being). As Keith Richards once put it: "We must all own up that without Les Paul, generations of flash little punks like us would be in jail or cleaning toilets". Not only that, but he was one of the earliest advocates of and experimenters with multi-track recording, thus changing the way music was recorded and written. Basically, everything you hear today is largely down to him. And, at 93 years old, he still performs in New York City every Monday night.
Paul recently told The Guardian: "The electric guitar was laughed at! They called me the character with the broomstick with pick-ups on it. It was terrible. Before we came along the guitar was an apologetic wimp - the weakest, most unimportant guy in the band. As soon as we put a pick-up on him, and a volume control, he became the king. There are always people who don't want to make changes, who are set in their ways. It's just the same today. We know we are going to find new and better music. We wouldn't be happy if it were to change back to Bing Crosby or Les Paul or Mary Ford, or whatever it was. Nothing wrong with it, but it's gone. There's a new kind of music, and it's on its way".
So, okay, he thinks looking backwards isn't such a great idea, but I'm still pretty exciting about a new documentary looking at one of the most interesting people in modern music history, 'Chasing Sound: The Les Paul Story', which is released on DVD on 29 Sep via Eagle Rock Entertainment.