Thursday, August 13, 2009

Weapon Of Choice

It's an article of faith among musical cats worldwide - when it comes to plank spanking nothing delivers like a block of marine grade mahogany capped off with a premium AAA rated Maple top.

Lovingly crafted into a sexyful body shape - nigh voluptuous - armed with dual 'humbucking' pick ups (kinda like microphones for the strings) world famous American made Gibson Les Paul is the weapon of choice.

Her creator - the famous Les Paul passed on today - yet his influential design lives on.

Les Paul invented doubletracking - a recording concept in constant use today and as the inventor of 'sweep picking" (True! That's him doing all the incredible fret work on the ancient 'Beverly Hillbillies" ), his gitfittling style inspired rockers from way back.

Zeppelin's Jimmy Page brought the design back to life in the 1970's along with KISS cat Ace Frehley. The 80's saw instant metal gods like Randy Rhoads of Ozzy fame deploy Les Paul, GNR's Slash and metal man Zakk Wylde all have devised their own Les Paul guitars.

This is significant.

Music - like free speech - is inherent in all people. Freedom - freedom of thought, action and the ability to craft and create to the hearts desire is readily available in the possesion of Les Paul's design.

There is a reason why certain creepy regimes fear American emo, pop, rock, funk, blues, crunk, hip hop and sacred music.

When it comes to 'soft power' - the Les Paul is a weapon of choice.

1 comments:

kevin said...

Thanks for recognizing a true pioneer. Linked it.

http://amboytimes.typepad.com/the_amboy_times/2009/08/ronald-reagan-speaks-out-against-socialized-medicine.html