VOA常速英语2007年-At 92, Music Pioneer Les Paul Still Performing

By Kane Farabaugh
New York City
26 December 2007
 

Born in the small town of Waukesha in the Midwest U.S. state of Wisconsin in 1915, Les Paul showed signs of musical ability at a young age. From those small roots, the musician and inventor traveled the country. From piano to banjo to guitar, Paul played with some of the biggest names in music during the Great Depression, before turning his talents on changing the way music was recorded. VOA's Kane Farabaugh spent time with the music legend before one of his regular shows in New York City, where he still performs at the age of 92.

It is a Monday night in Midtown Manhattan, and the Iridium Jazz Club is packing in the crowds.

 

Inside, the arthritic¹ hands of an elderly musician tune² a guitar before the evening performance. The man behind the instrument was born Lester Polfuss, but he is better known as Les Paul.

In the 1930s, Les Paul was in his prime. Performing by day with some of the biggest bands of the era, he spent nights learning music with some of the biggest names in the Harlem music scene.

"I'm learning to play the music that you don't play," Paul said.  "The music that's missing. It belongs in there. And that was jazz. And so I would go up there and sit with Lester Young, and listen to him, Dizzy Gillespie, anybody you wish to name, Art Tatum - all the greats."

He became a household name as head of the Les Paul Trio, heard on radio sets throughout the country.

Almost 70 years later, now as a quartet, he is still performing in front of full audiences, gathered to see a music pioneer.  "I didn't realize that I was a pioneer," he says modestly. "I did realize that the particular thing I was looking for was not available," he explains.

Paul wanted a guitar that he could play, with a band or an orchestra, that wouldn't be drowned out. He needed a loud guitar.

Not just a musician but also lifelong inventor, Les Paul went to work on a new instrument. Originally using railroad steel and telephone parts, he created what is now one of the most widely used instruments -- the single-body, electric guitar.

Paul explains, "To my amazement³ there are so many today versus⁴ the fact there was only one -- I was the only guy who could get out there and do anything with it. And a guitar is the number one instrument in the world today. When I was a kid it was a piano."

The Gibson musical instrument company began manufacturing and selling Les's electric guitar. The "Gibson Les Paul" continues to be a top seller and preferred instrument of many musicians.

"My electronics were one half of my life, and the other half of my life was music and they finally married each other. You needed both of them to do what happened." Paul said.

What happened began with Les Paul tinkering in his home recording⁵ studio. He combined recordings⁶ of different guitar sounds, blending in the voice of his wife at the time, singer Mary Ford⁷. He then experimented with those tracks at different speeds and pitch and played them back simultaneously⁸:

The method, called multi-track recording, created a sound that came to define pop music in the 1960s. It continues to be a staple⁹ in sound recording today.

For a lifetime of achievements, Les Paul was honored with a 2007 National Medal of the Arts -- one of the nation's highest civilian¹⁰ honors -- at a Washington D.C. ceremony hosted by President George Bush in November.

It was another milestone¹¹ in a career that this 1988 inductee into the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame promises is far from over.

"If you're going to make 100, you only got a few years left, and you've got so much you'd like to say or do, things that you haven't finished doing yet that you would love to do," Paul said.

The town of Waukesha, Wisconsin is currently planning a permanent exhibit honoring its most famous citizen.

The "Les Paul Experience" is scheduled to open there in 2010. The aging musician would then be 95 years old, and hopes to be there to see it open.

1 arthritic   

adj.关节炎的

参考例句：

• Somehow the geriatric Voyager 2, arthritic and partially deaf, managed to reach Neptune. 得了关节炎而且局部变聋、衰老的“旅行者2号”最后总算抵达海王星。 来自百科语句
• Femoral head ostectomy is a surgery performed on severely arthritic dogs. 股骨断截骨术’都是针对关节炎严重的狗狗的手术。 来自互联网

2 tune   

n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整

参考例句：

• He'd written a tune,and played it to us on the piano.他写了一段曲子，并在钢琴上弹给我们听。
• The boy beat out a tune on a tin can.那男孩在易拉罐上敲出一首曲子。

3 amazement   

n.惊奇，惊讶

参考例句：

• All those around him looked at him with amazement.周围的人都对他投射出惊异的眼光。
• He looked at me in blank amazement.他带着迷茫惊诧的神情望着我。

4 versus   

prep.以…为对手，对；与…相比之下

参考例句：

• The big match tonight is England versus Spain.今晚的大赛是英格兰对西班牙。
• The most exciting game was Harvard versus Yale.最富紧张刺激的球赛是哈佛队对耶鲁队。

5 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

6 recordings   

n.记录( recording的名词复数 )；录音；录像；唱片

参考例句：

• a boxed set of original recordings 一套盒装原声录音带
• old jazz recordings reissued on CD 以激光唱片重新发行的老爵士乐

7 Ford   

n.浅滩，水浅可涉处；v.涉水，涉过

参考例句：

• They were guarding the bridge,so we forded the river.他们驻守在那座桥上，所以我们只能涉水过河。
• If you decide to ford a stream,be extremely careful.如果已决定要涉过小溪，必须极度小心。

8 simultaneously   

adv.同时发生地，同时进行地

参考例句：

• The radar beam can track a number of targets almost simultaneously.雷达波几乎可以同时追着多个目标。
• The Windows allow a computer user to execute multiple programs simultaneously.Windows允许计算机用户同时运行多个程序。

9 staple   

n.主要产物，常用品，主要要素，原料，订书钉，钩环；adj.主要的，重要的；vt.分类

参考例句：

• Tea is the staple crop here.本地产品以茶叶为大宗。
• Potatoes are the staple of their diet.土豆是他们的主要食品。

10 civilian   

adj.平民的，民用的，民众的

参考例句：

• There is no reliable information about civilian casualties.关于平民的伤亡还没有确凿的信息。
• He resigned his commission to take up a civilian job.他辞去军职而从事平民工作。

11 milestone   

n.里程碑；划时代的事件

参考例句：

• The film proved to be a milestone in the history of cinema.事实证明这部影片是电影史上的一个里程碑。
• I think this is a very important milestone in the relations between our two countries.我认为这是我们两国关系中一个十分重要的里程碑。