With the passing of American music icon, Les Paul, GreenShoelace reached out to an authority on the man: Smithsonian Historian, DJ, and music producer, Will Eastman of Washington, DC.
Eastman was the interviewer of Paul for a feature length documentary called Chasing Sound, which chronicles the legendary life of Les Paul. Will was kind enough to shed some light on the man, based on the time he spent with this normally reclusive, but incredibly talented innovator.
GSL: So I figure it’s best to start at the beginning. How did you find yourself involved with making this documentary on Les Paul?
Will Eastman: Sure, I used to work for the Smithsonian Institution as a historian for 10 years…and the documentary got started with an idea by John Paulson and his producer Jim Arntz. Paulson and I worked together at the Smithsonian and he started doing his own film on Les Paul, whom we had brought into the museum previously, at the Smithsonian, chatting about their childhoods and what makes them tick.
So John had pitched this idea to Les and his people and it wasn’t easy because Les, after many decades in the music industry, was a bit reticent to jump into anything. He was understandably guarded of his legacy and his story. So he wanted to make sure whoever was telling it would do so objectively and give it a fair treatment. John and Jim finally earned his trust and made an agreement to make this documentary.
They asked me if I would be interested in doing some on camera interviews with Les. What I didn’t realize at the time was that this project would go on for the better part of two years, and that I’d end up spending 25 hours of on camera interviews with Les… all over the place.
Those video interviews end up being the bulk of the content of the documentary which aired on PBS and it’s called “Chasing Sound: The Les Paul Story.”
So, after following him around for two years, it’s safe to say you knew the man. Now, Les Paul wore many hats, but what did he consider himself first and foremost: a guitarist, producer or inventor?
I think he considered himself, first and foremost, an entertainer. And that’s what started him on this path as a very young man. Whether it was playing under the name Red Hot Red; playing guitar with Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians; doing country western radio during the day, during the 40’s and sneaking out at night to perform with jazz musicians in New York…his main thing was as an entertainer. All the other things–the television, guitar innovations, sound recording innovations–those were things he came up with under the necessity of entertaining people.
What accomplishment was he most proud of personally?
I think he was very proud of a lot of the sound recording techniques. One he talked about most often was taking a Cadillac flywheel and making a disc laid recorder out of it. This preceded his tape sound recording experiments. From my perspective, he seemed most proud of those little things he did that required making something out of nothing.
Can you tell me about how Les’ car accident affected his life and playing style?
From what he said and the stories he told, it seems he had to redevelop his entire playing style. The doctor, on Les’ urging, set the arm at a 90 degree angle, and for the rest of his life he was unable to move that arm [it stayed at a 90 degree angle]. Obviously it hindered his mobility over the years and he had to stick to that over 60 plus years.
More important, from what I could tell from my conversations with him, it changed his perspective on life and mortality. I don’t think anyone has had a near death experience and not come out changed by it.
I think he had a new sense of purpose and a new sense of urgency that ‘hey, I could be gone tomorrow. I have a lot to accomplish with my life and I better get crackin’ at it.’ And you see that because after this experience a lot of things start to fall into place, a lot of innovation, a lot of inventions.
Quite the catalyst I’m sure. As someone with many years under his belt, nearly a century, could you tell how he felt about the early 21st? Was he optimistic about the future or had the golden days come and gone?
I think he was realistic. I never got a sense that he really felt that we were in worse shape now than any time in the past. You got to keep in mind that this is a man who lived through WWI, the great depression, WWII, The economic recession in the 70s. So he had a lot of perspective and he never struck me as someone who was particularly unoptimistic of today as compared to the past.
Les had a lot under his belt. Where would the music industry be without the 8-track recorder, over dub, reverb, etc? Did he see himself as a pioneer?
I think he saw himself as a guy who had a technical problem to solve and then would go about solving it. He saw himself as an entertainer and technical problem solver and the stuff that came out of it, we all benefited from. It undeniably changed the face of music, and I’d argue popular culture, forever, worldwide.
I think it also–and this is something you don’t hear very often because it’s not easy to put into a sound byte, and it’s not something that’s easy to quantifiably prove–but it also changed the way that we think about things in a philosophical sense, or an intellectual sense, in that you’re able to take bits of information and lay them over the top of other bits of information.
This technology allows the basic definition of post-modernism. I think that post-modern thinkers were able to take the stuff that came out of Les’ invention. You know, the whole mash-up phenomenon, which I don’t want to blame on Les; but this whole notion of taking things, changing the context of them and making new things out of them. And sure it existed in art, it existed in literature and so forth, but Les made that happen [for music].
Paul played live to the very end in small clubs in Manhattan. Do musicians today share that same work ethic?
I think that’s on a case-by-case basis. I think some musicians do. Just like other fields, there are really productive insurance salesmen, there are really lazy insurance salesmen. I think the same rings true for producers, musicians, DJs, whatever. I think Les stayed at this Monday night gig he did at Iridium [a small jazz club in Manhattan], he did until the very end–He loved it.
I don’t think it’s any secret that it was one of the keys to his longevity. He said, “Doing this gives me purpose, gives me something to look forward to every week.” He loved meeting the fans, he loved telling stories, he loved performing. I think doing these things on a weekly basis kept his mind sharp, his sprits up and was something that he had to do. Music was life.
Concluded tomorrow in Part II.
more from this author
- Mike Bruno, Human Adult Band, & King Darves @ Freddys Backroom, Brooklyn, NY February 19th, 2010 - February 23rd, 2010
- Don Giovanni Records Showcase (Screaming Females, JEFF the Brotherhood) @ Bowery Ballroom - February 6, 2009 - February 10th, 2010
- Steel Train and The London Souls @ Brooklyn Bowl – January 2nd, 2010 - January 8th, 2010
- David Byrne Speaks Intimately on Creativity in Brooklyn - December 28th, 2009
- Longwave, The Grates, A Million Years @ Bowery Ballroom, November 14th, 2009 - November 16th, 2009
