Boss Radio

I guess it will take a lot to top the death of Michael Jackson, but to me the death of Les Paul is more important by a considerable measure. He was one of the inventors of the solid electric guitar, he definitely, though unintentionally, invented the electric blues guitar without which... well, you work the permutations out, he came up with the tape echo machine, but most importantly of all, he invented multi track recording.

I can't imagine the direction music might have taken over the years without that guitar (Or to be more precise it's humbucking pickups with their ability to overdrive and sustain), the echo unit, and the multitrack studio. I'm sure everything he invented would have been invented by someone else at some point, but he invented them all within the space of a couple of years. No one is going to match that, all anyone has done since then has been to improve upon what he already came up with years ago. Can you picture the 60s without psychedelia, 10 minute guitar solos, or Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band? How about the 70s without guitar heroes and prog rock?

Les Paul may have been just an old jazzman with an electronic bent but his influence upon the music that we all listen to right up to this day will never be topped. Rest in peace, Les.