# 48 Les Paul and Friends: American made, world played - Les Paul (and various others)

# 48 Les Paul and Friends: American Made, World Played

Best Song: Fly like an Eagle


Les Paul is the father of modern music. That is a plain and simple fact that everyone needs to know. He invented multi-track recording and overdubbing and many many other things. He is the most important man in rock and roll and he never played it until very late in his life. He was a phenomenal guitarist who went from country to jazz and his best work can be found on his albums with Chet Atkins (which we will talk about at a later date).

But right now I am talking about this little album, released when the man himself was 90 years old and most of the time he gets lost underneath all the classic rock big names showing him what they have done with his techniques. Now I am going to be honest, this is not that great an album in general. It includes some very good covers but very few are essential, and it even contains a butchered version of “How High The Moon”. But the tracks that stand out are worth everything else and hey now a days it is so easy to skip songs why bother focusing on the bad and the few good are so good that they make this album jump from good to great.

Now the song everyone needs to hear is the version of “Fly Like An Eagle”. I can already hear people going “Oh no not that song I am so sick of that song”. Well listen to the original and in can almost tell that Steve Miller knew he was going to be sick of that song too. But here is a fun little fact: Les Paul was Steve Miller’s godfather. The track starts with a clip from some family gathering when Miller was about 5. Steve says singing makes him embarrassed and Les tells him that he should keep doing that and that he is going to go places…and then a Les Paulified version of the intro to the song takes you into a version where you can tell that Miller is actually having fun with the song again, playing with his mentor.

Another essential is the version of the “Caravan” where everyone spends time making guitars not sound like guitars, which of course is what Les Paul was famous for. He would take a guitar and make it an orchestra. The second best track though is “69 Freedom Special”. All the other tracks are labeled as “w/ (insert name here)” but this one is w/ Les Paul and Friends and is shows. This is all the greats coming together to have fun and jam, not just record.

As I said the other tracks are all good (except “How High The Moon” I don’t actually know who is doing it but they are no Mary Ford). If I was to pick one that represented the over all quality it would be “Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo”. Really if you want to just get the highlights I would not begrudge you that but if the only way you can locate them is to get the full album don’t hesitate just get it. It really shows how talented Les Paul is even at 90 to be able to just blend in to all these styles.

(It is actually pretty hard for me to find the versions of the songs that are on the CD so I will add them as I find them)