So there I was, checking out the merchandise in the gift shop at the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame Annex in Downtown Manhattan. I’d just done the tour and learned how David Byrne, Patti Smith and The Ramones had all but invented the music. This was indeed a revelation, as I’d been led to believe that people with names such as Bill Haley, Fats Domino and Little Richard had got something to do with it. By the same token how could I have not known that the Notorious B.I.G. and Funkadelic would feature in the rock n roll story as well. The tour was a real eye-opener, and for more reasons than one. In amongst the T-shirts, mugs and baseball caps on sale in the shop, I spotted a curious-looking box filled with personally-signed albums. Right there at the front was an autographed copy of “Les Paul’s Greatest Hits” marked at 75 dollars. How intriguing that one of the most interesting artifacts in the Annex happened to be in this box. Just as I was hauling the album out to inspect the quality and feel the width, a TV set behind the counter tuned to CNN announced that Les Paul had just died. It was, as you might imagine, a “Twilight Zone” moment like no other. It transpired that the great man had passed away at the age of 94 after suffering from complications of pneumonia at a hospital in White Plains, New York.

Notice how the word ‘guitar’ hasn’t been mentioned up to this point? Les Paul was not only synonymous with the instrument that immortalized his name, he spent the best part of his life existing as a genericized trademark. In retail terms, a Les Paul is now as much a part of the lexicon as is a Hoover, a Kleenex or Tupperware. Lester Polsfuss (later Polfuss) was born in June 1915, the very same month and year that Marconi was busy developing the wireless telephone. Around the time of his thirteenth birthday, the intrepid Lester began experimenting with amplification. He placed a telephone receiver under the strings of a store-bought acoustic, and produced a sound by connecting the leads to a radio. In one fell swoop Les Paul, as he was now known, had invented the electric guitar. The dues-paying years came during the 1940’s when he gigged with everyone from Bing Crosby to Nat ‘King’ Cole. Les was soon being viewed as some sort of institutional mastermind, and in 1952 he was brought on board by the Gibson Guitar Corporation to help design a solid body model that could compete with the Fender Telecaster. This was the dawning of the iconic Gold Top Les Paul Gibson.

The instrument sold extremely well, appealing as it did to all factions of the entertainment industry – from rockabilly pickers to avante garde jazzers. This, of course, was in the United States. Thanks to a string of protective trade restrictions left over from the Second World War, American musical instruments couldn’t be imported into the UK until the end of the fifties. It would be intriguing to know if Les Paul ever got to hear how the very first Gold Top arrived in England. During the spring of 1958 the high-priestess of gospel, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, toured the UK to great acclaim and delivered the kind of on-stage energy usually associated with the early rock n roll performers. Marty Wilde, then a leading light in the field, was sauntering down Denmark Street one day when he spotted a most unusual guitar in a shop window. Without giving it a second thought he went inside and purchased the instrument for the guitarist in his band, the Wild Cats. That instrument was Sister Rosetta’s Gold Top, which she’d sold after her tour was over. And the guitarist? ‘Big’ Jim Sullivan. A major link in the rock n roll chain had fallen into place.

Rest in peace Lester, you would have been proud.