Best CD to Downlaod to introduce me to Les Paul's Music?

[KSKONDOR]

I'm sure it's a greatest hitx package or something but what you would buy if you wanted to be introduced to Les Pauls (the Man) music?
Thanks

 

[KSKONDOR]

Bumpity.

 

[mjm59]

There was a great 4 disc set that came out in the 80's with most of the hits that he and Mary did for Capitol, this is a best of release of those discs. http://www.amazon.com/Best-Capitol-...1_118?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1328451727&sr=1-118

Whatever you buy, you should start your journey with 2 songs, Lover and Nola, both of which are contained on this disc. I don't see it for download, but you can buy it used for just over a dollar.

Next, you might wish to hear Les play guitar without all of the studio tricks that he made famous, you absolutely should seek out a copy of Chester and Lester, with Chet Atkins (a masterpiece) and look for recordings of The Les Paul Trio, they sound a great deal like The Nat Cole Trio.

 

[taez555]

There's a new version of the Best of Capitol masters with a bunch of extra tracks... but yeah... that's a great one to start with...

Definitely should be in one of those must have catagories for every musician.

Here's the downloads... http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0009IW9CU

 

[stevel]

I second this one as a good introduction. But it's worth digging deeper too.

Steve

 

[KLB]

While not a CD, and of lo-fi to mid-fi quality, check out the free (legal) Les Paul downloads at www.archive.org. Experiment with the Advanced Search tool to locate a variety of entertaining material with Les Paul, Mary Ford and others. Cheers.​

 

[JSeth]

I'd start with Chester and Lester... the sound quality is great and the playing is unbeatable! With a faceless Nashville rhythm section staying way out of the way, all you hear is Chet Atkins and Les Paul... and Les just tears it up!

I swear you can hear darn near every lick that modern players use, and have used , for the past 4 or 5 decades, all in Les' playing... his personality is kind of whacky, and it comes through his guitar in every tune...

Plus, the "off-mic" conversations are priceless! Nice to hear that these 2 old masters have a great sense of humor...

Unfortunately, the next record they did, "Guitar Monsters" is not nearly so accessable; apparently, Les had a bad cold and Chet put a lot of "production" into the record. I bought a "2 record" combination of both albums, back when I saw Les at Fat Tuesday's in the Village in the early 90's... and I was bummed that, in that version, most of the conversation between the 2 had been edited out...

All the compilation stuff is decent, but the sound quality is quite dated; still pretty amazing to hear what Les was doing, back in the 40's and 50's...

I think his PLAYING is way under-rated; I know he gets a ton of props for all his work with the electric guitar and recording inventions, but I really love his playing...