VOA慢速英语2009年-People in America - Les Paul, 1915-2009: H

VOICE ONE:

I’m Shirley Griffith.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about Les Paul, one of the most influential¹ people in modern popular music. He was a skillful guitarist who played an energetic mixture of jazz and country songs. He was also an inventor.

The electric guitar and recording² devices he created changed the sound of popular music and greatly influenced rock and roll.

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VOICE ONE:
　
Les Paul

That was the song “Lover”, first released in nineteen forty-eight. To make this song, Les Paul layered eight recordings³ of himself playing the electric guitar. Some of the tracks were recorded at normal speed and some were recorded at half speed. Played at normal speed, the half speed recordings sound twice as fast.The song gives a good example of Les Paul’s experimental style and inventive spirit.

Les Paul is best known for creating one of the first solid-body electric guitars and the eight-track recording device. He also perfected new recording methods to give special effects to his music.

VOICE TWO:

Les Paul was born Lester William Polfuss (POLL-fuss) in nineteen fifteen in Waukesha, (WAH-kuh-shaw) Wisconsin. By the age of nine, he had taught himself to play the harmonica and had built a radio. He also learned to play the guitar and banjo. He could not read music, but he could play music that he heard. And he had a good sense of musical structure.

Les Paul was soon performing in country bands in the Midwest. He left high school to perform full time on radio shows. He performed using the names “The Wizard of Waukesha”, “Hot Rod Red” and “Rhubarb Red.” He also started playing music influenced by great jazz guitarists including Django Reinhardt.

By nineteen thirty-seven, he had formed the Les Paul trio. He moved to New York City the next year. Les Paul played with many famous performers including the popular singer Bing Crosby.

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VOICE ONE:

Around nineteen forty-one, Les Paul invented his famous guitar. He wanted to make an instrument that could play a note longer than notes played on a traditional acoustic⁵ guitar. He developed a new kind of electric guitar that had a solid body. On an acoustic guitar, the strings⁶ vibrate and the hollow part of the instrument, or the sound box, also vibrates. Les Paul wanted an instrument in which only the strings vibrated.

Making a guitar with a solid body permitted the sound of the strings to last longer because their vibrating energy was not weakened by a vibrating sound box. And this design reduced feedback, a noise problem common with acoustic guitars.

VOICE TWO:

To make his guitar, Les Paul attached guitar strings and two electronic pickup⁷ devices onto a flat piece of wood from a railroad track. A pickup is a device that captures the vibration⁸ of the metal guitar strings and changes them into electronic sound signals. He called his non-vibrating guitar body “the Log.” It was a very strange- looking instrument, so he hid it inside the body of a traditional guitar.

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VOICE ONE:

Les Paul said that guitarists could play louder and truly express themselves with this new guitar. He said guitarists could become some of the most powerful people in a band. Les Paul was not the only person to make a solid-body guitar. Leo Fender created another version, the Fender Telecaster, in nineteen forty-eight.

VOICE TWO:

The Gibson Guitar Company hired Paul to design a special “Les Paul” guitar. Versions of the guitar he created in nineteen fifty-two are still huge sellers, even today. Some of the top guitarists in the world have used this guitar. They include Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page from the band Led Zeppelin and Slash⁹ from the band Guns N’ Roses.

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VOICE ONE:

That was the song “Vaya Con⁴ Dios” which Les Paul performed with his wife, singer and guitarist Mary Ford¹⁰. The two began playing together in nineteen forty-seven. The next year, Les Paul had a serious car accident that left him with severe injuries. His right arm was crushed. Once set, he would never be able to bend his arm again. He decided¹¹ to have his arm set at an angle so that he could keep playing the guitar.

VOICE TWO:

During the nineteen fifties, Les Paul and Mary Ford recorded many hit songs including “Mockingbird Hill” and “How High the Moon.” Mary Ford performed on Les Paul’s radio show. Later they had a television show.Les Paul continued to experiment with different recording methods. He built his own recording studio in his house. He used technology and electronic effects to add a special sound to his music. In the late nineteen fifties he invented the eight-track recording method known as multi-track recording.Each track could be recorded and changed separately, without affecting the others.

VOICE ONE:

By the nineteen sixties, Les Paul and Mary Ford’s series of hits came to an end and they later ended their marriage. But Paul never stopped improving his guitars and other musical devices. He invented the “Les Paulverizer” device which permitted a performer to echo, or repeat, his or her music.

In the nineteen seventies, Les Paul made two records with the country guitarist Chet Atkins. One was called “Chester and Lester.” It won a Grammy Award in nineteen seventy-six. Starting in the early nineteen eighties, Paul began playing in jazz clubs in New York City. He kept on performing weekly until a few months before his death.

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VOICE TWO:

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame honored Les Paul by making him a member in nineteen eighty-eight. He was also a member of the Grammy Hall of Fame, Songwriters Hall of Fame and National Inventors Hall of Fame.His last record was “Les Paul and Friends: American Made World Played.” It was released in two thousand five to observe his ninetieth birthday. On the album, Les Paul plays with guitar greats including Jeff Beck and Keith Richards. The album earned him two more Grammy Awards.

Les Paul died in August of two thousand nine. He was ninety-four years old. Someone once asked him if he thought he would still be playing at one hundred years old. He said he did not see why not, as long as people put up with him and he was having fun.

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VOICE ONE:

This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. For transcripts¹², mp3s and podcasts of our shows go to voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Shirley Griffith.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for People in America in VOA Special English.

1 influential   

adj.有影响的，有权势的

参考例句：

• He always tries to get in with the most influential people.他总是试图巴结最有影响的人物。
• He is a very influential man in the government.他在政府中是个很有影响的人物。

2 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

3 recordings   

n.记录( recording的名词复数 )；录音；录像；唱片

参考例句：

• a boxed set of original recordings 一套盒装原声录音带
• old jazz recordings reissued on CD 以激光唱片重新发行的老爵士乐

4 con   

n.反对的观点，反对者，反对票，肺病；vt.精读，学习，默记；adv.反对地，从反面；adj.欺诈的

参考例句：

• We must be fair and consider the reason pro and con.我们必须公平考虑赞成和反对的理由。
• The motion is adopted non con.因无人投反对票，协议被通过。

5 acoustic   

adj.听觉的，声音的；(乐器)原声的

参考例句：

• The hall has a fine acoustic.这个大厅的传音效果很好。
• Animals use a whole rang of acoustic, visual,and chemical signals in their systems of communication.动物利用各种各样的听觉、视觉和化学信号来进行交流。

6 strings   

n.弦

参考例句：

• He sat on the bed,idly plucking the strings of his guitar.他坐在床上，随意地拨着吉他的弦。
• She swept her fingers over the strings of the harp.她用手指划过竖琴的琴弦。

7 pickup   

n.拾起，获得

参考例句：

• I would love to trade this car for a pickup truck.我愿意用这辆汽车换一辆小型轻便卡车。||The luck guy is a choice pickup for the girls.那位幸运的男孩是女孩子们想勾搭上的人。

8 vibration   

n.颤动，振动；摆动

参考例句：

• There is so much vibration on a ship that one cannot write.船上的震动大得使人无法书写。
• The vibration of the window woke me up.窗子的震动把我惊醒了。

9 slash   

vi.大幅度削减；vt.猛砍，尖锐抨击，大幅减少；n.猛砍，斜线，长切口，衣衩

参考例句：

• The shop plans to slash fur prices after Spring Festival.该店计划在春节之后把皮货降价。
• Don't slash your horse in that cruel way.不要那样残忍地鞭打你的马。

10 Ford   

n.浅滩，水浅可涉处；v.涉水，涉过

参考例句：

• They were guarding the bridge,so we forded the river.他们驻守在那座桥上，所以我们只能涉水过河。
• If you decide to ford a stream,be extremely careful.如果已决定要涉过小溪，必须极度小心。

11 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

12 transcripts   

n.抄本（ transcript的名词复数 ）；转写本；文字本；副本

参考例句：

• Like mRNA, both tRNA and rRNA are transcripts of chromosomal DNA. tRNA及rRNA同mRNA一样，都是染色体DNA的转录产物。 来自辞典例句
• You can't take the transfer students'exam without your transcripts. 没有成绩证明书，你就不能参加转学考试。 来自辞典例句