Three Rounds: Les Paul vs. Michael Bublé
So here it is 2009, and Les Paul has died on August 12th , and Michael Bublé has just released his 4th album,Crazy Love, (with the 1st single from it released on Aug 31st- 2 weeks after Paul’s demise). Two men from 2 different generations, both in love with music, both doing it “their” way.
Les Paul is known for (at the very least) the electric guitar, not to mention multitrack recording. (You know the multitrack recording…layering multiple takes to give the most perfect version of a song…it enhances the instruments and the voices, and is the current method used for most recordings). I read somewhere he was called ‘the broomer’-because the 1st electric guitar looked like a broom! (http://www.lespaulbiography.com/) He was rubbing elbows with the the same entertainers Bublé now covers.
And Michael Bublé is known as the Canadian crooner, the man that has brought standards back to this generation, all while wooing housewives and grandmas and being a bit naughty during his live shows.
So when recording the new album, did Bublé look technology in the face and say ” I am gonna do it completely opposite of Les Paul’s 1940′s self-propropelled music revolution; and bring back “[an] old-fashioned approach to recording, cutting tracks with a live band to replicate the feel of playing onstage.”
Could Les Paul have gotten wind of Bublé’s recording reversion, and dropped dead! I doubt it-he was 94!! But it is an interesting observation to say the least: What took Les Paul years to invent, perfect, and make standard in the music business, Michael Bublé, crooner of the standards has opted to undo.
Bublé revels in the grainy sound, the “noise that fills the empty spaces between the music” so to speak. He enjoys live shows, recording live and with minimal if not single takes. Bublé pushes for the authentic, “bleeding of the drums” sound, and possibility that he may sound pitchy while singing. He keeps it real. In his own words : “I wanted things to be engineered differently,” he says. “I wanted things to be miked differently. I didn’t want it to be sterile. I wanted it to have edge, I needed it to have soul because when I listen to Sinatra or (Count) Basie, that is rock. It may not have big guitars, but the drums bleed in and you feel it.” (http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/entertainment/6114064/michael-buble-takes-crazy-risks-with-new-sound/)
So a few years back when Michael Bublé admitted he had plans to take over the world….did he have any idea he’d go three rounds with Les Paul!
(ding! ding! and tonight’s main event, the broomer vs. the crooner; last man standing wins!)
