Les Paul’s Pirate Radio Station in Queens

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Ham N Egz
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2015/05/27 14:13:52 (permalink)

Les Paul’s Pirate Radio Station in Queens

Yes, THAT Les Paul
 
read all about it 
 
 
Les Paul was an innovator on a whole other level. Not only did he build the first solid body electric guitar and invent multi-track recording but he was responsible for creating a building pirate radio station in Queens in the 30s. The station was wired through the building, and would broadcast pick up jazz sessions from the basement. He called it the Booger Brothers. He had a cat mascot named Static who would often meow into the mike.
Federal Agents eventually showed up because the signals were driving the pilots nuts with Jazz who were attempting to land in the NY airports. Les then built some kind wave trap to filter out the harmonics.
Unfortunately on a hot day in 1940 or 1941 Les almost electrocuted himself by touching the power unit. It took him over year to recover and that ended that. There are these surreal red records floating around which are believed to be recordings of the show.
 
post edited by Ham N Egz - 2015/05/27 14:22:50

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#1

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    Beepster
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    Re: Les Paul’s Pirate Radio Station in Queens 2015/05/27 16:33:04 (permalink)
    In the modern era it would be feds providing the electrocution via taserin' for running a pirate radio station... followed by a free vacation to Gitmo or some such lovely destination.
     
    Pump Up the Volume indeed.
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    Moshkito
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    Re: Les Paul’s Pirate Radio Station in Queens 2015/05/27 16:59:06 (permalink)
    Beepster
    In the modern era it would be feds providing the electrocution via taserin' for running a pirate radio station... followed by a free vacation to Gitmo or some such lovely destination.
     
    Pump Up the Volume indeed.



    Technology would do better than that ... by scrambling the signal, or do what Southern California used to do ... make sure there was a station near enough 150 miles out, and thus the bigger station would not be heard properly.
     
    Not surprised though, and happy to hear it, since if there is one thing that there is a lack of, is some history of Pirate Radio in America. And it was very obvious and clear what the originally named on in Great Britain, ended up doing for the world of rock music!  Changed the history of music in the 20th century!
     
    post edited by Moshkito - 2015/05/30 12:23:09

    Music is not about notes and chords! My poem is not about the computer or monitor or letters! It's about how I was able to translate it from my insides! 
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    Moshkito
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    Re: Les Paul’s Pirate Radio Station in Queens 2015/06/11 16:05:25 (permalink)
    Hi,
     
    Between Dave Cousins' book on his story (STRAWBS) and a book on CARTOON MUSIC, that goes back to the beginning of the 20th Century, it puts a lot of music into a perspective that is insane. The Cartoon Music book (Maltin) is insane ... and shows why/how the copyrights that you all HERE face came from ... and why music first hit the "fame bug" through the movies, whereupon the studios immediately plug'd in their stars (Tom Dowd) and above all ... guess who owned the copyrights for almost ALL the popular music out there? ... you got it ... the movie studios! Now you can see why Warners and the Zappa Trust have had so many fights, and on top of it, Warners is going to try and cash in, before the rights revert back to the family trust!
     
    But one thing that was hidden in America, was pirate radio, and anything that was not clearly visible, or played by someone else in America ...  magically, there was no other music anywhere, except in a couple of clubs in NY and Chicago, and some of those recordings have survived, but in general, they are still listed as not historical and important in the annals of music ... so the experimental stuff, was still lost, and in Maltin's words, completely decimated, destroyed and made to disappear for the most part.
     
    It's hard to believe that America did not have "rebels" that did different things, and hearing about them is nice ... but so rare, it is sad. it makes it almost impossible for things to become known in America!
     
    There was, as is evident in the music used by the studios for almost 50 years, a lot of Black Music ... but most of it was not allowed to "live" ... didn't the same thing happen to the indigenous population in America?
    post edited by Moshkito - 2015/06/11 16:17:02

    Music is not about notes and chords! My poem is not about the computer or monitor or letters! It's about how I was able to translate it from my insides! 
    #4
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