Lester William Polfuss, better known as Les Paul, passed away today at age 94.

Sad stuff, he was a big influence on modern music. Not just the guitar that bears his name, but studio recording as well. Before Les Paul, all recordings were done live as a full group. Les invented multitracking, which allows for a recording to be created from several takes done in different sessions.

This eventually lead to the Beatles recording Sgt. Pepper on a four-track, and to the home studio software on your computer.

Wasn’t Les Paul a badass? All the greats are going away…