The Architects

The Architects of Rock and Roll

This area on the Museum’s second floor highlights the work and influence of three key inductees: Sam Phillips, Les Paul and Alan Freed. It includes the following exhibits:

Memphis Recording Service - Great Balls of Fire

This exhibit is a re-creation of the original Sun Studio in Memphis, founded by Sam Phillips. It includes most of the original equipment from the legendary recording studio where Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and others made their first recordings. It also includes Lewis’ piano. Sam Phillips was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986.

The New Sound: Les Paul and the Electric Guitar

This exhibit features numerous artifacts related to Les Paul’s life and career. Among the key items are the very first guitar he owned as a child, his first attempt to make an electric solid-body guitar out of a wood plank, the “Clunker” (which he used on his most famous recordings) and a very early model Gibson Les Paul. The exhibit also includes artifacts from his childhood home (a record player, radio, etc.), as well as other inventions and innovations. In addition, a vintage TV shows clips from The Les Paul & Mary Ford at Home show, which was a long-running television series that aired nationally from their living room five nights a week from 1953 - 1960. There are also two interactive kiosks on which visitors can access an oral history with Les. Finally, several other key Les Paul guitars, played by such artists as Duane Allman, Pete Townshend, Slash and John Fogerty are on display. Les Paul was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988.

The Big Beat: Alan Freed

This exhibit features numerous photos, posters and other documents that tell the story of DJ Alan Freed’s career. Particular emphasis is placed on his years in Cleveland, where he began playing rhythm & blues music on a white radio station and where he became the first person to call a new form of music “rock and roll.” In addition, a documentary film features interviews and rare footage documenting Freed’s career. Alan Freed was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986.

More on Les Paul

The name Les Paul is synonymous with the electric guitar. As a player, inventor and recording artist, Paul has been an innovator from the early years of his life.

Born Lester William Polfus in 1915 in Waukesha, Wisconsin, Paul built his first crystal radio at age nine, which was about the time he first picked up a guitar. By age 13 he was performing semi-professionally as a country-music guitarist and working diligently on sound-related inventions. In 1941, Paul built his first solid-body electric guitar, and he continued to make refinements to his prototype throughout the decade. He also worked on refining the technology of sound, developing revolutionary engineering techniques such as close miking, echo, delay and multitracking. All the while he busied himself as a band leader who could play both jazz and country music.

His career as a musician nearly came to an end in 1948, when a near-fatal car accident shattered his right arm and elbow. However, he instructed the surgeons to set his arm at an angle that would allow him to cradle and pick the guitar. Paul subsequently made his mark as a jazz-pop musician extraordinaire, recording as a duo with his wife, singer Colleen Summers (a.k.a. Mary Ford). Their biggest hits included “How High the Moon” (1951) and “Vaya Con Dios” (1953), both reaching Number One. The recordings of Les Paul and Mary Ford are noteworthy for Paul’s pioneering use of overdubbing – layering guitar parts one atop another, a technique also referred to as multitracking or “sound on sound” recording. The results were bright, bubbly and a little otherworldly, just the sort of music you might expect from an inventor with an ear for the future.

In 1952, Les Paul launched the solid-body electric guitar that bears his name. Built and marketed by Gibson, with continuous advances and refinements from Paul in such areas as low-impedance pickup technology, the Les Paul guitar became a staple instrument among discerning rock guitarists. This list of musicians associated with the Gibson Les Paul include Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Duane Allman, Slash and Mike Bloomfield. Then, in 1957, Paul introduced the first eight-track tape recorder (designed by Paul and marketed by Ampex).

Over the ensuing decades, Paul himself has remained active, cutting a Grammy-winning album of instrumental duets with Chet Atkins, Chester and Lester, in 1977, performing at New York jazz clubs, and continuing to indulge his inventor’s curiosity in his workshop at his home in Mahwah, New Jersey.

Neil Young's Fringed Leather Jacket

Photo by Design Photography
Collection of Neil Young