Obituary: Guitar legend Les Paul, who had multiple disabilities, dies

University of Minnesota disability studies scholar Alex Lubet is an expert on music and disability. Here's his post on the Many Worlds Network honoring Les Paul:

You've probably heard that guitar hero/inventor genius Les Paul died August 13 at age 94. My intention in this blog was to get all snarky about how no one mentioned his multiple disabilities. Well, I was wrong. There's this great New York Times article by Jon Pareles:

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/13/les-paul-dies/?apage=6

It includes a 15-minute video where you can really see Paul's hand impairments.

There's also National Public Radio's Fresh Air with Terry Gross, which reran a great interview from 1994, where Paul is all about his disabilities. You can almost certainly Google it and listen to it whenever you please.

I'm proud to say I wrote about Paul and his impairments for a 2008 double issue of Review of Disability Studies on music:

http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:7A6YwPQ4UkcJ:www.rds.hawaii.edu/counter/count.php%3Fid%3D26+%22les+paul+at+91%22+lubet&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

Paul was in an auto accident at the peak of his career and was given the choice of amputation or having his arm set in an immobile position. The choice of position was a no-brainer for him, because he wanted to keep playing, but it severely limited other uses of his right arm. For example, it forced him to switch to writing left-handed.

At age 50, Paul began to have severe arthritis. He had a heart attack later and also became hard of hearing. None of these really held him back. although the arthritis had a definite impact on his playing. But all of these conditions have in common that they are associated with aging. I'm 55 and have the beginnings of arthritis. Apparently, if one lives long enough, arthritis will happen. (You'll also get some prostate cancer cells if you're a dude.)

People in disability studies often like to refer to the non-disabled as the temporarily non-disabled, because eventually disability catches up with everyone who lasts to an expected age. I agree with that terminology, but I wish it meant there was more serious coalition building between disability and aging groups. One problem is getting people with conditions whose onset is associated with age to be willing to identify as -- or at least with -- people with disabilities.

I've taught senior citizens a lot (and will be one soon). I once gave a lecture to a very small group and was told by one woman after that she was hard of hearing and didn't get any of it. I wish she'd told me in advance, so I could have at least tried to do something. I often think the teaching of rudimentary sign language to babies that is so popular now should be universal and continue until people become fluent. That way the hearing loss that is nearly inevitable with age wouldn't be so problematic. There are plenty of other reasons to learn American Sign Language. I was an avid student, but had to quit because I have issues with my hands and, like Les Paul, need to save them for guitar. But quitting was heartbreaking, especially when I had to find other ways to communicate with Deaf friends.

Your assignment for this weekend is to dig up some stuff on Les Paul. If you don't want to listen to his brand of pop, listen to one of your favorites playing a Les Paul Guitar. And then do some coalition building.