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The Birth of Loud: Leo Fender, Les Paul, and the Guitar-Pioneering Rivalry That Shaped Rock 'n' Roll

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Description

“A hot-rod joy ride through mid-20th-century American history” (The New York Times Book Review), this one-of-a-kind narrative masterfully recreates the rivalry between the two men who innovated the electric guitar’s amplified sound—Leo Fender and Les Paul—and their intense competition to convince rock stars like the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, and Eric Clapton to play the instruments they built. In the years after World War II, music was evolving from big-band jazz into rock ’n’ roll—and these louder styles demanded revolutionary instruments. When Leo Fender’s tiny firm marketed the first solid-body electric guitar, the Esquire, musicians immediately saw its appeal. Not to be out-maneuvered, Gibson, the largest guitar manufacturer, raced to build a competitive product. The company designed an “axe” that would make Fender’s Esquire look cheap and convinced Les Paul—whose endorsement Leo Fender had sought—to put his name on it. Thus was born the guitar world’s most heated rivalry: Gibson versus Fender, Les versus Leo. While Fender was a quiet, half- blind, self-taught radio repairman, Paul was a brilliant but headstrong pop star and guitarist who spent years toying with new musical technologies. Their contest turned into an arms race as the most inventive musicians of the 1950s and 1960s—including bluesman Muddy Waters, rocker Buddy Holly, the Beatles, Bob Dylan, and Eric Clapton—adopted one maker’s guitar or another. By 1969 it was clear that these new electric instruments had launched music into a radical new age, empowering artists with a vibrancy and volume never before attainable. In “an excellent dual portrait” (The Wall Street Journal), Ian S. Port tells the full story in The Birth of Loud, offering “spot-on human characterizations, and erotic paeans to the bodies of guitars” (The Atlantic). “The story of these instruments is the story of America in the postwar era: loud, cocky, brash, aggressively new” (The Washington Post). Read more

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Scribner (November 19, 2019)


Language ‏ : ‎ English


Paperback ‏ : ‎ 352 pages


ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1501141732


ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 37


Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.6 ounces


Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.7 x 8.38 inches


Best Sellers Rank: #39,546 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #11 in The Beatles #42 in Guitars (Books) #119 in Popular Culture in Social Sciences


#11 in The Beatles:


#42 in Guitars (Books):


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If you place your order now, the estimated arrival date for this product is: Thursday, Nov 28

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Top Amazon Reviews


  • You'll thoroughly enjoy reading this
The Birth of Loud is an entertaining book full of vivid scenes that feature some of the biggest musicians of the 20th century. But what ultimately stole the show for me didn't take place on stage -- it happened quietly in the homes, garages, and factories of Les Paul and Leo Fender. Port takes us right into the rooms as these people quite literally invent the future of music by testing, innovating, and occasionally stealing what becomes the electric guitar. The early friendship and rivalry of Fender and Paul is the heart of this book, and it's fascinating to see how their stories intersect over the years, and how their legacies live on many decades later. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on February 27, 2024 by Jordan

  • Fantastic Book. Highly recommended.
This is a great read, even if you don't play guitar or bass. It is a well-researched book that traces the history of the electric guitar and primarily focuses on its two greatest rivals: Gibson and Fender. In addition to being entertaining, there are some good business lessons to be learned.
Reviewed in the United States on April 12, 2024 by Doug Tull

  • Great book
As someone newly interested in playing the guitar, I was looking for some history, and this book more than filled the bill. Very well written account of several lives that intertwined over decades. Fascinating detail and an engrossing read!
Reviewed in the United States on September 24, 2023 by William S. Higgins

  • Who Invented My Guitar?
I'm not surprised that there may not be one definitive inventor of the solid body electric guitar. I am surprised that some of these men were acquaintances, if not friends. An earlier book (Play it Loud from 2016) covers the birth of the electric guitar in a more general way. Quite a few other men played a role in the development of the solid body, but the best known to the general public are Paul and Fender. The story of those two inventors is the focus of The Birth of Loud. Some of the information in this book is not news to me, but there are plenty of surprises. I don't think you have to be a guitarist or musician to enjoy this book, but it doesn't hurt...Full disclosure--I no longer own the guitar pictured, but I now have two Stratocasters...The only thing I didn't like about this book is the dearth of photographs, but I recommend it, it's a fascinating story,,, ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on February 10, 2019 by Andrew Geshen Andrew Geshen

  • I liked this fun book about the leaders of the electric guitar race of the 50s and 60s.
I couldn't stop reading... I kept wondering what would happen next. I regard the Stratocaster as much a work of design art as a musical instrument... almost in the same way as the Strad violin is a beautiful work of art as well as an instrument. I enjoy just looking at the Strat and taking in the lines. Also the Tele, but the Tele is more of functional design, but really also an art form that I've gotten to really love over time. Of course, the Strat borrows from Paul Bigsby, whose designs were also landmarks, as were all the wonderful instruments of the Gibson line. If you also love these instruments, you will learn all about Leo, Les and the rest. I passed the book on after reading, to a lead guitar player from a Mn 50s/60s band. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on April 10, 2024 by Skook

  • Quintessential guitar 101
Guitar porn! Also an extremely excellent and interesting rendition on the history of music, it’s instruments and performers, as well as it’s cultural influences and nuances. I have received a novice’s education in one reading: a logistically pleasant introduction providing a rudimentary understanding of both the vast power of music in our time and the delicious intrigue of it’s evolution. I am no longer lost in time; I feel grounded in my own country’s history as told by the changing of it’s musical guards. Les Paul and Leo Fender seem to me now like beloved uncles, their lives so intimately described. This tailored temporal accounting of the musical greats we all know and love—their foibles, triumphs, & legacies—is immersive and captivating; grateful am I to have stumbled upon it! I recommend The Birth of Loud as a must-read to anyone interested in their own musical ancestry, as it spans that of us all. Thanks to Mr. Port for his unwavering diligence in completing such an ambitious and inspired endeavor-your work has fulfilled a shameful dearth in my repertoire of popular knowledge, and I will always be grateful! :) ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on March 9, 2019 by Montelaro

  • Great Anecdotal History
Since the late sixties, I've owned four Fender Stratocasters. I played them through at least three different Fender Amps, too, and loved them all. I played a Les Paul, but, as many people in this book mention, it's very heavy. I did have an SG and liked it except that by the time I bought it, Gibson's vaunted workmanship was deteriorating. The book gives an overview of the music scene from the late 40's to about 1970 when most of the advances were made, and the personal anecdotes make it a fun read. The style is more workmanlike than lyrical, but Port's research is impressive. I didn't know that Fender was deeply involved in making pedal steel guitars for the country music performers long before he started experimenting with a solid-body standard guitar. His wife's job as a telephone operator actually kept the struggling business afloat until the Telecaster began to sell. I also didn't know that Paul Bigsby, Les Paul, and Leo Fender lived near each other and often hung out together, borrowing and building upon each other's ideas...until rivalry and jealousy made them accuse each other of stealing. Port himself points out that it's impossible to give one person, or even a small group credit for all the advances, but these men, along with many musicians who had specific demands for their performing gear, did most of the work. That said, the portraits painted of Fender and Paul show two men I'm glad I never really knew. Paul comes across as a selfish egomaniac (he and Colleen Summers, AKA Mary Ford, carried on a open affair for years, and Paul drove her to alcoholism with his drive to be a star). Fender was a brilliant but unschooled obsessive who drove his staff frantic because he kept tweaking his ideas so they couldn't market the products they advertised. The list of musicians who used both guitars would fill most of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I didn't know Buddy Holly tried a Les Paul first, but abandoned it for a Stratocaster because of its extreme weight. I was shocked to learn that the biggest year for Les Pauls (1959) only totaled about 650 sales. Eric Clapton popularized the guitar in the mid-sixties, but he was playing a Stratocaster by the time I saw him with Cream in 1968. The Gibson's humbucker pick-ups were better for players who wanted distortion, but Fender's single-coils could give a treble that could function as dental floss. The Gibson attracted jazz players and the Fender was popular with country musicians because of the tonal differences, but without both of them, who knows what popular music would have become from the mid-50s on? My biggest complaint about the book is the lack of pictures. The picture section is only 8 pages. Those pictures show several of the early (often NON-playing) members of Fender's team, but barely scratch the surface of important musicians whose stories are mentioned. The epilogue does a good job of putting everything in perspective. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on February 13, 2019 by Litteacher

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