Now! - Les Paul

Caravan

Les Paul
Now!
Phase 4 Stereo
London Records SP 44101
1968

From the back cover: Now that the subject of sound, another of Les' pet peeves was inferior recording procedures. One day, while rehearsing the Bing Crosby show, Les mentioned to Bing his dissatisfaction of the sound that was being heard on phonograph records. Bing told him that if he thought he could do better why didn't he build his own recording studio. California weather being what it was, a garage wasn't really necessary for the car, so the location problem was taken care of. Now partitioned into studio and control room the equipment problem arose. As was normal for him, existing commercial equipment wasn't up to his exacting standards so the construction crew (Les and a couple of friends) was called into service. The first recording lathe (magnetic tape was to come several years later) was constructed of parts salvaged from everywhere. There were several reasons for this – one being the fact that no such parts were available as such for the function to be performed and hard to be either hand made or converted for its particular purpose. So, various aircraft parts, plumbing, etc. were used. As an example, a Cadillac flywheel was chosen for the turntable because of its perfect balance, connecting to the motor turning it by a cable normally used by dentists for their drills. An echo, or delay effect was created by using a playback head behind the recording head and feeding the signal back to the record head while recording, thus recording more than one of the same signal simultaneously, or rather with a slight delay. This process was later adapted to tape recording. A side-note on the quality Les was getting out of this garage studio is the fact that in the late 1940's Consumer Research was recommending to their readers the use of Les' records to check the quality of their equipment.

From Billboard - January 13, 1968: Les Paul is returning to the disk sweepstakes with a recording deal on London's Phase 4 Stereo series. Paul, who clicked on Capitol Records in the 1950s in tandem with Mary Ford, will debut as a solo guitarist on Phase 4 this month in an album titled "Les Paul, Now!" which includes many of the million-sellers recorded for Capitol.

Among Paul's pervious clicks which are now recorded for the first time by him in stereo are "Lover," "How High The Moon," "Tennessee Waltz," "Whispering," "Caravan" and "Bye, Bye Blues." The album marks the first time a Phase 4 release was recorded in the United States.

Paul's deal with London calls for three singles a year in addition to two or three LP's. Paul will be attending London's sale conference at the Concord Hotel, New York, Saturday - Monday (6-8) to assist in the launching of the album.

At the same time, Paul has made a new deal with Gibson Guitar to design five guitar models and amplifiers. Paul has been tied in with the Gibson firm for the past 17 years.

How High The Moon
Bye Bye Blues
The System
Whispering
I Really Don't Want To Know
Tennessee Waltz
Lover
Little Rock Getaway
Sleep
Caravan
Los Angeles
Lady Of Spain
Golden Earrings