The Birth of Loud

Leo Fender, Les Paul, and the Guitar-Pioneering Rivalry That Shaped Rock 'n' Roll

By: Ian S. Port

Narrated by: Pete Simonelli

“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).

Thoughtful Music History

Hard to imagine any guitar player or guitar fan not thoroughly enjoying this book. There’s lots to learn. But new facts aren’t a main intention of the author. Rather, this is a very well conceived and disciplined reflection of the promise of the title.
The book’s only flaw is when it veers toward historical fiction by imagining interior feelings, weather specifics and facial expressions these men may well have experienced but they play out as subjective decorative guesses.
However it is easy to recommend this book and know that if the title intrigues you you’ll get the promised story and it is a delightful contribution to 20th-century music history.

Much more than about a rivalry,

this tells the story of the people behind the development of the electric guitar and electric bass and of these instruments' impact on music, musicians and the generations of listeners who witnessed it. There's nothing dry or boring here. It left me marvelling at how radically music changed from post WW2 to the end of the 1960's as a result. At the same time, the price paid for all this by those at the forefront along with the blunders, blindness and greed that showed up gives one a lot to think about. Any electric guitar player ought to benefit from this; most music lovers will too. A great compliment to this is "When I Left Home" by Buddy Guy (you can read my review of the Audible book). It would be nice to have a list of the songs referenced in this book. I downloaded ones I wasn't familiar with, and I listened again to those that I was, and I learned a lot!

excellent

I could not stop listening to this book he just got better and better and better

A fantastic story!!

Anyone who has the least little interest in guitar based music really should read (listen) to this book! It’s such an intriguing story of two men and one woman who through their efforts enabled the electric guitar to become the iconic instrument it is today!! The narrator has a pleasant voice and pacing that makes the book a pleasure to listen too. I only wish the story was longer!

Could not stop listening!

This was easily one of the most interesting stories I’ve come across. It inspired me to go back and re-listen to all the old music I’d cast aside so despondently, and allowed me to listen with new ears. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and within hours of the first day I started listening, posted about how great I thought it on fb. History is as important to the past as it is to the future!