"The Birth of Loud," Ian S. Port, 2019

While Rickenbacker Corporation is generally credited with the development of the first commercially-available solid-body guitar, and craftsmen such as Paul Bigsby made custom solid-body instruments for professional guitarists, Fender and Gibson are generally recognized as producing the first commercially-successful solid-body electric instruments.  Through interviews and written records, Ian Port chronicles the rivalries, dreams, and experiments that suffused guitar R&D at the middle of 20th century.

Leo Fender was a shy, somewhat socially awkward, self-taught engineer.  Les Paul was an ambitious, driven performer who craved attention.  Though they contributed in different ways, and played radically different roles, the rivalry between these two men gave birth to two, very distinct types of solid-body electric instrument.  

I found this book to be well-written and engaging.  It contains many anecdotes about the men (and a few women) who were there at the birth of Rock & Roll.  To me, Leo Fender came across  as a more sympathetic person, while Les Paul seemed calculating, opportunistic, and hard on the people around him (including his wife, Mary Ford!).  Other readers, coming from different personal histories, may well reach different conclusions.

Whatever your perspective on Rock/Blues/Country/Folk/etc, I think you’ll find this book to be fun and engaging. I especially liked “meeting” so many of the people who were active at this inflection point in the evolution of popular music.  If you’re interested in the history of Rock, this is a pretty important source of information.