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

This singular narrative, described by The New York Times Book Review as "A hot-rod joy ride through mid-20th-century American history," masterfully reconstructs the fierce rivalry between the two pioneers of the electric guitar's amplified sound: Leo Fender and Les Paul. It delves into their intense competition to persuade rock stars such as The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, and Eric Clapton to wield the instruments they crafted.

In the years following the Second World War, music began to evolve from big-band jazz into rock 'n' roll. These louder styles necessitated revolutionary instruments. When Leo Fender's small firm launched the first solid-body electric guitar, the Esquire, musicians immediately recognised its appeal. Not to be outmanoeuvred, Gibson, then the largest guitar manufacturer, swiftly moved to produce a competitive product. The company designed an "axe" that would make Fender's Esquire appear inexpensive and convinced Les Paul – whose endorsement Leo Fender had actually sought – to lend his name to it. Thus began the guitar world's most heated rivalry: Gibson versus Fender, Les versus Leo.

While Fender was a quiet, partially sighted, self-taught radio repairman, Paul was a brilliant yet headstrong pop star and guitarist who dedicated years to experimenting with new musical technologies. Their contest escalated 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 the other. By 1969, it was evident that these new electric instruments had propelled music into a radical new age, empowering artists with an unprecedented vibrancy and volume.

In what The Wall Street Journal calls "an excellent dual portrait," Ian S. Port recounts the complete story in The Birth of Loud, offering "spot-on human characterizations, and erotic paeans to the bodies of guitars," according to The Atlantic. The Washington Post aptly summarises: "The story of these instruments is the story of America in the postwar era: loud, cocky, brash, aggressively new."