Bo Diddley, 1928-2008

[Squaredancecalling Steve]

One of the founding fathers of rock. Seminal beat and attitude for the genre. Saw him at the Avalon in '68 -- he was b-a-a-a-d!! R.I.P.

[Squaredancecalling Steve]

The Associated Press
12:00 PM EDT, June 2, 2008

JACKSONVILLE - Bo Diddley, a founding father of rock 'n' roll whose distinctive "shave and a haircut, two bits" rhythm and innovative guitar effects inspired legions of other musicians, died Monday after months of ill health. He was 79.

Diddley died of heart failure at his home in Archer, Fla., spokeswoman Susan Clary said. He had suffered a heart attack in August, three months after suffering a stroke while touring in Iowa. Doctors said the stroke affected his ability to speak, and he had returned to Florida to continue rehabilitation.

The legendary singer and performer, known for his homemade square guitar, dark glasses and black hat, was an inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, had a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame, and received a lifetime achievement award in 1999 at the Grammy Awards. In recent years he also played for the elder President Bush and President Clinton.

Diddley appreciated the honors he received, "but it didn't put no figures in my checkbook."

"If you ain't got no money, ain't nobody calls you honey," he quipped.

The name Bo Diddley came from other youngsters when he was growing up in Chicago, he said in a 1999 interview.

"I don't know where the kids got it, but the kids in grammar school gave me that name," he said, adding that he liked it so it became his stage name. Other times, he gave somewhat differing stories on where he got the name. Some experts believe a possible source for the name is a one-string instrument used in traditional blues music called a diddley bow.

His first single, "Bo Diddley," introduced record buyers in 1955 to his signature rhythm: bomp ba-bomp bomp, bomp bomp, often summarized as "shave and a haircut, two bits." The B side, "I'm a Man," with its slightly humorous take on macho pride, also became a rock standard.

The company that issued his early songs was Chess-Checkers records, the storied Chicago-based labels that also recorded Chuck Berry and other stars.

Howard Kramer, assistant curator of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, said in 2006 that Diddley's Chess recordings "stand among the best singular recordings of the 20th Century."

Diddley's other major songs included, "Say Man," "You Can't Judge a Book by Its Cover," "Shave and a Haircut," "Uncle John," "Who Do You Love?" and "The Mule."

Diddley's influence was felt on both sides of the Atlantic. Buddy Holly borrowed the bomp ba-bomp bomp, bomp bomp rhythm for his song "Not Fade Away."

The Rolling Stones' bluesy remake of that Holly song gave them their first chart single in the United States, in 1964. The following year, another British band, the Yardbirds, had a Top 20 hit in the United States with their version of "I'm a Man."

Diddley was also one of the pioneers of the electric guitar, adding reverb and tremelo effects. He even rigged some of his guitars himself.

"He treats it like it was a drum, very rhythmic," E. Michael Harrington, professor of music theory and composition at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn., said in 2006.

Many other artists, including the Who, Bruce Springsteen, George Michaels and Elvis Costello copied aspects of Diddley's style.

Growing up, Diddley said he had no musical idols, and he wasn't entirely pleased that others drew on his innovations. "I don't like to copy anybody. Everybody tries to do what I do, update it," he said. "I don't have any idols I copied after."

"They copied everything I did, upgraded it, messed it up. It seems to me that nobody can come up with their own thing, they have to put a little bit of Bo Diddley there," he said.

Despite his success, Diddley claimed he only received a small portion of the money he made during his career. Partly as a result, he continued to tour and record music until his stroke. Between tours, he made his home near Gainesville in north Florida.

"Seventy ain't nothing but a damn number," he told The Associated Press in 1999. "I'm writing and creating new stuff and putting together new different things. Trying to stay out there and roll with the punches. I ain't quit yet."

Diddley, like other artists of his generations, was paid a flat fee for his recordings and said he received no royalty payments on record sales. He also said he was never paid for many of his performances.

"I am owed. I've never got paid," he said. "A dude with a pencil is worse than a cat with a machine gun." In the early 1950s, Diddley said, disc jockeys called his type of music, "Jungle Music." It was Cleveland disc jockey Alan Freed who is credited with inventing the term "rock 'n' roll."

Diddley said Freed was talking about him, when he introduced him, saying, "Here is a man with an original sound, who is going to rock and roll you right out of your seat."

Diddley won attention from a new generation in 1989 when he took part in the "Bo Knows" ad campaign for Nike, built around football and baseball star Bo Jackson. Commenting on Jackson's guitar skills, Bo Diddley turned to the camera and said, "He don't know Diddley."

"I never could figure out what it had to do with shoes, but it worked," Diddley said. "I got into a lot of new front rooms on the tube."

Born as Ellas Bates on Dec. 30, 1928, in McComb, Miss., Diddley was later adopted by his mother's cousin and took on the name Ellis McDaniel, which his wife always called him.

When he was 5, his family moved to Chicago, where he learned the violin at the Ebenezer Baptist Church. He learned guitar at age 10 and entertained passers-by on street corners.

By his early teens, Diddley was playing Chicago's Maxwell Street.

"I came out of school and made something out of myself. I am known all over the globe, all over the world. There are guys who have done a lot of things that don't have the same impact that I had," he said.

[Chris D]

One rectangular guitar straight to heaven.

C'mon, Jerome, don't you take no mess. OOOOOOoooooooh, Bo Diddley.....

[Squaredancecalling Steve]

I walk 47 miles of barbed wire,
I use a cobra-snake for a necktie,
I got a brand new house on the roadside,
Made from rattlesnake hide,
I got a brand new chimney made on top,
Made out of a human skull,
Now come on take a walk with me, Arlene,
And tell me, who do you love?

[Root Doctor]

One of my all-time favorites. Bo Diddley is a heavenly gate crasher!

[Gary Sisco]

"A dude with a pencil is worse than a cat with a machine gun."

Amen to that. They've robbed more people than anyone armed ever did.

Bo Diddley's beat has a 3-2 clave in there, if you think about it.

RIP

[Hudson Boy]

Originally Posted by Gary Sisco

"A dude with a pencil is worse than a cat with a machine gun." Amen to that. They've robbed more people than anyone armed ever did.RIP

I wonder if he was reinterpreting the adage, "the pen is mightier than the sword".

I remember a news writeup about a gig he did for the Hell's Angels, on a boat cruise they chartered. The Angels were passing around a jug of wine, and someone handed it to Bo Diddly. He asked for paper cup, and a member of the gang told him to drink it right out of the bottle like everybody else. There was another adage for him, concerning Rome.

[Gary Sisco]

Actually, there's an American adage: "More people have been robbed with a fountain pen than a pistol." True, too. It made its way into a folk song about Pretty Boy Floyd.

[Hudson Boy]

Originally Posted by Gary Sisco

Actually, there's an American adage: "More people have been robbed with a fountain pen than a pistol." True, too. It made its way into a folk song about Pretty Boy Floyd.

Very true, but I'd still prefer getting fleeced by the system than robbed at gunpoint.

[Gentle Giant]

RIP

[Gary Sisco]

Robbed is robbed. There's usually a lot less bread in the wallet than elsewhere.

Buddy Holly got royalties off that beat, for sure, but didn't live long enough to enjoy it much.

The Stones were very good about making sure the cats got their due.

[groover]

Originally Posted by Hudson Boy

Very true, but I'd still prefer getting fleeced by the system than robbed at gunpoint.

Good point. More people may have been robbed with a pen, but I'm pretty sure more have died from a pistol.

RIP, Bo.

[Gary Sisco]

Don't count on it. What gives the fountain pen power is the firepower that exists behind it. Always.

[Al in NYC]

The baddest of the bad.

Bye Bo.

Some clips of the man in action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgzn7...eature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBAJX...eature=related

[Robert de St. Loup]

I have the pleasure of working with one of his former back-up singers, who is a sweet and wonderful person. They hadn't worked together for many years but were still close right up till the end and she always spoke of him with great warmth and fondness. Unless she was a bad judge of character, which I doubt, he must have been a terrific guy. She wasn't in today and now I know why. RIP, Bo.

She's the singer on the left in the second video Al linked. She still looks very much the same, though her hair is shorter and has a lot more silver in it. But there's no mistaking the smile.

[Noj]

RIP, Bo. Thanks for all the great music.

[groover]

Originally Posted by Gary Sisco

Don't count on it. What gives the fountain pen power is the firepower that exists behind it. Always.

True, Gary, but if you've ever actually killed someone with a fountain pen, you'd have to admit it's much messier and time-consuming than simply using a pistol.

[Dr Dave]

He invented a beat. How fuckin' elemental can you get?

Bo Diddley Bo Diddley where you been?
'Round the world and I'm goin' again...

[Ron Thorne]

Originally Posted by Gary Sisco

Bo Diddley's beat has a 3-2 clave in there, if you think about it.

Right you are, Gary!

He was definitely his own cat, even making up his own name and the shape of his guitars. His given name was Ellas Otha Bates, which later became Ellas McDaniel before he "discovered" his famous moniker.

Sure wish that he'd been given the bread he deserved for his substantial contributions.



R.I.P., Bo Diddley~

[VIBEr]

I had the pleasure of playing a Hammond gig with Bo Diddley 25 years ago at a Cavalcade of Customs auto show, and fondly remember hanging with him in the dressing room between shows shooting the breeze about the time he was on the Mike Douglas Show as John Lennon's guest. According to Bo, that was the first time he wore that hat on television, and it remained part of his signature look ever since. He was just a great guy to be around, and one of my best memories of playing music.

[Lore]

~ "Abraham Lincoln said all men were created equal, but then he never saw Bo Diddley in the shower." - Ronnie Hawkins

[Cem]

Originally Posted by Dr Dave

He invented a beat. How fuckin' elemental can you get?

Bo Diddley Bo Diddley where you been?
'Round the world and I'm goin' again...

No doubt. Every time I hear the Dead do Not Fade Away, I think of the power of that beat and what genius he was, same with Who Do you Love? and a bunch of others. David Lindley wrote a song for him, Pay Bo Diddley, but I can't find the lyrics... "Bo Diddley's a gun-slinger!"

[Gary Sisco]

Likely he got his name from the homemade instrument the diddley bow, which was very common in the South with people who couldn't afford to buy a guitar.

I think the clave is something very old in African diaspora. It might be so elemental Bo incorporated it without thinking consciously about it. His beat isn't exactly a clave but it's damned close, and it performs the same rhythmic function.

[Squaredancecalling Steve]

Originally Posted by Gary Sisco

Likely he got his name from the homemade instrument the diddley bow, which was very common in the South with people who couldn't afford to buy a guitar.

That's what I always thought, but one of today's obit says a more likely story is that it was local slang for "bully boy".


And of course that distinctive beat was essentially "Shave and a haircut, two bits". Bo sued Johnny Otis over Hand Jive, and Otis's claim that the riff was shaveandahaircut was upheld by court.

[Gary Sisco]

Ah, what's a court know. It's much closer to a clave, actually, because shave and a haircut two bits has too many syllables to fit the rhythm.

[GoodSpeak]

Originally Posted by Gentle Giant

RIP

I was watching the ABC Evening News last night and they were saying that this is the most used riff in all of Blues/Rock.

Not Fade Away by the Stones

Who Do You Love by George Thorogood

Among many others.


Rest in Peace, Bo.

[Squaredancecalling Steve]

The court may not know, but Johnny Otis knows!

I'm sure the court was just dealing in basic forms, and there are only so many basics. I tell the kindergarten kids that the main figure in the Mexican Hat Dance and the finishing jumps on the Bunny Hop have the same pattern: slow, slow, quick-quick-quick.

The retired music professor who dances with me used to teach the Balinese monkey chant, which is ten different basic chanted rhythms, each chanted by a separate group, put together in different modular patterns. When they do all ten at once, of course, all kinds of other patterns emerge, too.

[Gary Sisco]

Reggae works the same way. It's not one rhythm but stacked rhythms that together form patterns.

It's too close to clave for me to change my mind. Otis was in court. People maintain all kinds of stuff in courts to win their case.

Buddy Holly got mileage out of Bo's beat ahead of the Stones.

[Squaredancecalling Steve]

Originally Posted by Gary Sisco

Buddy Holly got mileage out of Bo's beat ahead of the Stones.

"Not Fade Away", 1957, b-side of "Oh Boy". Buddy and The Crickets had already covered "Bo Diddley". It was the last song Buddy ever played, the concert just before the crash.

[Gary Sisco]

That's a good anecdote. I hadn't known that.