Wednesday, June 04, 2008

 

Bo No More

This morning I read the sad news that Bo Diddley had died on Monday. Bo was 79 and had been in poor health for the past year, and relatives said that his death was not unexpected. I'm lucky to be able to say I saw him play at a club on Clematis Street in the late 1980s.

Bo was a key figure -- possibly second only to Chuck Berry -- in the transition from blues to rock. He may or may not have invented the Bo Diddley beat, but he surely popularized it. Since the song "Bo Diddley" was released in 1958, there probably hasn't been a single year in which there wasn't at least one hit song that borrowed from it. Lest anyone doubt Bo's influence, visit his entry at
Wikipedia and look at the list of cover versions and tributes. It's almost as long as the rest of the article.

His famous rectangular Gretsch guitar is surely suitable for the Smithsonian.

Diddley himself once said, "I opened the door for a lot of people, and they all just ran through and left me holding the knob." Surely he's right.


One other interesting note about Bo: In 1955, he appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show, but was banned after playing his eponymous song rather than Tennessee Ernie Ford's "Sixteen Tons," which Sullivan had told him to play. Thus, he is in a group with Jackie Mason and The Doors.

Labels:


Comments: Post a Comment



<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?