Bo Diddley Was a Gunslinger

Bo Diddley is dead. He was a living gateway between times and places who brought African rhythms and African-American chants into the Top Forty. Together with Chuck Berry, he built rock and roll. He also built his own guitars, from spare parts (his first one was made from a cigar box.) Then he played them through overloaded amplifiers, transmitting ancient heartbeats on waves of tube-driven electricity.

Not bad for a country boy, as they used to say down South.

His lyrics could be plain and direct - "I'm looking for a woman." Or they could be old Southern vaudeville routines set to a backbeat: "I'm from South America." "No, you ain't." "Yes, I am." "What part?" "South Texas."

Or they could be cryptic invocations of symbols from illegal sorcery:

"I walked 47 miles of barbwire, got a cobra snake for necktie, got a brand new house by the roadside made outta rattlesnake hide/Got a tombstone chimney high as a tower, made outta human skulls ..."

That last tune ends with a derangement of the senses worthy of Rimbaud: "The night was black and the sky was blue/around the alley an ice wagon flew/heard a bump, somebody screamed/Everybody here oughtta heard what I seen."

A lot of his songs were about himself: "Bo Diddley." "Hey, Bo Diddley." "Bo Diddley Is a Gunslinger." How American can you get? Inventing and naming yourself is part of the legacy of a pioneer nation, a land filled with exiles and refugees. He was following in the tradition of no less a figure than Walt Whitman: "I celebrate myself and sing myself." And he made the poet's words come true through the unifying force of his music: "Every atom belonging to me as good as belongs to you."

Plus, his records had a good beat and were easy to dance to. (Too much lit-crit rock and roll writing is a bad thing, as folks learned in the 1970's. When rock and roll made its way onto college curricula, a little part of me died.)

He's best known for the "Bo Diddley rhythm," the juba beat associated with hambone games (and with the Johnny Otis tune "Willie and the Hand Jive"). You don't hear that rhythm in too many songs nowadays. Its last appearance on the pop charts might have been Bow Wow Wow's version of "I Want Candy" by the Strangeloves, released in the 1980's. (If I'm wrong, somebody will correct me.)

The first time I heard that rhythm my heart stopped. It hasn't beat the same way since.

Some bandmates and I went to see Bo play in New York in a tiny club around 1971 or so. There weren't many people there: us, some regulars at the bar, a New York Doll or two, and John Lennon. We all had one thing in common: We wanted to hear Bo play (except maybe for the guys at the bar). And he wanted to play for us. And by the way, he rocked. He could've been playing one of those package tours in 1959 with all the superstars, for all the heart he put into that tiny show.

Even his name was a gateway to other times. The "diddly bow" was a crude instrument of African origin, popular in the South. (How crude? Sometimes it was just a single string nailed to a wall or a post.) Bo's real name was Ellis McDaniel. He was, like the song said, a 'gunslinger.' He was 79 years old.

RJ Eskow blogs:

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Comments

[NoSillyName]

Bo was a reserve deputy here in New Mexico for most of the '70s. He lived in Los Lunas and patroled the streets. The locals loved him. I hadn't heard about this until his death and the Albuquerque news shows talked about his time here and showed video of him. He wanted to be known as a regular guy and not a R&R legend. Interesting, no?

[twohearts]

I am really sad at Bo's dying - I wish he had had tons of money for all of his wonderful work....Speaking of Rocket 88, my favorite for that is James Cotton. When I saw him with Luther Fuller (guitar) I was in heaven...I'm a drummer & a guitar player. When I was in my teens, we played all the blues & rock beats, including alot of Bo Diddley's.

Soon they will all be gone, and kids today will wonder where it all came from. (IF they care...)

TH

[larry278]

If you can't get Ike Turner's "Rocket 88" check out Mitch Woods's more recent cover of "Rocket 88". Mitch can rock.

[CCW4ME2]

While on the subject: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAqA2sJM-qg&feature=related

[wingman1]

David Bowie used the Diddley rhythm too: it crops up in the two guitar codas in Space Oddity, most of Unwashed And Somewhat Slightly Dazed and short sections in a couple of other songs, all on the same 'Space Oddity' album from 1969. Must have been David's "Bo Diddley phase"!

[pizzmoe]

A true American classic. It's sad that he felt unappreciated.

[larry278]

A series of stupid questions: is the song, "Crazy Man, Crazy" which was popular in some states around 1953 considered to be rock n roll; who wrote it, who had the hit record; was it stolen from a black person?
Bo, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Dinah Washington (the dream queen) were among the artists that WLAC played on its rock shows starting in 1953. WLAC's signal could be heard from N Fla to lower Ontario. A lot of white teen agers listened to WLAC & ordered R & B records from mail order record stores that advertised on WLAC.

[RJ Eskow - Huffpost Blogger]

Not a stupid question at all: It was Bill Haley and the Comets. Some people DO call it the first rock and roll record, but other people give that honor to "Sh-Boom" by the Chords, or a dozen other songs we could probably name.

[3fingerbrown]

"Rocket 88" is often cited as the first rock 'n' roll record. It was recorded at Sun Records by Ike Turner and his Kings of Rhythm, 1951.

[larry278]

Thank you. Mr Eskow. Those of use of us who were around when rockabilly & r & b grew into rock n roll have aged. While short term memory is 1st to go, the long term memory also goes as I age. I wonder if memories of long ago events which also involved drinking lo test beer also fade as rapidly as short term memory. "Sh-Boom" didn't catch on as fast as "Crazy Man, Crazy" did in the mid-west & border states. One song says, "The Blues had a baby. They Called it Rock N Roll.". As the effete say, identifying the 1st Rock n Roll record is a subject for heated conjecture.
Larry Lynch

[NoSillyName]

Seriously? "Sh-Boom"? That does not sound like Rock in my memory, more Do-Wopish.

[BillyCioffi]

Bo was the greatest. He was not only the real deal he made the deal!Rock and Roll would not be without Bo. I worked with him many time and he was a true sweet guy and a wonderful genius and truly unique human being. They are rocking in heaven tonight!

[PaxMundis]

Hey what about "Faith" by George Michael (a #1) and "Desire" by U2? Also, a very mutated version is used in "Keep On Movin'" by Soul II Soul. The beat will go on forever.

[jgsuperpants]

Bruce Springsteen's "She's the One" is another good example. Lots of versions of "Iko Iko," either by Dr. John, Grateful Dead or many others use it as well.

The Dead used the rhythm in "Sampson and Delilah" and "Man Smart, Woman Smarter"

The rhythm itself is basically an afro-cuban/salsa 3-2 clave. Bo just swung it, and introduced it to blues, rock 'n' roll, and american pop. Brilliantly.

Remember this commercial? http://youtube.com/watch?v=-GPxkpjCvWI

"Bo, you don't know Diddley." Classic.

RIP Gunslinger

[Buddhabman]

Hey Bo Didley! Ellas Otha Bates a legendary American Blues artist joins Muddy Waters & John Lee Hooker at Heavens Blues Bar Band. Could you imagine seeing one of these guys in a Chicago Blues club or a Honky Tonk in the south in the 50's or 60's. Magical.

[JB2]

"Mr. Brownstone" by Guns and Roses in 1987; the Bo beat is very strong at the start, and then they cover it up with a really cool riff - but the beat is there throughout.

Brownstone wasn't on the pop charts, but it was one of the more popular tracks on one of the biggest albums of all time.

I'm sure there's something more recent.

[Sportswoman]

He never got the credit due him as a musician, a lyricist or as an architect of rock 'n roll. His sound will never be duplicated. Anyone who has seen him live wil tell you that he cranks up the volume, and will knock you out of your socks with the reverb and drumbeat. What Les Paul did for the electric guitar.he did for rock 'n roll.
One of the last vestiges of racism in the music world was the great disservice doene to Black and Latino musicians by only playing their music on low wattage R&B or Latin stations, far away from mainstream white-controlled programming. When Alan Freed, himself a victim of racism and crooked management, assembled his rock 'n roll shows with the likes of Bo Diddley, Jackie Wilson, Ritchie Valens, Eddie Cochrane, Buddy Holly, Dion DiMucci, and many others, he essentially broke the color barrier and forced popular music stations to play the musid its listeners--teenagers- demanded.
According to many who knew him, Bo Diddley was a gentleman, an unselfish performer, and a lover of music as well as people. Even though I haven't seen him perform in ages, I miss him already.

[Nooneyouknow]

I caught him a few years ago. He played sitting down, but he ripped a new one for Muddy Waters' "Mannish Boy." Glad as hell I got to cheer him before he went.

[edwcorey]

Muddy got the song from Bo.

[PaxMundis]

"Mannish Boy" also inspired the overplayed (but actually pretty good) "Bad To The Bone." George Thorogood was gracious enough to include Mr. Diddley in the video.

[ignorantwillyharper]

I was at Gutheries night club in Dallas, around '62. He was set to play that night and it got to be around 11:30 PM and finaly here he came, with both arms draped over a couple of band memebers.
I noticed the soles of his shoes looked brand new, but the top of his toes were damn near wore thru. They wouldn't put him on the stage, but propped him up on the dance floor, with his back leaning up againist the stage, put his guitar over his shoulder, placed his hands on his instrument and stepped back.
Good gosh amighty, I have never enjoyed anyone's show, like the one he put on that night! I don't know if even remembered being there, but he sure pleased the crowd!