Bo Diddley: 1928-2008
The boastful, larger-than-life blues-rock star passes away at age 79.
By: Richard Gehr | Source: AARP.org | 2008-06-03
Bo Diddley was the boastful, larger-than-life blues-rock persona of Ellas Otha Bates (later Ellas McDaniel), who was born in McComb, Mississippi, in 1928. He took his stage name from the fretless diddley bows played by poor African-American musicians in the South.
Inspired by John Lee Hooker, Diddley began playing guitar professionally in Chicago, where his family moved in 1936. He toured regularly for the rest of his life, delivering music that combined driving rudimentary rhythms (the most famous being his version of the "hambone" rhythm, the so-called "Bo Diddley beat") with a jagged electric guitar sound he wrestled manfully out of his trademark rectangular Gretsch instrument, "the Twang Machine."
His first recording, "Bo Diddley," was a #1 R&B hit in 1955. Checker Records subsequently released 11 Bo Diddley albums between 1958 and 1963. "Bo Diddley" and "Hey Bo Diddley" were inspired by the lullaby "Hush Little Baby" and "Old MacDonald," respectively, while "Who Do You Love" borrowed imagery from African-American folklore. Although Diddley specialized in one-chord vamps that split the difference between blues and rock, he could also write a pop hit: Mickey and Sylvia's 1956 recording, "Love Is Strange," was written by Diddley and credited to his then-wife, Ethel Smith.
Diddley inspired countless white rock bands, including Quicksilver Messenger Service, the Doors, the Who, the Rolling Stones, and the Clash. He was a boisterous fixture on the festival circuit during the late '60s and early '70s. You can hear Bo Diddley performing his namesake hit in 1970, with all its timeless energy, here.
Inspired by John Lee Hooker, Diddley began playing guitar professionally in Chicago, where his family moved in 1936. He toured regularly for the rest of his life, delivering music that combined driving rudimentary rhythms (the most famous being his version of the "hambone" rhythm, the so-called "Bo Diddley beat") with a jagged electric guitar sound he wrestled manfully out of his trademark rectangular Gretsch instrument, "the Twang Machine."
His first recording, "Bo Diddley," was a #1 R&B hit in 1955. Checker Records subsequently released 11 Bo Diddley albums between 1958 and 1963. "Bo Diddley" and "Hey Bo Diddley" were inspired by the lullaby "Hush Little Baby" and "Old MacDonald," respectively, while "Who Do You Love" borrowed imagery from African-American folklore. Although Diddley specialized in one-chord vamps that split the difference between blues and rock, he could also write a pop hit: Mickey and Sylvia's 1956 recording, "Love Is Strange," was written by Diddley and credited to his then-wife, Ethel Smith.
Diddley inspired countless white rock bands, including Quicksilver Messenger Service, the Doors, the Who, the Rolling Stones, and the Clash. He was a boisterous fixture on the festival circuit during the late '60s and early '70s. You can hear Bo Diddley performing his namesake hit in 1970, with all its timeless energy, here.
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