Bo Diddley
| Bo Diddley | |
|---|---|
 Bo Diddley performing live in 2006
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Ellas Otha Bates |
| Also known as | Ellas McDaniel |
| Born | December 30 1928 |
| Origin | McComb, Mississippi, USA |
| Genre(s) | Rock and roll, blues |
| Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter, musician |
| Instrument(s) | Vocals, guitar |
| Years active | 1951 - present |
| Label(s) | Checker Records, Chess Records |
Bo Diddley (December 30, 1928 - June 2, 2008), born Ellas Otha Bates, was an influential American rock and roll singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Often cited as a key figure in the transition from blues to rock and roll, he introduced insistent, driving rhythms and a hard-edged guitar sound.
Mississippi-born Diddley began playing the guitar after hearing blues man John Lee Hooker. He began playing on street corners and then performed regularly at a South Side Chicago club. Influenced by Louis Jordan, Hooker, and Muddy Waters, he recorded I'm A Man" and "Bo Diddley" at Chess Records. The record was a number-one hit. Known for his music's rumba-like beat, he was also known for his characteristic rectangular guitar.
In the 1950s and 1960, Diuddley became a musical force with albums like Bo Diddley Is a Gunslinger and Have Guitar, Will Travel. Numerous artists incorporated his style, including as Elvis Presley, the Rolling Stones, Buddly Hollym any many later stars. In his later years, Diddley continued to perform, taking a world tour in 2005 to celebrate 50 years in music. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.
Early life and career
Born Ellas Otha Bates[1] in McComb, Mississippi, Bo Diddley was adopted and raised by his mother's cousin, Gussie McDaniel, whose surname he adopted, becoming Ellas McDaniel. The family moved to Chicago when he was seven. He took violin lessons as a youth, but was inspired to become a guitarist after seeing John Lee Hooker perform.
He worked as a carpenter and mechanic, but also began a musical career playing on street corners with friends, including Jerome Green (c.1934-1973), as a band called the Hipsters (later the Langley Avenue Jive Cats). In 1951, he landed a regular spot at the 708 Club on Chicago's South Side, with a repertoire influenced by John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, and band leader Louis Jordan. He adopted the stage name, Bo Diddley. The nickname is linked to several southern slang expression, including the diddley bow, a primitive one- or two-stringed instrument that was used in the south by black musicians.
In late 1954, he teamed up with harmonica player Billy Boy Arnold, drummer Clifton James, and bass player Roosevelt Jackson, to record demos of I'm A Man" and "Bo Diddley" with a backing ensemble comprising Otis Spann (piano), Lester Davenport (harmonica), Frank Kirkland (drums), and Jerome Green (maracas). They then re-recorded the songs at Chess Studios. The record was released in March of 1955, the a-side, "Bo Diddley," becoming an R&B number-one hit.
The Bo Diddley beat and guitar
Bo Diddley is best known for the "Bo Diddley beat," a driving, rumba-like beat. Although the beat conjures feelings of Africa and the Caribbean, Diddley reportedly invented the beat while trying to play Gene Autry's "(I've Got Spurs That) Jingle, Jangle, Jingle." The beat is also related to the tradition of "Hambone," in which persons slap their own knees, thighs, and torsos to create a drum effect. Three years before the release of "Bo Diddley," a song that closely resembles it, "Hambone," was cut by Red Saunders' Orchestra with The Hambone Kids. Diddley and his band, however, achieved a powerful, almost overwhelming rhythmic tradition that is unmistakably his own creation.
Diddley's songs (for example, "Hey Bo Diddley" and "Who Do You Love?") often have no chord changes. The musicians play the same chord throughout the piece, so that excitement is created by the rhythm, rather than by harmonic tension and release. In his recordings, Diddley used a variety of rhythms, from straight back beat to pop ballad style, frequently with maracas by Jerome Green.
He was also an influential guitar player who invented many special effects and other innovations in tone and attack. Diddley's trademark instrument is the rectangular-bodied Gretsch guitar, nicknamed "The Twang Machine," a guitar that he developed himself around 1958 and wielded in thousands of concerts over the years. He later had other similar-shaped guitars custom-made for him by other manufacturers. He also played the violin, which is featured on his mournful instrumental "The Clock Strikes Twelve," a 12-bar blues.
Diddley's lyrics were often witty and humorous adaptations of folk music themes. The song "Bo Diddley" was based on the lullaby "Hush Little Baby." Likewise, "Hey Bo Diddley" is based on the folk song "Old Macdonald." The rap-style boasting of "Who Do You Love," a wordplay on "hoodoo," used many striking lyrics from the African-American tradition of toasts and boasts. His "Say Man" and "Say Man, Back Again" both share a strong connection to the insult game known as the dozens. For example: "You got the nerve to call somebody ugly! Why you so ugly the stork that brought you into the world ought to be arrested!!!"
Success in the 1950s and 1960s
On November 20, 1955, Diddley appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show. He was reportedly asked to sing Tennessee Ernie Ford's hit "Sixteen Tons," but when he appeared on stage, he sang "Bo Diddley." This infuriated Sullivan. "I did two songs and he got mad," Bo Diddley later recalled. "Ed Sullivan said that I was one of the first colored boys to ever double-cross him. Said that I wouldn't last six months." He was banned from further appearances on the show.
Diddley had several additional hits through the late 1950s and the 1960s, including "Pretty Thing" (1956), "Say Man" (1959), and "You Can't Judge a Book By the Cover" (1962). He released a string of albums whose titles — including Bo Diddley Is a Gunslinger and Have Guitar, Will Travel — that bolstered his self-invented legend. Between 1958 and 1963, Checker Records released 11 full-length albums by Bo Diddley. Although Diddley was a breakthrough crossover artist with white audiences, appearing on the Alan Freed concerts, for example, he rarely tailored his compositions to teenage concerns, and his shows—unlike those of Chuck Berry, for example—were oriented toward adult black night clubs.
The Bo Diddley beat was used by many other artists in the 1950s and 1960s, notably Buddy Holly ("Not Fade Away"); Johnny Otis ("Willie and the Hand Jive"); Elvis Presley ("His Latest Flame"); Wayne Fontana & The Mindbenders ("The Game of Love"); Jefferson Airplane ("She Has Funny Cars"); ; Dee Clark ("Hey Little Girl"); and others. The early The Rolling Stones sound featured several covers of Bo-Diddley beat songs such as "Not Fade Away" and "I Need You Baby (Mona)." Buddy Holly's own cover version of "Bo Diddley" provided him with a top-ten posthumous hit in the UK in 1963.
Didley's own songs were frequently covered. The Animals and Bob Seger both recorded "The Story of Bo Diddley." The Who and The Yardbirds covered "I'm a Man"; while Diddley's "Road Runner" was also frequently covered, including by The Who in concert. Both Eric Clapton and Creedence Clearwater Revival covered "Before You Accuse Me." Velvet Underground drummer Maureen Tucker counts Diddley as one of her chief influences and covered "Bo Diddley" on her solo album Life in Exile After Abdication.
In 1963, Diddley starred in a UK concert tour with the Everly Brothers and Little Richard. The Rolling Stones, still unknown at the time, were listed much lower on the same bill. Over the decades, his performances have ranged from sweaty Chicago clubs to rock-and-roll oldies tours. He appeared as an opening act for The Clash and as a guest of the Rolling Stones. On March 28, 1972, he played with The Grateful Dead at the Academy of Music in New York City. This concert was released for the Grateful Dead's Dick's Picks live album series as Volume 30.
In addition to the many songs identified with him, he wrote the pioneering pop song "Love Is Strange" under a pseudonym for Mickey and Sylvia.
Bo Diddley was one of the first American musicians to have women in his band, including Peggy Jones (aka Lady Bo], b.1940), Norma-Jean Wofford (aka The Duchess], c.1942-2005), and Cornelia Redmond (aka Cookie). He also set up one of the first home recording studios.
The later years
Bo Diddley spent many years in New Mexico, not only as a musician, but also as a law officer, perhaps fulfilling the legendary declaration "Bo Diddley is a Gunsliger." He lived in Los Lunas from 1971 to 1978 while continuing his musical career and served for two and a half years as Deputy Sheriff in the Valencia County Citizens' Patrol. During that time he personally purchased and donated three highway-patrol pursuit cars.
In 2005, Bo Diddley celebrated his fiftieth anniversary in music with successful tours of Australia and Europe, and with coast-to-coast shows across North America. He performed his song "Bo Diddley" with Eric Clapton and Robbie Robertson at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's twentieth annual induction ceremony and in the UK, Uncut magazine included his 1958 debut album "Bo Diddley" in its listing of the "100 Music, Movie & TV Moments That Have Changed The World."
In 2006, Diddley participated as the headliner of a grass-roots organized fundraiser concert, to benefit the town of Ocean Springs, Mississippi, which was devastated by Hurricane Katrina.
Later, he resided in Archer, Florida, a small farming town near Gainesville, Florida, where he attended a born-again Christian church with some of his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.
Diddley died on June 2 2008 at the age of 79 of heart failure at his home in Archer. Garry Mitchell, a grandson of the singer and one of more than 35 family members at the musician's home when he died, said his death was not unexpected. Mitchell reported that Diddley gave the thumbs up sign as the gospel song "Walk Around Heaven" was played at his deathbed and that his last words were that he was soon going to heaven himself. [2]
Legacy
Many contemporary singers and musical groups have incorporated Bo Diddley's style, including: U2 ("Desire"); The Smiths ("How Soon Is Now?"); Roxette ("Harleys And Indians (Riders In The Sky)"); George Michael ("Faith"); The Strangeloves ("I Want Candy"); Guns N' Roses ("Mr. Brownstone"); David Bowie ("Panic in Detroit"); The Pretenders ("Cuban Slide"); The Police ("Deathwish"); and The White Stripes ("Screwdriver").
Diddley was also very popular with proto-punk musicians and later in the punk scene. For example, both the New York Dolls and The Lurkers recorded their own version of his song "Pills," and Diddley was the opening act on The Clash's first U.S. tour.
The Finnish rock/blues band Max on the Rox also covered "Who Do You Love" in their second album, Rox II.
Muddy Waters' "Mannish Boy" (originally "Manish Boy") was an adaptation of Bo Diddley's "I'm a Man" and also an answer song, the title being Muddy Waters' take on his younger rival.
Discography
- Bo Diddley (1958)
- Go Bo Diddley (1959)
- Have Guitar Will Travel (1960) [2]
- Bo Diddley in the Spotlight (1960)
- Bo Diddley Is a Gunslinger (1960) (Checker 2977) Album Cover
- Bo Diddley Is a Lover (1961)
- Bo Diddley's a Twister (1962)
- Bo Diddley (1962)
- Bo Diddley & Company (1962)
- Surfin' with Bo Diddley (1963)
- Bo Diddley's Beach Party (1963)
- Bo Diddley's 16 All-Time Greatest Hits (1964)
- Two Great Guitars (with Chuck Berry) (1964)
- Hey Good Lookin' (1965)
- 500% More Man (1965)
- The Originator (1966)
- Super Blues (with Muddy Waters & Little Walter) (1967)
- Super Super Blues Band (with Muddy Waters & Howlin' Wolf) (1967)
- The Black Gladiator (1970)
- Another Dimension (1971)
- Where It All Began (1972)
- Got My Own Bag of Tricks (1972)
- The London Bo Diddley Sessions (1973)
- Big Bad Bo (1974)
- 20th Anniversary of Rock & Roll (1976)
- I'm a Man (1977)
- Ain't It Good To Be Free (1983)
- Bo Diddley & Co - Live (1985)
- Hey...Bo Diddley in Concert (1986)
- Breakin' Through the BS (1989)
- Living Legend (1989)
- Rare & Well Done (1991)
- Live at the Ritz (with Ronnie Wood) (1992)
- This Should Not Be (1993)
- Promises (1994)
- A Man Amongst Men (1996)
- Moochas Gracias (with Anna Moo) (2002)
- Dick's Picks #30 (1972 5-song Live Session with The Grateful Dead) (2003)
Notes
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- George-Warren, Holly, and Levine, Laura. Shake, Rattle, & Roll: The Founders of Rock and Roll. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001. ISBN 978-0618055401
- Holt, Sid. The Rolling Stone Interviews: The 1980s. New York: St. Martin's Press/Rolling Stone Press, 1989. ISBN 978-0312029746
- Traum, Artie, and Funaro, Arti. The Legends of Rock Guitar. New York: Oak Publications, 1986. ISBN 978-0711910218
- White, George R. Bo Diddley, Living Legend. Chessington, Surrey, England: Castle Communications, 1995. ISBN 978-1860741302
External links
- Authorized Website Bo Diddley-The Originator
- "The Gig That Almost Didn't Happen", by Dinky Dawson, Crawdaddy!, November 7, 2007.
- Discography Albums & Singles StarPulse.com/Music/Diddley, Bo
- Who 2
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