The Drovers Old Time Medicine Show - Prater's Creek Gazette

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Arts and Music (CONT.)

The Prater's Creek Gazette

18th Issue Summer 2008 Page #6

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cello

books

Goodbye Bo Diddley

Bo Diddley 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?
Who do you love?
Who do you love?
Who do you love?
Who do you love?
Tombstone hand and a graveyard mine,
Just 22 and I don't mind dying.
Who do you love?
Who do you love?
Who do you love?
Who do you love?
I rode around the town, use a rattlesnake whip,
Take it easy Arlene, don't give me no lip,
Who do you love?
Who do you love?
Who do you love?
Who do you love?
Night was dark, but the sky was blue,
Down the alley, the ice-wagon flew,
Heard a bump, and somebody screamed,
You should have heard just what I seen.
Who do you love?

I hope you didn't simply read the above lyrics. I hope you felt that primal, yes primal, beat, the beat only an AFRICAN-American could come up with. Okay, if we're ever pontificating on the subject of the rock and the roll and I say what I have been saying for 40 years, that Jerry Lee Lewis is the greatest example of the swagger, coolness, and danger of what a real rocker is, you quote this next sentence back to me.

Bo Diddley was the baddest rocker ever!

I have to start this article by mentioning The Clash, who I wrote about in the last Gazette, and how they insisted that Bo open for them on their first American tour. And how they made CBS Records pay him well. That was not the only tour for which he opened for the Clash.

And something I failed to mention in that article was how The Clash caught critical flak for singing about themselves, which one writer dubbed the "Mott the Hoople syndrome". The Clash were huge Mott fans, but let's call it the "Bo Diddley syndrome"!

Bo Diddley bought his babe a diamond ring,
If that diamond ring don't shine,
He gonna take it to a private eye,
If that private eye can't see
He'd better not take the ring from me.
Bo Diddley caught a nanny goat,
To make his pretty baby a Sunday coat,
Bo Diddley caught a bear cat,
To make his pretty baby a Sunday hat.
Mojo come to my house, ya black cat bone,
Take my baby away from home,
Ugly ole mojo, where ya bin,
Up your house, and gone again.
Bo Diddley, Bo Diddley have you heard?
My pretty baby said she wasn't for it.

Bo Diddley died of heart failure on June 2. Born Ellas Bates on Dec. 28 or 30, 1928 in McComb, Mississippi was adopted by his mother's cousin, Gussie McDaniel, who changed his last name to McDaniel. Like many blacks Mississippians in those days, the family moved to Chicago when he was five years old. He learned to play the guitar at age ten and by his teens was playing clubs in Chicago.

It is not clear how he got the name "Bo Diddley". Some say he got it during his boxing days, others say it came from the "diddley bow" African one stringed instrument. There are dozens more explanations.

In 1954 he brought his "Bo Diddley beat" to the world with his recording of the songs "Bo Diddley" and "I'm a Man" on Chess Records. The "shave and a haircut", 5/4 beat that would help change the world along with music of Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Jerry Lee and others.

Bo Diddley openly, and often, lamented the fact that he never reaped the financial rewards that his contemporaries did.

“Elvis Presley did not invent rock ‘n’ roll. I invented it, along with Chuck Berry. He was coming along too with his song ‘Maybelline.’ I’m a little bitter about anything saying that Elvis invented it because he didn’t and I think it’s time for people to tell the truth. I take my hat off to the cat — he was like what I call a monument — but he got on the wagon when it got rolling. He didn’t start it.”

Of course, he never had the chart success of say Chuck Berry. But his influence on rock is phenomenal. His live shows were blowing fans away as Bo played his signature, and often homemade, square guitar that Gretsch guitar ended up making, with a distorted and tremoloed sound.

His beat influenced Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away", which The Rolling Stones covered. Once when the Stones and Diddley were to play the song on John Peel's radio show, Stones' drummer Charlie Watt couldn't get the rhythm right and Bo had to take Watt's hands with the sticks and show him the beat.

Many other bands copied that beat. "Magic Bus" by The Who, "Willie and the Hand Jive" by Eric Clapton, "She's The One" by Bruce Springsteen, "I Want Candy" by The Strangeloves and later covered by Bow Wow Wow, "How Soon is Now" by The Smiths. U2's "Desire", and even George Michael's "Faith"!

And not only did his lyrics influence rock bands, it can be claimed that the braggadocio of of rappers came directly from Bo.

Even though he didn't have any more hits after the early 1960's, he was often seen on TV shows such as "The Midnight Special" and George Thorogood kept his music in the public ear with his recording of "Who Do You Love" which is a rock classic in it's own right. In 1985, Thorogood brought Diddley out onstage at Live Aid and the performance was seen by millions around the world.

No, he may not have gotten the accolades that Chuck Berry and Little Richard got, and he certainly never made the kind of money that pill head Elvis got, but he was as great as those others.

I'm a road runner honey,
Beep! Beep!
I'm a road runner honey,
And you can't keep up with me,
I'm a road runner honey,
And you can't keep up with me,
Come on, let's race,
Baby baby, you will see,
Here I come,
Beep! Beep!
Move over honey,
Let me by,
Move over baby,
Let this man by,

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