Good Man Gone, Good Man Gone....

It's definitely a sad day for Blues and Rock fans all over the world. This man is already a Legend for his contributions to Blues. He had a unique take on guitar that many, including myself, have tried to learn from. He will be missed and remembered.

Along with coming up with his own original rhythm, Bo Diddley was a unique guitarist who made the most of his ability. His playing has been a HUGE influence on me. Ride on, Roadrunner!!

Long live Bo Diddley- and his beat.
About 15 years ago I got a call from a booking agent in Modesto asking if my band(The Subterraneans) would like to open up for Bo Diddley in Modesto. Bo Diddley-one of my idols, one of the inventors of rock and roll-Hello? The chance of a lifetime here. Now, Bo only travels with one of his signature rectangular guitars, so the Subterraneans were to be his back-up band also-Whoa!, Jackpot! The Subs were supposed to open the show at seven and Bo arrived at 6:30 sharp. Great. 30 minutes to rehearse with a legend. They had a brand new Fender amp set up for him and his immediate(and to us humorous) response was "Uh, son, that's not the amp I asked for, I hates them mutha****in' new amps". His contract called for and old Fender Deluxe. Exactly the same as mine. I offered him the use of mine but he very politely said, "No son, it's in the contract, they have to get me and old Deluxe". Now, this is 6:30 on a Sunday evening in Modesto, but they found him one in minutes and we started to rehearse. The first thing he said to my drummer was "Son, let me hear your Bo Diddley beat", now our drummer(Joe Luppino) is fabulous, and he proceeded to lay down a beautiful beat. Bo nodded, smiled and said "that's fine son,fine, but don't play them cymbals 'cause Bo hates them mutha****in' cymbals". After we stopped laughing we rehearsed for 20 minutes,(he also told me to turn up my amp if I wanted to play on stage) then the Subterraneans did an opening set that got the best response from any audience we've ever had, before or since(we sold every cd and t-shirt we had). We then proceeded to play for an hour or so with one of our idols. He was gracious, polite and very funny on stage and off. When a fan yelled out after 2 or 3 songs "hey Bo, when ya comin' back? he responded "I haven't even left yet, whadda mean comin' back?" We played his classic songs and he got up and played the drums midway through the last song, the classic "Who Do You Love" and then he left the stage and we finished it off a few minutes later. Backstage he graciously thanked us for backing him up and then he was gone. A true legend. It was to say the least the highlight of my playing career so far and an experience I'll always cherish and treasure. Long live Bo Diddley.
Glen Delpit

Awesome story, Glen. Thanks for sharing it with us.

'Who do You Love,' is my favorite song on the 'La Bamba' soundtrack and the best part of the movie. When Ritchie wakes up in Mexico all hung over with a tattoo.

'I walked 47 miles of barbed wire,
Used a cobra snake for a neck tie.
Got a brand new house on the roadside,
Made out of rattlesnake hide.
I got a brand new chimney made on top,
Made out of human skulls.
Now come on darling let's take a little walk, tell me,
Who do you love'

Those are some genius hard-core bad-ass lryics.

Man, I know I can't match Delpit's story--cuz I got nuthin' like that. I do know that Bo Didley was an original. And what do you do from originals but try and learn their stuff. I'll still dig out that 'best of'LP on Chess Records and try and figure out...what are they doing here that gives it so much atmosphere?
Knowing that you have an artist whose authenticity runs deep and knowing that it'll be worth your while to sit down and try and learn a thing or two---that's pretty valuable.
I think I first heard Bo's influence through The Rolling Stones doing Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away"---see, even run it through the branches of several different bands and that
essential *sap* still tastes strong.

Bo Diddley never really did get the recognition he deserved, outside of true rock'n'roll fans -- a generation or two knows him much better for a (very clever) Nike ad campaign he did with a star athlete, and that was 20 years ago already. (God knows The Clash tried to teach Americans about their musical heritage -- on their first U.S. tour in '79, they specifically asked for Bo Diddley to be their opening act.)

No matter how you try to say or spell it ("BUM! de-bum-bum! BumBUM!"), he was the first star to directly incorporate African rhythm into rock'n'roll -- namely, the juba rhythms the slaves brought over from west Africa. And through him, it was filtered into our pop music history in a number of ways:

* Buddy Holly, the west Texan raised on Western swing, who used the Bo Diddley beat to create a rock classic of his own: "Not Fade Away." Which was later The Stones' first U.S. single. And it also worked its way deeply into the world of tie-dye when The Dead made it one of their staples ... (And you can also throw in one of my own all-time faves, fervent Holly disciple Bobby Fuller ...)

* Johnny Otis, an R&B contemporary of Bo Diddley, who co-opted the beat for his signature tune, "Willie and the Hand Jive." (For an example of the hand jive at work, watch the detention scene in the original "Hairspray.")

* The Yardbirds, one of the most revered and important of blues/rock bands, who hit big in '65 with a raveup of Bo Diddley's "I'm a Man" -- and the mad, sped-up tempo they threw in at the end worked its way into dozens of ensuing garage singles ...

* The Who's "Magic Bus."

* Springsteen's "I'm on Fire."

* The Strangeloves, three record producers/songwriters dressed in caveman garb who nicked both Bo Diddley and Otis on their only album in 1965 -- "I Want Candy" and "No Jive." Yes, the same "I Want Candy" that was revved up for the '80s punk/new wave crowd by Bow Wow Wow ...

* And if you slow down the Bo Diddley tempo a notch or two, you can get an idea of where the slap-bass rhhythm of funk may have originated. And maybe, as a result, hip-hop, too ...

There was nothing subtle about the man himself (as Glen Delpit pointed out so well above). But Bo Diddley was a fierce, single-minded, uncompromising originator who very subtly affected what we listen to a half-century later ...