[JPL] Bo Diddley

[Dr. Jazz]

  Guitarist Bo Diddley dead at 79

    * Story Highlights
    * A violin player, Diddley first picked up guitar after hearing John
      Lee Hooker hit song
    * Diddley died of heart failure, his family says
    * Diddley was inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in 1987
    * Diddley a contemporary of Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Elvis Presley

*(CNN)* -- Bo Diddley, the musical pioneer whose songs, such as "Who Do 
You Love?" and "Bo Diddley," melded rhythm and blues and rock 'n' roll 
through a distinctive thumping beat, has died. He was 79.

Diddley died Monday, surrounded by family and loved ones at his home in 
Archer, Florida, a family spokeswoman said.

The cause was heart failure, his family said.

The world-renowned guitarist's signature beat -- usually played on an 
equally distinctive rectangular-bodied guitar -- laid the foundation for 
rock 'n' roll, and became so identified with him that it became known as 
the "Bo Diddley" beat. It was unlike anything else heard in pop music. 
iReport.com: Share your memories of the legend 
<http://www.ireport.com/ir-topic-stories.jspa?topicId=29555>

"This distinctive, African-based 5/4 rhythm pattern (which goes 
bomp-bomp-bomp bomp-bomp) was picked up by other artists and has been a 
distinctive and recurring element in rock 'n' roll through the decades," 
according to the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame.

Guitarist George Thorogood, a Diddley disciple, put it more bluntly.

"[Chuck Berry's] 'Maybellene' is a country song sped up," Thorogood told 
Rolling Stone in 2005. " 'Johnny B. Goode' is blues sped up. But you 
listen to 'Bo Diddley,' and you say, 'What in the Jesus is that?' "

Among the artists who made use of the Bo Diddley beat were Buddy Holly 
("Not Fade Away," later covered by the Rolling Stones), Johnny Otis 
("Willie and the Hand Jive"), the Yardbirds (covering Diddley's "I'm a 
Man" and adding their own guitar stylings to the closing bars, which 
were later incorporated into the Count Five's "Psychotic Reaction"), the 
Strangeloves ("I Want Candy"), Bruce Springsteen ("She's the One"), U2 
("Desire") and George Michael ("Faith"). Hundreds of artists have 
covered Diddley songs.

His debut single was his self-titled 1955 classic, with "I'm a Man" as 
its B-side. The songs were released on Chicago's Chess-Checker Records 
label, also the home of Chuck Berry and Willie Dixon.

"It was the first in a string of groundbreaking sides that walked the 
fine line between rhythm & blues and rock 'n' roll," his Hall of Fame 
biography says.

Diddley <http://topics.cnn.com/topics/Bo_Diddley> was also a pioneer of 
the electric guitar, tweaking his instruments and adding a variety of 
effects to his recordings.

A contemporary of Berry, Fats Domino and Elvis Presley, Diddley cut a 
stylish figure on the rock 'n' roll landscape. With his guitar, dark 
glasses and black hat, he looked vaguely menacing; his music was much 
earthier and bluesier than that of his rock 'n' roll contemporaries.

However, Diddley wasn't above climbing on bandwagons in search of wider 
popularity; his early 1960s albums included such titles as "Bo Diddley 
Is a Gunslinger," "Bo Diddley's a Twister," "Bo Diddley's Beach Party" 
and "Surfin' with Bo Diddley."

Eventually, Diddley returned to his roots and became a rock 'n' roll 
elder statesman. He was featured in the Thorogood video "Bad to the 
Bone," playing pool with Thorogood, and showed up during the Nike "Bo 
Knows" campaign starring Bo Jackson.

At the conclusion of a Nike commercial that showed Jackson excelling at 
a variety of sports, the athlete picked up a guitar and produced a 
squall of noise. Cut to Diddley, listening to the attempt: "Bo, you 
don't know Diddley," he said.

"I never could figure out what it had to do with shoes, but it worked," 
Diddley told The Associated Press. "I got into a lot of new front rooms 
on the tube."

Diddley was born Ellas Otha Bates in McComb, Mississippi, on December 
30, 1928. He later took the name McDaniel after being adopted by his 
mother's cousin. Diddley's family moved to Chicago when he was 7, 
according to his Hall of Fame biography.

He played violin as a child, but said he was inspired to pick up the 
guitar after hearing John Lee Hooker's 1949 rhythm and blues hit, 
"Boogie Chillen."

He told many stories of how he got the name "Bo Diddley." In a 1999 
interview, he said it came from his childhood friends, according to AP. 
Other tales included a one-string instrument from traditional blues 
called a diddley bow, the AP notes.

Either way, it became his own -- as did his music.

"I don't like to copy anybody. Everybody tries to do what I do, update 
it," he told the AP. "I don't have any idols I copied after."

"They copied everything I did, upgraded it, messed it up. It seems to me 
that nobody can come up with their own thing, they have to put a little 
bit of Bo Diddley there," he said.

He continued to tour well into 2007, but suffered a stroke last May and 
a heart attack in August.

He was inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame 
<http://topics.cnn.com/topics/Rock_and_Roll_Hall_of_Fame_and_Museum> in 
January 1987.

Though he was upset that he never received the financial rewards he 
expected -- "I am owed," he told the AP, adding "a dude with a pencil is 
worse than a cat with a machine gun" -- he reflected modestly on the 
rock 'n' roll revolution he helped start.

"Well, it's no different from anything else, I guess. I started 
sumthin'. I just happened to be the first one," he told the British 
magazine Uncut in 2005. "But I never thought it would turn into what it 
did. Somebody had to be first, and it happened to be me."

Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be 
published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press 
<http://www.cnn.com/interactive_legal.html#AP> contributed to this report.

-- 
Dr. Jazz
Dr. Jazz Operations
24270 Eastwood
Oak Park, MI  48237
(248) 542-7888
http://www.drjazz.com
SKYPE:  drjazz99