The Originator

4 June 2008



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Bo Diddley Bows out at 79

Bo Diddley, one of the fathers of rock ‘n’ roll, passed away earlier this week at the age of 79. Customarily, people observe a moment of silence upon the passing of a friend or famous stranger. Nothing could be more inappropriate, though, than a moment of silence for him. Far better would be several moments of the Bo Diddley beat, best written as “boom-boom-boom, boom-boom.”

In an industry like popular music where commerce is king and talent and creativity are the step-children under the stairs, Bo Diddley shouldn’t have amounted to much. He won no gold records and had just one Top 40 hit to his credit, “Say Man.” However, his influence on those who followed him (and that includes Little Richard and Elvis Presley) meant that virtually every gold record and Top 40 song was his.

Rolling Stone magazine called that Bo Diddley beat, “The most plagiarized rhythm of the 20th century,” and as near as one can tell thus far, of the 21st century as well. No less a star than Buddy Holly borrowed/stole that beat for his breakthrough hit “Not Fade Away,” which the Rolling Stones later covered. Elvis himself used it on “His Latest Flame.” “Magic Bus,” one of the greatest songs by The Who, relied on the boom-boom-boom, boom-boom. Iggy Pop and the Stooges’ “1969” uses it. U2’s “Desire” makes no apology for lifting it, and indeed, Bono’s proud of it.

Artists stealing from one another goes back at least to the Altamira cave paintings. Artists acknowledging the creative debt they incur from others is far less common. Yet, Keith Richards said, “Watching Bo Diddley was university for me.” The Stone and the Everly Brothers opened Bo Diddley’s UK tour in 1963. Sir Mick Jagger (Sir Mick is almost as awkward to write as Mr. Diddley) said he “was very generous to us in our early years and we learned a lot from him.”

There was some bitterness about his lack of commercial and popular recognition, though. In a 2005 interview with Rolling Stone he complained, “Elvis was not first; I was the first son of a gun out here, me and Chuck Berry. And I’m very sick of the lie. You know, we are over that black-and-white crap, and that was all the reason Elvis got the appreciation that he did. I’m the dude that he copied, and I’m not even mentioned. . . . I’ve been out here for 50 years, man, and I haven’t ever seen a royalty check.” Much of the poor pay resulted from the mid-century tradition of paying musicians a flat fee for their work. He said, “I am owed. I’ve never got paid. A dude with a pencil is worse than a cat with a machine gun.” Truer words have never been spoken.

© Copyright 2008 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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