Some Thoughts On Bo Diddley

To me, one thing really stands out in the AP piece reporting the death of Bo Diddley.

“I don’t like to copy anybody. Everybody tries to do what I do, update it,” he said. “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.

Bo was right as rain there, if you are “updating” a Bo Diddley riff, you are doing it wrong.

Bo was a true original, a true stylist.

I met Peter Case one night and he told a story about Willie Dixon, in which Dixon offered advice that went something like; “You have to have a style, and that style should be named after you, and your best song should be named after that style. Like, Bo Diddley by Bo Diddley in the Bo Diddley style.” Aside from pointing out that Bo Diddley was way ahead of the game on establishing brand awareness, Dixon was using Bo as the example of a musician with an original style. Think about some of the people Dixon worked with like, Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Little Walter but, the one guy that he refers to, off the top of his head, regarding individual style, is Bo Diddley.

My friends, the Morells, backed Bo Diddley at a show in Chicago on Bo’s birthday a couple of years back. Donnie told me that Bo had some new amp and that “he’s still looking for that tone” and, Lou talked about Bo giving the guys maraca lessons. It’s nice to hear that kind of stuff because, it brings it all home; after all the bad contracts, all the dirty deals, a lifetime of gigs, Bo was focusing on the music. That’s what mattered.

Related posts

• grow a beard, man (2)
• Coldplay Is Up?! EMI Is down… (2)
• Bits (6)
• Check Out The Vault (0)
• A Bit Of Gear Talk With Gary (3)

Tags: Bo Diddley, howlin wolf, Morells, Muddy Waters, Music, original style, Willie Dixon