RIP Bo Diddley (Updated)
The original rock and roll primitive is dead at age 79. Bo Diddley invented the most copied beat in rock music history — and he was one of the prime copiers, using that beat for a great deal of his personal repertoire, but his shows were never one bit dull. I saw him twice during the eighties and early nineties and he was not only a great, if basic, musician but a funny, consistently engaging performer.
This appears to be from that period.
And he created songs, including this ultra-primal classic, from which entire careers were built. (I’m looking at you, Ronnie Hawkins and George Thorogood.)
His signature beat became the basis for countless great records by better known artists (in this case two better known artists).
Everyone under the sun covered such baseline tunes as “I’m a Man” (even if they didn’t quite have the haircut to sing it).
Others messed with it, slightly….
And others used it as a jumping off place for entirely new songs that were great in their own right — here’s a version of my all time favorite Bo Diddley rip-off.
RIP Bo Diddley. We’ll miss you a lot, but the beat isn’t going away any time soon.
Larry Aydlette has another great video up at his place.
UPDATE: And Brian Doan has another one.
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