One of the true giants of American rock and roll passed away yesterday.
Bo Diddley's iconic trademark baseline is featured in
Not Fade Away by The Rolling Stones and Buddy Holly,
Born to Hand Jive from the soundtrack of
Grease, and
I Want Candy by The Strangeloves and Bow Wow Wow. He also starred in
the greatest commercial ever. The Tony Kornheiser Show played The Animals'
The Story of Bo Diddley in its entirety, so I looked up the lyrics.
Now lets hear the story of Bo Diddley
And the Rock n Roll scene in general
Bo Diddley was born Ellas McDaniels
In a place called McComb, Mississippi about 1926
He moved to Chicago about 1938
Where his name was eventually changed to Bo Diddley
He practiced the guitar everyday and sometimes into the night
Till his papa's hair began to turn white
His Pa said "Son, listen hear, I know
You can stay but that guitar has just got to go"
So he pulled his hat down over his eyes
Headed on out for them Western Skies
I think Bob Dylan said that
He hit New York City
He began to play at the Apollo in Harlem
Good scene there everybody raving
One day, one night, came a Cadillac, four head lights
Came a man with a big, long, fat, cigar said,
"C'mere son, I'm gonna make you a star"
Bo Diddley said, "Uh..whats in it for me?"
Man said, "Shut your mouth son,
play your guitar and you just wait and see"
Well, that boy made it, he made it real big
And so did the rest of the rock n roll scene along with him
And a white guy named Johnny Otis took Bo Diddleys rhythm
He changed it into hand-jive and it went like this
In a little old country town one day
A little old country band began to play
Add two guitars and a beat up saxophone
When the drummer said, boy, those cats begin to roam
Oh baby oh we oh oh
Ooh la la that rock and roll
Ya hear me oh we oh oh
Ooh la la that rock and roll
Then in the U.S. music scene there was big changes made
Due to circumstances beyond our control such as payola
The rock n roll scene died after two years of solid rock
And you got discs like, ah...
Take good care of my baby
Please don't ever make her blue and so forth
About, ah, one year later in a place called Liverpool in England
Four young lads with mop haircuts began to sing stuff like, ah...
It's been a hard days night and I've been working like a dog and so on
In a place called Richmond in Surrey, way down in the deep south
They got guys with long hair down their back singing
I wanna be your lover baby I wanna be your man yeah and all that jazz
Now we been doing this number of Bo Diddley for quite some time now
Bo Diddley visited this country last year
We were playing at the Club A Gogo in Newcastle, our home town
And the doors opened one night and to our surprise
Walked in the man himself, Bo Diddley
Along with him was Jerome Green, his maraca man,
And the Duchess, his gorgeous sister
And a we were doing this number
Along with them came the Rolling Stones, the Mersey Beats,
They're all standing around diggin' it
And I overheard Bo Diddley talkin'
He turned around to Jerome Green
And he said, "Hey, Jerome? What do you think these guys
Doin' our..our material?"
Jerome said, "Uh, where's the bar, man? Please show me to the bar..."
He turned around the Duchess
And he said, "Hey Duch...what do you think of these young guys
Doin' our material?"
She said, "I don't know. I only came across here
To see the changin' of the guards and all that jazz."
Well, Bo Diddley looked up at me and he said,
With half closed eyes and a smile,
He said "Man," took off his glasses,
He said, "Man, that sure is the biggest load of rubbish
I ever heard in my life..."
Oh Bo Diddley
Yeah Bo Diddley
Oh Bo Diddley
Yeah Bo Diddley
Yeah Bo Diddley
Yeah Bo Diddley
Oh Biddley
Yeah Bo Diddley
