RIP Bo Diddley
The AP is reporting that guitar legend Bo Diddley has passed at the age of 79. He had suffered a heart attack and a stroke in recent months and his health had never quite recovered.
Diddley is one of the Founding Fathers of guitar rock music. His trademark riff (about which I’ll say more later) became a foundational rhythm on which many successful musicians from Bo himself to Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Clapton, George Thorogood, and the Traveling Wilburys built hits. There are few guitarists who can say that nearly every guitar player alive has copied his best riff. Bo Diddley is one of them.
About that riff. Here’s how the AP reporter describes it:
His first single, “Bo Diddley,” introduced record buyers in 1955 to his signature rhythm: bomp ba-bomp bomp, bomp bomp, often summarized as “shave and a haircut, two bits.” The B side, “I’m a Man,” with its slightly humorous take on macho pride, also became a rock standard.
That paragraph isn’t entire correct. Bo Diddley’s rhythm is not the “shave and a haircut” exactly. That’s a different rhythm with an entirely different feel. Here’s the difference. Bo’s rhythm is as the AP has it but often is played: bomp ba-bomp bomp, ba-dom bomp. The “shave and a haircut” rhythm is: bomp bomp ba-bomp bomp, bomp bomp. The riff is intended to be played as a melody and it’s mostly used to finish a phrase (see the guitar solo in Extreme’s “Play with Me”, better known as the Mall Chase music from “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure” for a great example). Bo’s rhythm, which I’ve always known as, oddly enough, “the Bo Diddley”, is a pure rhythm riff that can be as easily played on the drums as it can the guitar.
Also, “I’m a Man” was neither a take on machismo or slightly humorous. Find the song and take a listen. Bo Diddley was simply telling you how it was: he’s a red-blooded tough man who loves the ladies well and that’s just the way it is.
I think that’s an awfully fine way to remember him.
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Category: In Memoriam, Music
[...] old rock icon Bo Diddley died of heart failure at his home in Florida yesterday. God rest his soul, rest in peace. Bo Diddley … when music was [...]