Bo Diddley baby, 500 percent natural man

This post is an overdue farewell to the great Bo Diddley, who died last week at the age of 79. Diddley only had one or two hits back in the 1950s, but he was one of the greatest and most original guitarists of all time.

How great was he? Let me put it this way:

• The Bo Diddley Beat has been used by everyone from the Rolling Stones to the Clash to Grease. How many other musicians do you know who have a beat named after them?
• His first and biggest hit song was called "Bo Diddley", and he followed it up with other titles like "Hey Bo Diddley" and "Bo Diddley is a Gunslinger". (see also the title of this post, taken from his song "500% More Man") It takes a big ego to do that, and an even bigger talent to back it up.
  
• The lyrics to "Say Man" include one of the earliest known uses of the phrase "whupped with an ugly stick".
  
• Speaking of lyrics, he was also a highly underrated songwriter. For example:

I walk 47 miles on barbed wire,
use a cobra snake for a necktie,
got a brand new house by the roadside
made out of rattlesnake hide.
Got a brand new chimney laid on top
made out of human skull.
Now come on take a little walk with me Darling
and tell me who do you love?

Now THAT is rock and roll, Bret.

Need more proof? Youtube has a lot of good videos of Bo in action, but this was my favorite:


Note the famous home-made electric guitar.

Also worth hearing, here are links to performances of my 3 favorite Bo Diddley songs:

1. Who Do You Love? - featuring the above-quoted lyrics.

2. You Can't Judge a Book

3. Road Runner - The hair alone makes this one worth embedding:



Meanwhile, in a highly appropriate coincidence, Rolling Stone just put out their list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time. Of course, lists like this are all about making people argue with them, but I can't fathom how Nirvana (much as I like that song) came in ahead of "Voodoo Child" and "Layla", nor do I understand how "People Get Ready" by the Impressions (again, I song I dearly love) came in at all.

My biggest complaint with the list, however: not one Bo Diddley song, except for a cover of "Mona" coming in at #88.