soapbox

One of the founding fathers of Rock ‘N’ Roll (along with Chuck Berry and Elvis) has left us… More commonly known by his stage name, Bo Diddley (79) suffered a heart attack yesterday.

Any news site will have a little article, but I encourage the blog readership to invest a little time learning about the man and his music. Mick Jaggar perhaps said it best – “watching Bo Diddley was university for me.” If you want just one link, I recommend very nice obit from the Washington Post.

I only once got to see Bo Diddley in person, but what a great show it was. It was in the late 90s, maybe ‘98 or ‘99, so he was definitely over 70, but the man rocked for almost three hours – and I got to see most of it from the front row! A buddy of mine was working security but he wasn’t feeling well, so I offered to sub for him – so noble of me. I can still hear the “Bo Diddley beat”… bum bum bum bu-bum-bum on that square guitar of his, still with lightning-fast feet.

Seriously, watch some of his stuff on YouTube. I just got stuck for 20 minutes while I looked up a link. Like this.

“Bo, you don’t know Diddley.”