Bo Diddley

Welcome, time travelers, to Rock and Roll Flashback!  I'm your podcast host, Jumpin' John, and in this episode I will discuss the career of guitarist and singer Ellas McDaniel, who was known professionally as Bo Diddley!

All podcasts on the Rock and Roll Flashback Podcast are produced by brothers-in-law Bill Price and "Jumpin' John" McDermott. The Podcast Theme Song, "You Essay", was written by John. It was initially recorded by Bill and John on April 1, 2004 with several revisions since then.
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Transcript

Welcome, time travelers, to Rock and Roll Flashback!  I'm your podcast host, Jumpin' John, and in this episode I will discuss the career of guitarist and singer Ellas McDaniel, who was known professionally as Bo Diddley!

Ellas Otha Bates was born in McComb, Mississippi, on December 30th, 1928.  His mother, who was only 16 at the time, gave her cousin Gussie McDaniel permission to raise her son.  Gussie eventually adopted him, and Ellas assumed her surname of McDaniel.  Gussie McDaniel moved with Ellas and her three children to the South Side of Chicago, where he was an active member of Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church.  Ellas studied the trombone and the violin.  He played in the orchestra until he was 18.  However, he was more interested in the joyful, rhythmic music he heard at a local Pentecostal Church, and he took up the guitar.

Inspired after seeing a John Lee Hooker performance, Ellas supplemented his income as by playing on street corners with friends.  By 1951 he was playing on the street with backing from Roosevelt Jackson on washtub bass and Jody Williams on guitar.  McDaniel said his school classmates gave him the name Bo Diddley, which he suspected was initially meant as an insult.  In 1951, Diddley landed a regular spot at the 708 Club on Chicago's South Side.  His repertoire was influenced by Louis Jordan, John Lee Hooker, and Muddy Waters.  In late 1954, he teamed up with harmonica player Billy Boy Arnold, drummer Clifton James, and bass player Roosevelt Jackson and recorded demos of two songs: "I'm a Man" and "Bo Diddley".  He later re-recorded the songs at Universal Recording Corporation for Chess Records.  In April 1955 Checker Records released "Bo Diddley" as a single, backed with "I'm a Man".

The song "Bo Diddley" spent two weeks at #1 on the Billboard R&B chart, eventually becoming the tenth best-selling single of 1955 on those R&B charts.  In 1998 his recording of the song "Bo Diddley" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, and it is included on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's list of "500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll".   In 2011, the A and B-side pair were added to the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry list of "culturally, historically, or aesthetically important" American sound recordings.  In 2017, the single was inducted in to the Blues Hall of Fame.  Rolling Stone magazine ranked the song "Bo Diddley" at #277 on its 2021 list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".  

The "Bo Diddley" song introduced the rhythm that became known as the Bo Diddley beat.  The Bo Diddley beat is essentially the clave rhythm, one of the most common bell patterns found in sub-Saharan African music traditions.  The song is rhythmically similar to hambone, a technique of dancing and slapping various parts of the body to create a rhythm and song.  Diddley's electric guitar, along with his backup musicians on maracas and drums, contributed to the rhythm.  Multiple other musicians would later record songs using the Bo Diddley beat.  Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away", Them's "Mystic Eyes", and The Strangeloves "I Want Candy" are just a few of the tunes that used the beat.

[Here is Bo Diddley's "Bo Diddley"]

The B-side of that single, Bo Diddley's "I'm a Man", was also influential.  In 2018, "I'm a Man" was inducted into the Blues Foundation Blues Hall of Fame as a "Classic of Blues Recording".  In 2020, the 1955 recording of "I'm a Man" by Bo Diddley on Checker Records was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.  It is ranked #369 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".  On October 11th, 1965 Epic Records released a rave-up cover of "I'm a Man".  That 1965 single was performed by the Yardbirds, with Jeff Beck on lead guitar.  The Yardbird's single peaked at #17 on the Billboard Hot 100 and reached #4 in Canada.  Bo Diddley was very impressed, and he praised the Yardbirds' cover.

On November 20th, 1955, Diddley appeared on TV's The Ed Sullivan Show.  A mixup occurred when Bo sang "Sixteen Tons" as well his self-titled hit single.  As a result, Ed Sullivan was furious and he banned Diddley from his show, reputedly saying that Diddley would not last six months.  

Other significant singles by Bo Diddley included "Who Do You Love" and  "Pretty Thing" (both in 1956), "Hey Bo Diddley" (in 1957), "Say Man" (in 1959), and "You Can't Judge a Book by the Cover" (in 1962).  Bo Diddley would only have one Top 40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, when 1959's "Say Man" reached #20.  Interestingly, "Who Do You Love?" and "Hey Bo Diddley" have no chord changes, relying on the rhythms to create the excitement, rather than having the excitement generated by harmonic tension and release.  

Diddley also released numerous albums, and between 1958 and 1963, Checker Records released 11 full-length Bo Diddley albums.  He only had one album charting on the Billboard 200 when 1962's Bo Diddley LP reached #117.  That album, Bo Diddley, was his eighth studio album, not to be confused with the 1958 album of the same name. The 1962 album was released in August 1962 in the US.  In Britain the LP was released later by Pye International Records, and it reached #11 on the UK Albums Chart.  The success of the album followed the 1963 UK package tour that Bo had begun at the beginning of the year with the Everly Brothers, Little Richard, and the Rolling Stones.  Due to the album's success in the UK, many British bands recorded songs from the record.

After moving from Chicago to Washington, D.C., Diddley built his first home recording studio in the basement of his home.  Frequented by several music artists, the studio was the site where he recorded the LP Bo Diddley Is a Gunslinger.  Diddley also produced and recorded several up-and-coming groups from the Washington, D.C. area.  One of the first groups he recorded was a local doo-wop group the Marquees, featuring a relative unknown named Marvin Gaye.

In the 1960's, Bo Diddley broke through as a crossover artist with white audiences, after appearing at the Alan Freed concerts.  However, he rarely aimed his compositions at teenagers.  Diddley did manage to capitalize on the mid-1960's surfing and beach party craze in the US, releasing the albums Surfin' with Bo Diddley and Bo Diddley's Beach Party.  These LP's featured heavy, distorted blues, played on his Gretsch guitar.

Over the decades, Diddley's performing venues ranged from intimate clubs to stadiums.  In addition to solo gigs, he also performed on stage with numerous other artists.  For example, on March 25th, 1972 he played with the Grateful Dead at the Academy of Music in New York City.  In 1985, he appeared on the Live Aid American stage to perform George Thorogood's cover of the Diddley song "Who Do You Love?".  In October 1991 in Seville, Spain, Diddley performed with Steve Cropper, B.B. King, Les Paul, Albert Collins, George Benson, and others.  That Spanish concert, filmed live, would become the Legends of Guitar documentary.  Bo joined the Rolling Stones on their 1994 concert broadcast of Voodoo Lounge, performing "Who Do You Love?" with the Stones at Joe Robbie Stadium, in Miami, Florida.

Bo Diddley also appeared in several movies and music videos.  In 1983, he made a cameo appearance as a Philadelphia pawn shop owner in the comedy film Trading Places.  He also appeared in George Thorogood's music video for the song "Bad to the Bone," portraying a guitar-slinging pool shark.  Diddley played a blues and rock musician named Axman in the 1990 comedy film Rockula.  My favorite Bo Diddley movie role was in the 1984 mocumentary film, This is Spinal Tap.  The scene takes place at a supposed Xanadu Star Theater in Cleveland, Ohio.  The members of Spinal Tap wander around lost in the bowels under the theater.  In the scene, Bo Diddley played a theater mechanic who unsuccessfully tried to give the band directions to get out to the stage.  Hello, Cleveland!

In 1996, Bo Diddley released A Man Amongst Men, his first major-label album and his final studio album.  The LP included guest artists like Keith Richards, Ron Wood, and The Shirelles.  A Man Amongst Men earned a Grammy Award nomination in 1997 for the Best Contemporary Blues Album category.  In 2005 Bo Diddley celebrated his 50th anniversary in music with successful tours of Australia and Europe and with coast-to-coast shows across North America.  His band consisted of Johnnie Johnson on keyboards, Richard Hunt on drums, and Gus Thornton on bass.  In 2006, he participated as the headliner of a grassroots-organized fundraiser concert.   That "Florida Keys for Katrina Relief" concert benefited the town of Ocean Springs, Mississippi, which had been devastated by Hurricane Katrina.  His final guitar performance on a studio album was with the New York Dolls on their 2006 album entitled One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This.  

In May 2007, Diddley suffered a stroke after a concert the previous day in Council Bluffs, Iowa.  A few months later he had a heart attack.  While recovering, Diddley returned to his hometown of McComb, Mississippi, in early November 2007, for the unveiling of a plaque devoted to him on the Mississippi Blues Trail.  On May 13th, 2007, Diddley suffered another stroke and was admitted to intensive care in Creighton University Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska.  On August 28th, 2007 in Gainesville, Florida he suffered another heart attack.  Bo Diddley died on June 2nd, 2008, of heart failure at his home in Archer, Florida, at the age of 79.

Bo Diddley achieved numerous accolades in recognition of his significant role as one of the founding fathers of rock and roll.  For his achievements, he was inducted into numerous music Halls of Fame.  Most significant were his inductions into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Rockabilly Hall of Fame (both in 1987), the Blues Hall of Fame (in 2003), and the Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame (in 2017).  In 1996 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation.  In 1998 he was honored with the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.  Bo Diddley was ranked #20 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.  The discography of Bo Diddley includes 37 singles, 24 studio albums, 24 compilation albums, 6 live albums, and several EPs.  He has also guest appeared on 5 singles and 8 albums.  He had 10 entries on the US Billboard R&B chart, and two more hits, in 1963 and 1965, on the UK Singles Chart.  

Bo Diddley achieved worldwide fame and respect as one of the founding fathers of rock and roll, and has had his songs covered by many diverse artists.  In our Rock and Roll Flashback podcast about the early Rolling Stones, Bill Price mentioned that in 1963 the Stones began their first UK tour performing Bo Diddley songs.  Both Mick Jagger and Keith Richards have cited Diddley as a major influence.  Buddy Holly, the Beatles, the Animals, George Thorogood, Syd Barrett, the Clash - the list of performers impacted by Diddley goes on and on.  Bo Diddley's use of African rhythms and his signature beat, a simple five-accent hambone rhythm, is a cornerstone of hip hop, rock, and pop music.   Diddley is also recognized for his technical innovations, including his use of tremolo and reverb effects to enhance the sound of his distinctive rectangular "Twang Machine" guitars.

Thank you for listening to this episode of Rock and Roll Flashback, where I reviewed the influential career of Ellas McDaniel, known professionally as Bo Diddley!  I'm Jumpin' John McDermott, and I will conclude this podcast with Bo Diddley's version of "I'm A Man".  So, fellow travelers, may your path be smooth and your music always be rockin'!  And until next time...Rock On!