Bo Diddley Was A Guitar Slinger
December 30, 1928-June 2, 2008
by Michael Ross
Along with Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley was one of rock n’ roll’s guitar-slinging originators. His guitar rhythms harked back to a more primitive place than the swing-meets-country style of Berry; outraged
parents in the fifties referring their children’s affection for “jungle
music” were most likely referring to Bo Diddley. The tribal “dum de
dum dum, dum dum” beat he popularized in tunes like “Bo Diddley”
and “Mona” went on to drive classic rock songs, from Buddy Holly’s
“Not Fade Away,” to the Who’s “Magic Bus,” as well as pop (George
Michael’s “Faith”)
and punk (the Clash’s
“Hateful”). Says former Johnny Winter
sideman Jon Paris,
who accompanied
Diddley on and off
over the last two
decades, “That beat
works over a funk or
a two beat groove, it
is really a universal
feel.” In fact, Diddley
often told his drummers, “Whatever you
do, don’t play the Bo
Diddley beat.”
The blues would not
have been the same
without Diddley’s
compositions like
“Before You Accuse
Me,” “Who Do You
Love,” “I’m A Man,”
“Mannish Boy,” and
“You Can’t Judge a
Book by Its Cover, ”
and artists as diverse
as Connie Francis and
the New York Dolls embraced a wealth of other Diddley tunes.
Born Otha Ellas Bates in McComb, Mississippi, he was raised by his
mother’s first cousin, Gussie McDaniel, who changed his name to
Elias McDaniel when they moved to Chicago. In the fifties Leonard
Chess signed him to his Checker label when McDaniel walked in
off of the street. Depending on whom you believe, the Bo Diddley
moniker was either bestowed upon him by blues artist Billy Boy
Arnold or derived from the “diddley bow” – a homemade, one-string
guitar of African origin. What no one disputes is that the hits started
immediately, and he spent the next five decades touring in rock n’
roll package shows as well as solo.
Diddley’s rhythmic style came from a childhood as a violinist; the
bowing inspired his rapid scratching of a few strings. His guitar was
often tuned to open E (E, B, E, G#, B, E, low to high), and capoed to
change key.
The man was almost as well known for his odd shaped guitars as
for his music. In the late fifties he used a rectangular guitar, with
the neck and the electronics from a Gretsch installed on a body that
he constructed; Gretsch later made him a similar guitar that he nick-
named “Big B.” During
the sixties he was
equally enamored of
another oddly shaped
Gretsch, the Jupiter
Thunderbird, recently
re-issued and touted
by Billy Gibbons as
the “Billy-Bo.” In the
early years these gui-
tars were run through
one of the first
effects boxes – the
DeArmond Model
60 Tremolo Control.
Later, Australian Chris
Kinman (of aftermarket
pickup fame) built a
version of the rect-
angular guitar that
Diddley dubbed “The
Mean Machine.” The
electronics included
Gibson humbuck-
ers, as well as the
circuit boards from
the onboard effects
that Diddley favored:
an EQ, a delay and a
chorus. Paris says that
on one such guitar, “There were actually slits cut in the face of the
guitar for the equalizer controls.” Diddley also occasionally played a
synthesizer guitar.
According to Paris, these guitars reflect the man’s personality.
“He really was an innovator; he brought in the blues, he brought
in Caribbean, calypso and do-wop ballads. He was experimenting all the time. He was always trying to come up with new
tunes and feels.”
By combining “jungle” rhythms with the modern technology of the
electric guitar, Bo Diddley created a sound that thrilled the youth of
post-WWII America, terrified their elders and still resonates today.
