Rounded Rectangles

By Parker FlickingerDiversity in American MusicNovember 2013

Bo Diddley His Story, Music and Legacy

Bo Diddley's Biography

Image retrieved from: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/03/arts/music/03diddley.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Bo Diddley was born on December 30th,1928 in McComb, Mississippi, with the name Ellas Otha Bates. He was adopted by a sharecropping family and his name was changed to Ellas McDaniel.

Image retrieved from: http://www.idcide.com/citydata/ms/mccomb.htm

Ellas moved with his family to the Southside of Chicago. While in Chicago, Ellas began to study violin. In grammar school Ellas earned the nickname Bo Diddley after the African single-stringed instrument: the diddley bow.

Images retrieved from: http://forgottenchicago.com/forum/5/3312/page=1/_subject_http://www.phantomgalleries.com/SJ/2011/04/

A diddley bow.

In Chicago, African-Americans were segregated to the South Side. This led to overcrowding and crime in the neighborhoods. This also led to a thriving African-American music scene.

One of Chicago's crowded African-American tenements, circa 1950.Image retrieved from:http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/african/afam011.html

When Bo Diddley entered vocational school he learned how to build violins and guitars. At age fifteen, Bo built his first square bodied guitar. When he was not in school, Bo was playing guitar on the streets. Finally in 1951, Bo played in his first club, the 708 Club. After this, he regularly played in clubs in the South Side.

A square bodied guitar similar to the ones built and played by Bo Diddley.Image retrieved from: http://spyvibe.blogspot.com/2013/09/bo-diddley-go-go.html

Bo Diddley was playing songs that he had composed or picked up from the African American community. These were blues, R&B and folk tunes. In 1955, Leonard Chess signed Bo Diddley to be a recording artist at Checker records. Later that year, Bo Diddley released his single song Bo Diddley. This song became number one on the R&B charts.

Image retrieved from: http://www.raucousrecords.com/t-shirts-and-clothing_105/checker-records-t-shirt_10100.aspx

Throughout the 1950's Bo Diddley released several hit songs including I'm a Man which many regard as a blues-rock classic and Say Man which hit the Top 20 pop hits.

Image retrieved from: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/artists/bo-diddley/biography

Throughout the late 1950's and early 1960's, Bo Diddley toured the nation with his band, including his famous half-sister guitar accompanist The Duchess.

Image retrieved from: http://record-fiend.blogspot.com/2011/01/bo-diddley-bo-diddley-company-checker.html

Between the 1950's and 1970's, many other Rock and Roll artists recorded Bo Diddley's songs such as: Before You Accuse Me, Diddy Wah Diddy, Cadillac, Don't Let it Go, Hey Bo Diddley, Mona, I Can Tell, Pretty Thing, I'm Looking For a Woman, Who Do You Love?,Oh Yeah!, and You Can't Judge a Book By Its Cover.These artists included: The Rolling Stones, The Pretty Things, Eric Clapton, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Buddy Holly, The Beatles, The Animals and The Grateful Dead.

Throughout the 1960's and 1970's, Bo Diddley continued to tour through the US and Europe. He also occasionally released albums in conjunction with other musicians including Muddy Waters and Little Walter. An example of this was their Super Blues album.

Image retrieved from: http://www.kalamu.com/bol/2006/08/20/howlin%E2%80%99-wolf-muddy-waters-bo-diddley-%E2%80%9Csweet-little-angel%E2%80%9D/

Throughout the 1970's Bo Diddley toured through Europe.He was honored by the 1976 tribute album The 20th Anniversary of Rock and Roll. In the late 1970's and 1980's Bo Diddley appeared in several films including Let The Good Times Roll, Trading Places and the music video of George Thorogood's Bad to the Bone.

Bo Diddley continued to have many musical successes in his later years. In 1987, Bo Diddley was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He also won numerous awards such as Lifetime achievement awards from the National Association of Recording Arts and Sciences and the Rhythm and Blues Foundation. Rolling Stone Magazine ranked Bo Diddley number 20 on their list of Greatest Artists of All Time.

Image retrieved from: http://www.myfonts.com/newsletters/cc/200804.html

Bo Diddley continued to create music until the end of his life. In 1996, Diddley along with musicians Ron Wood, Keith Richards, and the Shirelles created the album, A Man Amongst Men. In 2006, Diddley organized a fund raiser for Ocean Springs, Mississippi, which was damaged by Hurricane Katrina.

Image retrieved from: http://avaxhome.ws/music/rock/bo_diddley_man_amongst_men.html

Bo Diddley passed away in his home in Archer, Florida on June 2, 2008.

Bo Diddley's Influence On Rock and Roll

Throughout his career Bo Diddley made important contributions to the genre of Rock and Roll. In the 1950s, DJ Alan Freed, who first used the phrase rock and roll to introduce young white audiences to R&B, played Bo's music on his radio show.

One of Bo's foremost contributions to Rock and Roll was his use of the bump-ba-bump-bump...bump-bump beat. This rhythm became known as The Diddley Beat. This was used in Bo Diddley's classic songs such as You Can't Judge a Book by its Cover.

Country musician Todd Snider reflected Bo Diddley's influence: "There are four important things about Bo Diddley that I hope everybody knows. The first, of course, is that he invented a beat. Second, and less known, his song 'Bo Diddley' was a first in that his name was the title and chorus which, in my opinion, makes him one of the inventors of rap. Third, three months before Elvis Presley played (on) Ed Sullivan, Bo Diddley did. He was told to play a different song than 'Bo Diddley' and said he would, but when the cameras rolled he played 'Bo Diddley,' thus inventing rock 'n' roll's attitude. Fourth and most important, he was so sexy that he told Arlene he had a chimney made out of human skulls -- and she still went for a walk with him."

Image retrieved from: http://www.toddsnider.net/

Blues musician George Thorogood emulated Bo Diddley's music and style: "No artist has fascinated me more than Bo Diddley. I was fascinated with this sound and this thing that was Bo Diddley.... I was amazed by the sound of this guy who sat on one chord, maybe two. But, like James Brown, he could do one chord for 15 minutes and it never gets boring. That's where I learned my whole routine from. I mean, what is 'Bad to the Bone' except, really, Bo Diddley?"

Image retrieved from: http://www.last.fm/music/George+Thorogood

How was Bo DiddleyDisempowered?

Bo Diddley was from a poor family, and he grew up in America during an era of segregation and discrimination against African-Americans. He did not have access to an equal education.

Image retrieved from: http://www.mrnussbaum.com/civil_war/jim_crow_laws.htm

Bo Diddley did not understand about royalties, and how musicians can continue to make money from royalties when other artists record their songs. Bo needed money badly and unwisely trusted the record company to look out for his interests. He sold his songs for low one-time fees. Because of this, when dozens of musicians later recorded hit covers of Bo's songs, he did not amass a fortune. White record company owners earned the money that was rightfully Bo's.

One famous example of other artists covering a Bo Diddley song: The song Roadrunner, from the Beatles album of the same name, was written by Bo Diddley and was part of his album I'm a Man.

Image retrieved from: http://www.thebtls.co.uk/roadrun.htm

Bo Diddley, like all African American performers of the 1950's, was not paid as well as White musicians of the time. Poverty and discrimination forced many African-American artists to accept unfair contracts. In his early career, Bo Diddley could not afford managers and lawyers to advocate his rights with record companies and performance venues.Besides being shortchanged financially, many African American musicians were not given proper credit when their songs were used by white artists. Bo Diddley was also disempowered by how he did not receive credit to his songs.

Even to this day, websites such as Ultimate Guitar and Azlyrics.com credit Bo Diddley's songs to the artists who covered them. An example of this is Bo Diddley's Before You Accuse Me, credited to Eric Clapton.

Image retrieved from: http://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/e/eric_clapton/before_you_accuse_me_crd.htm

In Conclusion:

Bo Diddley may have been dis-empowered during his early musical career, however Bo Diddley provided invaluable contributions to the field of Rock and Roll music. Fortunately, Bo Diddley was recognized later in life and posthumously.

Works Cited

Author Unknown. Bo Diddley Biography. Rolling Stone Magazine. 2013. Web. 23 Nov 2013.Before You Accuse Me Chords By Eric Clapton. N.d. Ultimate Guitar.com Web. 23 Nov 2013.Bo Diddley Cover Songs. The Covers Project. 2009. Web. 23 Nov 2013.Crawford, R. . An Introduction to America's Music. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., print. Dean, Bill. Early Rocker Bo Diddley Dies at 79. The Gainesville Sun. June 3, 2008. Web. 23 Nov 2013.

Works Cited Cont.

George Thorogood And The Destroyers Lyrics. 2000. AZLyrics.com Web. 23 Nov 2013.Graff, Gary. Musicians reflect on Bo Diddley's influence. Thomson Reuters. June 2, 2009. Web. 23 Nov 2013.Michellini, Jorge. Bo Diddley Hey! Bo Diddley 1964. 14 Sept 2010. YouTube LLC. Web. 23 Nov 2013.Moore, Kimberly C. Bo Diddley's Estate in Limbo. 19 Feb 2011. Gainesville.com. Web. 23 Nov 2013.Schuna, Art. Bo Diddley Interview. 27 Nov 2006. WORT 89.9 fm. Web. 23 Nov 2013.