SALFORD RED
04-06-2008, 07:01 PM
Friends and colleagues expressed admiration and sadness for rock 'n' roll architect Bo Diddley, who influenced generations of musicians with his signature primal beat.
"Bo Diddley was a monumental figure in early rock 'n' roll, a huge influence on everyone," Bonnie Raitt? told USA TODAY. "He was a wonderful man, a true original musician and beloved the world over. He will be sorely missed.
Diddley, 79, who died of heart failure Monday at his home in Archer, Fla., was not as luminous a star as his labelmate Chuck Berry or contemporaries Little Richard and James Brown, but his influence is every bit as pervasive. He came to recording late, at 26, but like Berry arrived fully formed, with the double-sided No. 1 R&B hit Bo Diddley/I'm a Man displaying his trademark beat, wit, swagger and penchant for third-person references. (He would later write songs declaring that Bo Diddley was a gunslinger, a lumberjack, a lover and more.)
It was a startling record. As George Thorogood told Rolling Stone: "You listen to Bo Diddley and you sit there and you get numb." Keith Richards, whose Rolling Stones covered a number of Diddley tunes, told the same publication: "Bo was fascinatingly on the edge. There was something African going on there. His style was outrageous."
The Bo Diddley rhythm is the pulse beat of the universe. Or so it seems sometimes, so primal and basic is that 5/4 "hambone" syncopation introduced on his first, self-named 1955 hit, derived from ancient African rhythms and overlaid with eerie, tremolo guitar.
http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/news/2008-06-02-diddley-obit_N.htm
"Bo Diddley was a monumental figure in early rock 'n' roll, a huge influence on everyone," Bonnie Raitt? told USA TODAY. "He was a wonderful man, a true original musician and beloved the world over. He will be sorely missed.
Diddley, 79, who died of heart failure Monday at his home in Archer, Fla., was not as luminous a star as his labelmate Chuck Berry or contemporaries Little Richard and James Brown, but his influence is every bit as pervasive. He came to recording late, at 26, but like Berry arrived fully formed, with the double-sided No. 1 R&B hit Bo Diddley/I'm a Man displaying his trademark beat, wit, swagger and penchant for third-person references. (He would later write songs declaring that Bo Diddley was a gunslinger, a lumberjack, a lover and more.)
It was a startling record. As George Thorogood told Rolling Stone: "You listen to Bo Diddley and you sit there and you get numb." Keith Richards, whose Rolling Stones covered a number of Diddley tunes, told the same publication: "Bo was fascinatingly on the edge. There was something African going on there. His style was outrageous."
The Bo Diddley rhythm is the pulse beat of the universe. Or so it seems sometimes, so primal and basic is that 5/4 "hambone" syncopation introduced on his first, self-named 1955 hit, derived from ancient African rhythms and overlaid with eerie, tremolo guitar.
http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/news/2008-06-02-diddley-obit_N.htm