Rest in peace, Bo Diddley

No, Bo Diddley is not a hard rock or metal artist. But were it not for the one-chord, 2-bar beat he popularized, we might not have some incredible music by Led Zeppelin:



Guns N' Roses:



Hüsker Dü:



or the Stooges:



Even one of the songs I wrote about yesterday encompasses a Bo Diddley beat. Fact is, there's been barely any rock n' roll in history that hasn't taken from the late Ellas McDaniel, inadvertently or not. In case you're wondering, that's because Bo Diddley was a wicked guitar player, a mean songwriter and a rebel with more class and attitude than any given legion of death metal wannabes. Plus, this guy walked 47 miles on barbed-wire and used a cobra snake for a necktie.


A few years ago, I saw Bo Diddley perform live in Times Square (my college radio show that week had been an hour of all Bo Diddley and High on Fire). The overpriced, chotchke-hawking excuse for a venue was packed with middle-aged folks who occasionally looked up from their dinners to clap for the guy playing guitar. It would have been perfectly reasonable for the man who once said that he was "out to destroy the audience" to break someone's head with a square guitar, but instead he performed a lively, cheerful set that included great-sounding new songs, a few good dirty jokes and, I kid you not, a freestyle rap that was shockingly rocktacular. Oh yeah, he also played "Bo Diddley," "I'm a Man," "Mona" and a few more of the greatest rock n' roll songs ever written. In case you forgot.

But don't take my word for it--check out a shortened list of artists who've covered Bo Diddley, or some of the guys who snatched the infamous Bo Diddley beat.

Even better, check out what Iggy Pop wrote about him a few years ago.

Or best of all, let the music do the talking.