“Rock and Roll: Music for the neck downwards.” - Keith Richards, The Rolling Stones
“Rock and Roll: The most brutal, ugly, desperate, vicious form of expression it has been my misfortune to hear.” - Frank Sinatra
Rock ‘n roll giant Bo Didley was a ‘stand-up-when-they-say-sit-down’ kind of a guy.
With his demise last week at age 79, America lost a music rebel with a cause.
Didley’s name is often mentioned in the same breath with Elvis Presley as one of the creators of rock ‘n roll. But, the two men were very different. Elvis allowed himself to be filmed from the waist up in order to be on the Ed Sullivan Show. Bo Didley yanked
Sullivan’s chain while performing live on the show in 1955 when he sang “Hey, Bo Didley” instead of a song that Sullivan wanted and expected by Tennessee Ernie Ford called “Sixteen Tons.”
Diddley was working as a sheriff’s deputy in Los Lunas, New Mexico in the 1970s while Elvis made his comeback. Diddley claimed he never received most of the money he earned during his career. He said he was paid a flat fee for his recordings, never receiving royalties. He worked up until last May when he suffered a major stroke during a concert performance.
During the heyday of the British musical invasion, the Rolling Stones were raking it in with a remake of Diddley’s “Not Fade Away,” and the Yardbirds claimed a hit with “I’m a Man.”
But only belatedly was Diddley recognized as a wildly copied innovator and pioneer in rock ‘n roll music. His influence on the electric guitar to which he added reverb and tremelo capabilities continues to this day.
When Diddley made a sneaker commercial with two-sport star Bo Jackson in 1989, the result was newfound attention for the musical giant. “Bo, you don’t know diddly,” Diddley kids a bemused Jackson when he picks on a guitar.
The Nike shoe commercial was a sweet, if ironic, success for Diddley, introducing him to a new generation of young fans after decades without the recognition he felt he deserved.
In 1987, Diddley was inducted in the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame and presented the award by ZZ Top. The little old band from Texas members credited Diddley with teaching them “to put fur on our guitars.”
He performed at President Bush’s Inaugural Gala in 1989, and appeared at the Democratic National Convention celebration for Bill Clinton in 1992.
During his funeral in Florida Saturday, Diddley was also remembered for giving charity concerts and working with the homeless and youth groups.
At the funeral, he was celebrated as man who lived a long life and lived it well.
In the end, it is Didley’s music that will endure.
Those who love the music of The Rolling Stones, Eric Burdon and the Animals, George Thorogood, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, The Who, and Buddy Holly, and countless other tub thumbing rock and rollers, now know that they love Bo Diddley, too.
