thorogood's is the version in my head, tho'
Bo Diddley 1928-2008
My brother named his son Jerome after the great Bo Diddley song Bring It To Jerome about Bo's maraccas shaker Jerome Green.
Remember practically all those British r&b bands had a vocalist or harp player who doubled as a maraccas shaker ( Stones, Pretty Things, Downliners Sect etc etc) That was all down to Bo.
I will miss him terribly. One of the very first LPs I bought was Bo Diddley's 16 All Time Greatest Hits on Pye International. Ah, memories!!
This says it all for me..
"Those who learned from him were the ones who reaped the rewards. And when they heard of his death this week, every one of them - the ones with mansions, as well as those who let the drum kit go back to the hire-purchase company the day they got a proper job - should have felt a pang of conscience, along with the fathomless gratitude for a gift beyond price."
Richard Williams in the Guardian
Bo Diddly was massively influential, pretty much every major rock artist from the sixties to the nineties was using his ideas whether they knew it or not.
The fact that other people's versions leap to mind first is a sign of how underated he really was, something that I imagine will change now.
Dave Alvin of The Blasters wrote this for the LA Times:
Quote:
The night Bo Diddley banned the Beat
How do you play with a legend without doing it the legendary way? By learning his lesson of keeping himself new.
By Dave Alvin, Special to The Times
June 4, 2008
"Whatever you do, do not play 'the Beat!' "That was the first thing Bo Diddley said to us before we walked onto the stage of the Music Machine club in West L.A. for two sets in 1983. We were a mix of members of the Blasters and X who had agreed, with great enthusiasm, to back up one of our greatest heroes for free at a benefit show for the Southern California Blues Society.
http://www.latimes.com/theguide/music/la-et-boappreciation4-2008jun04,0,2987253.story
hey i've got three stories like that (sorry, i know that sounds like one-up-ship but i don't know how else to phrase it)
1: this friend said "let's go see liberace before it's too late", and then it was too late.
2: i said "let's go see roy buchanan before it's too late" so we did, then he hanged himself later on that tour
3: i had tickets to see joy division at their first US show, but he hanged himself the night before
so i know your pain, emma 
David in Atlanta wrote:
And the moral of that tale is, do not sell concert tickets to newyawka.
yeah, i've got the fuckin touch of death
David in Atlanta wrote:
Good to meet you the other day comrade. Wish you had time to stick around.
cheers and same to you. i really couldn't stay, the wife had "plans" 
ps i read the CTC newsletter. randy's comment hit it on the head: when there's trouble, bail out the company
he Richard Williams article that Battlescarred refers to is well worth a read
http://music.guardian.co.uk/jazz/story/0,,2283561,00.html
We did a tribute to Bo Diddley at the Plough on Monday - a version of Mona using just guitar,harp and assorted percussion. I was barred from playing the piano on this one so played those two sticky things you bang together and got the chance to prance about on the stage.
Conor! YES it is Very Wrong, Very Wrong Indeed!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=zBAJXyF1HVc
newyawka wrote:
...ps i read the CTC newsletter. randy's comment hit it on the head...
I don't have to sit here and take this shit, you know.
newyawka wrote:
David in Atlanta wrote:
The Shanghai Dailyyou're a subscriber?
edit: ps, a wise man once said of the good old days, that they were more old than good.
I walked 47 miles of barbed wire
I use a cobra snake for a necktie_
I got a brand new house on the roadside
made from rattlesnake hide
I got a brand new chimney made on top
made out of a human skull
Now come on, take a little walk with me
Arlene and tell me
who do you love?_
I've got a tombstone hand and a graveyard mind
I'm just twenty-two and I don't mind dyin'_
Who do you love…”