Monday, June 02, 2008

Another Rock Pioneer Passes - RIP Bo Diddley

Along with Chuck Berry, Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis and a handful of others, Bo Diddley paved the way for what we know today as rock and roll.

I wrote more about this in my review of the Chuck Berry movie Hail! Hail! Rock and Roll, but Bo and most of the other founders of rock and roll had to overcome racism and music business vultures to do what they did, which was essentially to create and deliver a new form of music rooted in Delta and Chicago blues combined with old school country but with a beat and message that resonated with the youth of the 50s.

Fewer wild fires caught as quickly and spread so far and wide.

Today Bo passed away at age 79. See the full AP story here - a really good overview of Bo's life and influence. Nice quotes here:

Though he was upset that he never received the financial rewards he expected -- "I am owed," he told the AP, adding "a dude with a pencil is worse than a cat with a machine gun" -- he reflected modestly on the rock 'n' roll revolution he helped start.

"Well, it's no different from anything else, I guess. I started sumthin'. I just happened to be the first one," he told the British magazine Uncut in 2005. "But I never thought it would turn into what it did. Somebody had to be first, and it happened to be me."

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