I Didn't Know Diddley. At least, not personally.

Bo Diddley dead.

Bo Diddley was definitley one of the founding fathers of rock and roll. Yeah, every Bo Diddley song sounded more or less the same and that was cuz of the Bo Diddley beat. Why, yes, the Bo Diddley beat was simplistic, but man, it was catchy, get yer feet to tappin' and yer butt to wigglin'. Couldn't be helped, you just had to when you heard the Bo Diddley beat.

Ok, they were simplistic songs that all sounded alike. But it must be admitted the cat had an influence. Would George Thorogood have a career without Bo Diddley (and John Lee Hooker)? You can hear the Bo Diddley beat in songs from the '50s up to the present day, and not always in artists that you would think would have a Bo Diddley beat in their repetoire. Sure, you can understand when the beat shows up in the Rolling Stones' version of Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away," and you can dig it in George Thorogood and his classic rock take on the Bo beat. And yeah, you can get into the groove when the Pretenders do "The Cuban Slide". But the Smiths? Yeah, the melancholy Brits slowed the beat down and turned it into a suicide trance on "How Soon is Now," my favorite Smiths song, not that I have many.

So, yeah, Bo was an influence. And now he's gone. Long live Bo Diddley and the Bo Diddley beat.