With his stocky build and his thick glasses, Bo Diddley didn't look like a typical rock'n'roll star. The rectangular-bodied electric guitar he played didn't look like the instruments other rock'n'rollers played. The beat he favored, which came to be known as the Bo Diddley beat -- three strokes, then a rest, then two more -- was not a typical rock'n'roll rhythm.
But Diddley, who died yesterday at age 79, was one of the architects of rock'n'roll, his influence rivaled only by artists such as Chuck Berry, Little Richard and Fats Domino.
Songs he wrote, like "Who Do You Love?," "Road Runner" and "Mona," are part of the basic rock repertoire, while his 1959 hit "Say Man" -- a series of good-natured insults, traded with percussionist Jerome Green, over a beat -- looked forward a few decades to hip-hop. The Bo Diddley beat has been recycled endlessly, in songs like Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away," the Who's "Magic Bus," U2's "Desire" and Bruce Springsteen's "She's the One."
Diddley died of heart failure at his home in Archer, Fla., spokeswoman Susan Clary said. He had suffered a heart attack in August, three months after suffering a stroke while touring in Iowa. Doctors said the stroke affected his ability to speak, and he had returned to Florida to continue rehabilitation.
Diddley's pounding, relentless beat, combined with his distorted guitar tone and howling vocals, gave his music a primal quality that made it rank among the deepest blues and the hardest rock.
Diddley was born Ellas Bates in McComb, Miss., but he later was adopted by his mother's cousin and took the name Ellis McDaniel. When he was 5, his family moved to Chicago.
His first instrument was the violin, but he soon switched to guitar and, as a teenager, became a street musician.
He will be sadly missed--his music got an old fart like me through a lot of crap! May he rest in peace.
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