Bo Diddley, 1928-2008

Posted by Dock Ellis as Guest Author

You may not be familiar with his work, but Bo Diddley was a rock & roll pioneer on par with Chuck Berry, Carl Perkins, and that cracker from Memphis who used to wear a white jumpsuit. It’s a shame that in an age when that dumbass from American Idol gets called a “rocker”, we’re losing the old guard when we need them more than ever.

About 15 years ago I was working for a PA company in Denver, and we got hired to do a 20th wedding anniversary party at the Jerome hotel in Aspen. The customer was a wealthy developer who wanted to show off how rich he was by throwing a lavish party- standard issue stuff. The talent included the Spinners and Bo Diddley.

There was a catered lunch for the crew, and as I sat down to eat Bo walked in, carrying his square guitar case. He’d just gotten in from the airport.

“Hey man, can I grab a sandwich?” he asked.

“Sure” I said, “but they’ve got a hospitality suite for you down the hall if you want”

“Aw, fuck that- I’d rather eat with y’all if it’s OK”

So that’s how I had lunch with Bo Diddley. He was really cool- we shot the shit for awhile, and he told me that he hated doing corporate gigs being background music for rich people, but the money was too good to pass up. I told him I completely understood.

The gig itself was predictably boring. The entertainment is never the primary focus at events like these, it really is just like muzak. Bo was playing with a pickup function band from Denver, and like all such bands they were lame as a three legged horse. He had a couple new songs he was doing, and he was visibly frustrated that no one was paying any attention to his performance, and that his band wasn’t capable of generating any enthusiasm anyway.

Then, he broke a string. They finished up the song, and Bo started to restring. The FOH engineer (I was just a stage tech that night) muted his mic, but Bo was playing through a (rented) JC120. Just as he started to tune up, he cranked that thing wide open.JC120s are very, very loud. Bo then serenaded the monied elite of Aspen with his own special version of that old Chinese folk song Tu Ning for about five minutes. Every time he got the tuning close, he’d knock it out again and start over. It was hilarious. People started clapping their hands over their ears and storming out, and in the end, he pretty much cleared the hall.

He wasn’t done, though. After giving up on tuning (it was even more out of tune than when he’d started), he started beating on the guitar. He wasn’t really playing notes or chords, it was just a percussive roar of pure aggression. It sounded like a jet engine about to explode- Sonic Youth had nothing on this. Then, he stepped up to the mic and started screaming. No lyrics or melody, just a primal wail with a few choice profanities thrown in.The guys in the pickup band looked like deer in a spotlight. They just froze in horror as retirement age Bo started careening across the stage, duckwalking and doing Pete Townshendesque windmills. Finally, the drummer started in with the trademark Bo Diddley beat, and the other guys joined in. Bo then started playing slide with his mic stand. It was an apocalypse of explosive cacophony.

Finally, Bo leaned his guitar against the amp and stormed off stage. The guitar screamed with feedback for about a minute until the guitarist with the pickup band switched the amp off. I have never seen anything that embodied the pure rebellious spirit of rock & roll more than Bo Diddley did that night in Aspen. Rest in peace, brother.