Maybe I’ve told the story, but the first real rock concert I ever saw was Creedence Clearwater Revival with Tower of Power and Bo Diddley opening. $3.50 to sit in the upper level of Cobo Hall where the Pistons played back in the day. I had no interest in Bo, but Fogarty had no stage presence and I had to admit that Diddley was a true showman, oblong guitar and all. He only had one trick but it was a good one. The ultimate tribute to the shuffle beater is Quicksilver’s Happy Trails, each side dominated by a Bo Diddley cover with the reverb amped into the psychedelic dimension…
- alex 6-03-2008 2:09 am [add a comment]

hes perpetrating trance music for sure.
- bill 6-03-2008 3:26 am [add a comment]

road runner
you cant judge a book by looking at the cover
the dutchess
tnt show
the animals story of bo diddley
- bill 6-03-2008 3:15 pm [add a comment]

Also, r.i.p. Jimmy McGriff. Trentons own.
- bill 6-04-2008 3:21 am [add a comment]

Forwarded from composer/Kropotkins/Soldier String Quartet/Thai Elephant Orchestra ringmaster Dave Soldier:
Hey Brian, here's my message for NY Times obituary, but it may be more appropriate for a Bo site in FMU:
Bo was perhaps the most naturally talented musician I ever heard. He could improvise a solo for as long as he would like with no one getting bored,something nearly impossible to find in any style of music. He could speak with his guitar - I played backup guitar for him in Gainesville and interrupted him in a solo on purpose, he stopped the band and lectured me by playing microtones on the guitar that sounded like a schoolmarm lecturing. He and the late Leroy Jenkins grew up in Chicago together and played violin duos to earn money on the street. Years after I played with Bo and Leroy (separately), I got the two of them and Maureen Tucker to agree to play a trio (Maureen fell in love with music from listening to Bo, and you can hear that too) , and now really regret I couldn't figure out how to arrange it - the kings and queen of a certain kind of an apparently simple but most subtle art. Whatever his complaints against the business, he was true and kind man, full of advice for others, and developed a new language that affected musicians from Africa to Europe and Asia, and he will always one of the greatest in many styles of our country's music. your pal, Dave Soldier, New York City

While we now reel at the implications of a Bo Diddley/Leroy Jenkins/Mo Tucker trio, let's remember the greatest primitive axeman in history.