Bo Diddley – Called to Heaven

One of the true originals has died at 79. Let us pause and remember him with the beat that defined him:

bomp ba-bomp bomp, bomp bomp

It’s a beat and a riff so essential that it helped fuel the careers of both Buddy Holly and The Rolling Stones. Quicksilver Messenger Service practically built an entire career on it. Bo was also instrumental in inventing the use of tremelo and vibrato. A Rock God in other words. For a good obituary, go here.

Along with Chuck Berry’s signature intro, rock and roll was built on this beat. Show any musician of a certain age this album cover and they’ll get all misty-eyed. They all learned to play from hearing it.


His influence was so deep that even actors wanted to pay their respects; Dan Ackroyd put Bo in both ‘The Blues Brothers’ and ‘Trading Places’, where Bo memorably lorded it over the pawn shop.

Bo’s live show was centred around Jerome Green his maraccas player and The Duchess on bass. Want to see how good they were? Here’s Bo doing “Road Runner”:



Why was that riff so damn good? Because it was made for dancing:



Buddy Holly lifted The Beat for “Not Fade Away”, but he was cool enough to give props by recording “Bo Diddley”.



Of course, Buddy wasn’t so cool that he wrote the song – Bo wrote it as his first single. (Nothing like advertising your own brilliance.)



The Animals weren’t content just to cover a song about Bo Diddley – they wrote one of their own. “The Story Of Bo Diddley” is the kind of history lesson they should teach in school.



Bo Diddley aka Ellis McDaniel – born Dec. 30, 1928, died June 2, 2008