Bo Diddley was a founder of rock and roll, and the beat he invented drove much of the music that followed. Born Otha Ellas Bates, he passed on June 2. Read the Times obit
Where did his name come from? There are different recollections, but SL suspects a one-stringed instrument popular in Mississippi, where Bo came up, called a diddley bow.
We backed into Mr. Diddley once, literally, on a Delta flight. We begged pardon, he was gracious, and when we said “Bumpety-bump” you should have seen him grin. (It’s from Mona, his 1957 classic, the flip side of Hey, Bo Diddley.)
Bo Diddley knew something about creativity. He once said: “You cannot say what people are gonna like or not gonna like. You have to stick it out there and find out! If they taste it, and they like the way it tastes, you can bet they’ll eat some of it.”
