Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Bo Diddley RIP

Coming back from a sort of bloggish lunch in Albuquerque with frequent commentors and dog- in- laws Paul and Nate, MDMNM of Sometimes Far Afield, his friend Amelia, and a baby hawk, we saw that the flags on the State Police hq near Socorro were at half mast.

Turns out the great old rocker Bo Diddley was dead at 79. One thing that most people don't know is that in the seventies he was a deputy sheriff in Los Lunas, which you can read about here. At that time he gave three patrol cars to the Highway Patrol, which may well be why they remember him. Ted Bakewell (see post here, more notorious for our haircuts, for a note on his uncle Father Anderson Bakewell) is now a St. Louis businessman but in his time was a roommate of Jimmy Page (of the Yardbirds and Led Zeppelin)in London, and a New Mexico musician, and remembers jamming with Bo Diddley in his trailer in the Valley when Bo was a NM lawman.

For a good YouTube of Bo Diddley playing "Mona" go here. I couldn't find one of my favorite, "Who do you love?"

UPDATE: Margory just sent this link to "Who do you love?"- on vinyl!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi Steve

Anothe part of my ( our ) joint musical history bites the dust!

I remember him as a support act on one of those joint US / UK "Blues Tours" in teh 60's, around venues like the Southend Odeon, featuring The Animals as headliners, and Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry , and the Rolling Stones as " support "!!.

Bo's style was unique ( if rather repetitive!), and we were priviledged to see him at our local Uni for a gig a few years ago - still the same garish clothes, cigar box Gretch guitar , and larger than life duckwalk!!

Happy Days

JohnnyUK

P.S. We also saw an amazing revival tour about the same time, at UEA again , featuring a ( very ) aged ,Rufus Thomas - around 85? - just about still managing to boogie with Girls from the college audience , dressed in a Mustard Yellow "Culotte suit - with turnups !!
They sure don't make e'm like that any more!!