FFEJWORLD:

UPDATED: spelling checked, content added.

Ellis Bates, who was Bo Diddley was 79.

Otha McDaniel, who was Bo Diddley was 79.

Mr. Diddley claimed many different names as his real name, all usually being some variant of Ellis, Otha, Bates and McDaniel. He also told many different versions of how he got the nick name Bo Diddley (during telling one version of the story at a show, in which he claimed Bo DIddley was a curse word, someone in the audience yelled out “WHAT DOES IT MEAN?” and he yelled back “it means I fuck up people who interrupt my story”).

It doesn’t really matter, his real name was Bo Diddley. 

There is lot being left out of today’s obits is how he was the Great Black Menace, the Despoiler of White Woman, The Breaker of the Rules. Rock and Roll was dangerous, teh same people who ailed at comic books were out to shut down rock. Bo was dangerous. Bo Diddley was a Gunslinger, Chuck Berry was a hair dresser (no lie, Chuck really was a hair dresser).

Another thing left out of the obits, glossed over or misstated was his guitars and his sound. He was the first rocker to get a major guitar company to custom make him on off guitars (Gretch). He claimed al the Gretch’s had been stolen from him or lost, and kept patronizing the smaller custom makers, like Tom Holmes. I’ve seen him play guitars with LEDs that flashed his name. He made his own effects, famously fashioning a tremolo out of a wind up alarm clock. He experimented in the studio back in the 50s, and kept on doing so his entire career. One time I saw him do a Pat Metheny style solo using Metheny’s signature sound, another time I saw him play around with a harmonizer. His sound was as important as his beat, and hugely influential. We wouldn’t have had Buddy Holly or Marc Bolen with out him…