ULABY: Bo Diddley drew from the sounds of the Chicago streets where he first performed. BARGE: He told me that he was working one of the air hammers in the middle of the street that makes all this terrible noise. Barge said long before Diddley worked audiences, he worked odd jobs in construction. ULABY: Some of Diddley's guitars were custom-built to his specifications by the Gretsch Company, shaped like stars or covered in fur. He loved to work on things: cars, record players, amplifiers. GENE BARGE (Former Staff Producer, Chess Records): If you know Bo Diddley, you'll know that he was a gimmickry guy. He built violins and guitars at a vocational high school and later met Gene Barge, a staffer at Chess Records. Deeply religious, she tried to steer the young man from the devil's music with violin lessons. Diddley was sent to Chicago as a child and adopted by his mother's sister. ULABY: Many of Bo Diddley's most famous songs were about Bo Diddley. DIDDLEY: (Singing) I was born one night about 12 o'clock. (Soundbite of song, "The Story of Bo Diddley") But you got to think in terms of what people's lives is based on. DIDDLEY: A story with some funny lyrics or some serious lyrics or some love-type lyrics. ULABY: But Diddley said that while rhythm was important, the secret to good songwriting lay in something else. And I think it's a tribute to Bo Diddley that it has lasted as long as it has. GURALNICK: It's almost as if he foreshadowed James Brown in the sense in which rhythm predominated over melody and over the usual conventions of pop songwriting. ULABY: Including Eric Clapton, The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix and Bruce Springsteen. PETER GURALNICK (Music Historian): That was just an invitation for people to step into. ULABY: Wherever that beat came from, music historian Peter Guralnick says that Diddley made it big enough for everyone. DIDDLEY: (Singing) Bo Diddley buy baby diamond ring. They're dancing around with their spears. Just picture dancing around a doggone(ph) big fire in the middle of them. DIDDLEY: That was basically an Indian chant. ULABY: But in a later interview with MORNING EDITION, Bo Diddley went from cowboys to Indians. GENE AUTRY (Actor, Singer): I've got spurs that jingle, jangle, jingle. (Soundbite of song, "I've Got Spurs that Jingle, Jangle, Jingle") DIDDLEY: I was trying to play "I've Got Spurs that Jingle, Jangle, Jingle" by Gene Autry… But Bo Diddley told the Public Radio show AMERICAN ROOTS he found it someplace else. ULABY: Scholars trace this pattern to church tambourines, West African drumming, and a hand-patting rhythm called hambone that goes back to slavery. BO DIDDLEY (Guitarist, Singer, Songwriter): (Singing) Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. NEDA ULABY: It's among the most distinctive beats in rock 'n' roll. NPR's Neda Ulaby has this appreciation of Bo Diddley. He was born Ellis Bates in Mississippi, and he once played that homemade guitar on street corners in Chicago until he was discovered in the mid-1950s. Bo Diddley passed away this morning in Florida of heart failure. With his homemade guitar, Bo Diddley created a sound that left an indelible impression on rock 'n' roll. One of the fathers of rock 'n' roll has died.
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