Goodbye to one of the giants of the original rock 'n' roll: Bo Diddley.

He was 79. Thanks for all the great music and for that Bo Diddley beat:

It can be found in Buddy Holly’s “Not Fade Away,” Johnny Otis’s “Willie and the Hand Jive,” Steppenwolf’s “Magic Carpet Ride,” The Who’s “Magic Bus,” Bruce Springsteen’s “She’s the One” and U2’s “Desire,” among hundreds of other songs.

Note the audio clips in the sidebar at the link showing the beat in those all those songs. The whole obituary — by Ben Ratliff — is well worth reading. Did he invent that beat? We're told that the children’s game "hambone" had a similar beat. (Here's some hambone.)

Bo Diddley's original name was Otha Ellas Bates, and later Ellas B. McDaniel. He studied classical violin when he was 7, began guitar at 12, and kept studying violin until he was 15. "My technique comes from bowing the violin, that fast wrist action."

His first band was the Hipsters, later the Langley Avenue Jive Cats. His first single was "Bo Diddley," in 1955, and here you can see him playing it in 1966:



He lived a long time, but it's sad to see one of the last of the originators of rock 'n' roll leave us.