455. Bo Diddley, "Bo Diddley/Go Bo Diddley"

 

It's sometimes hard to keep perspective doing this.  I'm sitting in 2020, almost 2021, writing this about these two albums (later repackaged into a single unit by Chess), and I've heard all or most of these songs for most of my life and heard all the derivative acts that they've influenced, like Springsteen and the Stones and essentially any band that uses electric guitars, and you have to keep in mind that Bo Diddley invented it.  You cannot overstate the importance of these two records.

Among other innovations in rock music that we are so used to now that they are part of the language of music, Bo Diddley invented the ... wait for it ... Bo Diddley beat.  You can hear it right here, in the song "Bo Diddley."

(The man was not shy.  Besides this song, his first album, cleverly titled "Bo Diddley," also contains the songs "Hey! Bo Diddley" and "Diddley Daddy."  You're welcome to sit down with the lyrics for this album, but I must warn you they are largely about Bo Diddley and how good Bo Diddley is at sex.)

Once you know the Bo Diddley beat is the Bo Diddley beat, it is inescapable.  It's way front and center in "I Want Candy."

But also there is is, slightly more camouflaged, in Vanity 6's "Nasty Girl."

(For more, here's a great article on the Bo Diddley beat.)

You'll recognize so many songs on these albums because, like I said, they've just seeped so thoroughly into the cultural consciousness they're like the cosmic background radiation of rock.  But it is still a pleasure to hear the aforementioned "Bo Diddley" and "I'm a Man" and "Hey! Boss Man" again anytime.