[kj] OT: Speaking of Bo Diddley...

[B. Oliver Sheppard]

Ade,


Yeah, that's an incredible video.

The thing I like about Diddley's style, I am finding out (I always 
ignored or avoided him because he seemed like someone my parents would 
like, which meant I would automatically shun it, and I missed out on 
some decent stuff because of that stubborness) -- is his really weird 
utilization of the more percussive, chunky, chunk-chunk-wokka-wokka 
aspects of the guitar that are amplified through certain types of 
distortion. And the way he effortlessly maneuvers across the fretboard 
while swinging the damn thing around. The opening of, for example, 
Killing Joke's "Tabazan," where Geordie does that weird, palm-muted 
"chukka-chukka-chunk-chunk" thing before playing outright identifiable 
notes -- that is the kind of thing I guess Diddley was going way back as 
early as the 50s..????

The Sun Records crew, god bless them, in the 1950s were more interested 
in Western-style twang for their rockabilly. I like that style, too. But 
Diddley was going down this really chugga-chugga, chikka-chikka type of 
guitar path that wasn't fully exploited until heavy metal came along, 
when you would have regular palm muted "rhythm guitar" essentially 
trying to play counterpoint to the drumming, chugging along to the 
drums. I'm not an uber-scholar, but from all I have seen, it looks like 
Diddley is one of the pioneers of that aspect of rock guitar.

That video you posted is indeed pretty incredible.

-Oliver

ade wrote:

> Excellent Olly! Here's another!

>

> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgzn7VyoqEw&NR=1

>

> We're all standing on the shoulders of giants, innit.

>

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