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A very sad day for fans of rock music. My introduction to Bo Diddley was in 1971 when I purchased a copy of Quicksilver Messenger Services' album "Happy Trails". An extended jam version of "Who Do You Love" took up all of Side 1, and a spacey version of "Mona" took up part of the second side. I fell in love with both songs, but I did not recognize the name Ellas McDaniel who was credited on the album with penning both tunes.
A few years later, I was in a movie theatre watching an incredibly bad flick. Just as things couldn't get any worse on the silver screen, the soundtrack pumped out a staccato guitar rhythm awash in tremolo with an other-worldly voice singing something about Bo Diddley. The sound left me completely mesmerized. I suffered through the rest of the movie just to read the credits so I could find out who the genius was behind that song. There it was, "Bo Diddley", written by Ellas McDaniel, performed by Bo Diddley. I would come to learn later that Bo Diddley's real name was Ellas McDaniel, and his originals of "Who Do You Love" and "Mona" were even better than Quicksilver's fine covers.
A lot of folks have copied his style through the years, but few could make it sound so good. Only Bo could do Bo. May God bless him.
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