Bo’s Diddley Beat Made Lots of Beautiful Babies

An important event on this date kicked off what would become an indispensable element of rock-n-roll music for time immemorial. On March 2, 1955, legendary R&B master Bo Diddley entered a Universal recording studio in Chicago and burned onto vinyl his song "Bo Diddley." With it's distinctive five-accent rhythm beat, it launched a thousand rock songs. The sound sprang from traditional African clave rhythms and gave way to a style known as "hambone" - a technique of making music by slapping one's arms, legs, cheeks and chest while singing simple rhyming songs. Say the phrase, "shave and a HAIR CUT…TWO BITS" and you get a simple idea of the rhythm. Lots of Diddley-based tunes are obvious, like "Willy and the Hand Jive" and Bo's own "Who Do You Love?" But you may not realize just how many songs have been fueled by that distinctive beat. No rocker can resist it! Here's a collection of my favorite Bo Babies. Turn your speakers up loud and go crazy, man, crazy!

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Estelle Axton: The First Lady of Stax

The name Stax Records is synonymous with soul music. But did you know that the legendary label of black artists like Otis Redding, Carla Thomas, Wilson Pickett, and Isaac Hayes was co-founded by a white woman who began her career as a school teacher? In the late 1950s, Estelle Axton began investing in Satellite Records, a small label started by her brother Jim Stewart, a former bank clerk. Satellite evolved into Stax, a premiere recording studio specializing in soul, R&B, funk, jazz, and gospel music. Said Booker T. Jones of the M.G.s, "I doubt there would have been a Stax Records without Estelle Axton." The woman known as "Lady A" marketed the business, ran the Stax record shop, helped choose and develop the label's artists, and provided inspiration, advice, and encouragement to writers and musicians.

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Brian Jones: Wild Clotheshorses Couldn’t Drag Me Away

Yes, I know that Brian Jones had nothing to do with the recording of the Rolling Stones song "Wild Horses," but I couldn't resist using the pun to get your attention as I introduce my birthday tribute to the band's founder and high priest of psychedelic '60s fashion. I reckon that Brian Jones was the dandiest heterosexual of the 20th century. And one of the randiest, too, having fathered at least five children with five different women by the time he was 23. But there was also real talent behind that foppish Casanova facade. Brian was one of Britain's earliest practitioners of Delta blues. A natural musician, he was arguably the most versatile member of the band he formed and christened The Rollin Stones in 1962. And while he didn't write, sing lead, or play solo on a single song during his career, his prowess as a multi-instrumentalist was unmatched in the rock world. Today would have been his 73rd birthday.

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George, Billy, and The Beatles’ Cease-Fire

"I'll play, you know, whatever you want me to play, or I won't play at all if you don't want to me to play. Whatever it is that will please you, I'll do it." That's the way George Harrison sarcastically responded to Paul McCartney's request that he alter his style of playing on "Two of Us," a song recorded during the tension-filled sessions that would eventually spawn The Beatles' "Let it Be" album and documentary film. By the time the band entered their late '60s period, relationships among all four members had become downright hostile. The situation had become so tense that even the usually unflappable Ringo walked out in frustration during the recording of the "White Album" in 1968, planning not to return. Eleven months later, in the midst of what Paul referred to as the "Get Back" sessions, the situation had deteriorated. Following arguments with Paul, and heated exchanges with John that nearly resulted in fisticuffs, it was George's turn to break free of the band. He left the studio one day and returned with an old friend whose phenomenal playing and gregarious nature brought about some much needed harmony. No one would dare bicker while Billy Preston was on the scene.

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Queen, February 20, 1976: The Show I Missed; the Program I Prized.

Question: what's the next best thing to seeing your favorite artist perform at a rock concert? Answer: receiving a copy of the show's program from a friend who attended the gig. Okay, I know that's a stretch. Sure, you can drool over a concert program all you like, flip its pages till they fall out, and take it to bed and read it under the covers with a flashlight. But it will never sing to you. It won't make your ears ring for hours on end. And it will never blind you with pyrotechnics. Nevertheless, I experienced a true rock-shock when my friend Tony Vigliotti walked into sixth period French class and presented me with a souvenir concert program from the Queen show he'd seen the night before at Pittsburgh's Stanley Theater. Nobody but a fellow rockaholic like Tony could have imagined how much I wanted to see that concert.

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