Review: The Bo Diddley Beat

Subject: Review: The Bo Diddley Beat
From: Tweed
Date: 15 Mar 03 - 01:28 PM

The Originator, Bo Diddley, was in town last nite and I had the pleasure of seeing this man entertain a packed room of drunken white folks in Hawaiian shirts. He is a force of nature.
The Bo Diddley Beat/Revue

Yerz,
Tweed

Subject: RE: Review: The Bo Diddley Beat
From: Hippie Chick
Date: 15 Mar 03 - 01:35 PM

Made me hot just reading it, Tweed!

Subject: RE: Review: The Bo Diddley Beat
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 15 Mar 03 - 02:09 PM

Hey, Tweed! I wisht I coulda been there!

With all due respect to Mr. Diddley, though, he sure didn't invent the beat, any more than Little Richard "invented" rock and roll.

Back in the early fifties, Red Saunders cut a record called Hambone (which I still have.) He got a bunch of black kids together and they did a song with the identical beat (which they sure didn't "invent",) keeping rhythm by slapping their hands, thighs and other parts of their body that a gentleman doesn't mention in public, and popping their cheeks with their fingers. It's a great record with many shared lyrics with Bo Diddley (the recording) and Mockingbird. The rhythm goes back long before that.

A few years ago, they released a CD of "Bo Diddley" beat songs by current artists that had some great stuff on it. Not Fade Away (by Buddy Holly) is on there and is the same beat, and similar vintage.
And, anyone remember Willie And The Hand Jive, by the Johnny Otis review?

It's a great beat..

Jerry

Subject: RE: Review: The Bo Diddley Beat
From: Tweed
Date: 15 Mar 03 - 02:36 PM

That's all true, Jerry, but tell me this: Whose picture pops in yore mind first when you hear "The BEAT"? If you tell me Johnny Otis or Red Saunders I'll suspect thet yore bein' untruftful wif old Tweedzrzz. ;~)

Yerz,
Tweed

Subject: RE: Review: The Bo Diddley Beat
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 15 Mar 03 - 02:40 PM

Gotta be honest, Tweedster... Uncle Bo pops in my mind first. And if it didn't he'd tell me.. :-)

I luvs Bo Diddley..

Jerry

Subject: RE: Review: The Bo Diddley Beat
From: John Hindsill
Date: 15 Mar 03 - 02:48 PM

I remember when Bo Diddley hit the scene in the mid 1950s that the local (Los Angeles) jocks worried if the kids could dance to that beat. Shows t' go what they knew!

Subject: RE: Review: The Bo Diddley Beat
From: MARINER
Date: 15 Mar 03 - 05:09 PM

The first time I heard that beat was on the first album I ever bought "The Johnnie Otis Show" a phoney "live" album , but the Hambone Kids certainly used it long before that. Now, can anyone tell me what famous soul star was a member of The Hambone Kids? Was it Dee Clark, or Joe Tex? This thread has got me thinking about it, I can't remember and it's driving me crazy! Sorry for the creep!

Subject: RE: Review: The Bo Diddley Beat
From: Tweed
Date: 15 Mar 03 - 05:23 PM

I did a search and found this about Red Saunders and the Hambone Kids, Mariner. It was Dee Clark after all.

Red Saunders & His Orch. With Dolores Hawkins & The Hambone Kids (Members Red Saunders, Fip Ricard, Sonny Cohn, Harlan "Booby" Floyd, John Avant, Riley Hampton, Leon Washington, Mckinley Easton, Earl Washington, Jimmy Richardson And ?, Plus Dolores Hawkins. The Hambone Kids Were Delecta "Dee" Clark, Sammy Mcgrier And Ronny Strong)

Okeh 6862 - Hambone / Boot 'Em Up - 1952


Link to the rest, but watch the popups! They come at you fast at this place

Subject: RE: Review: The Bo Diddley Beat
From: greg stephens
Date: 15 Mar 03 - 07:08 PM

The history of this beat is wonderful. Examples that instantly spring to mind are the distinctive last two bars of the good old English hornipe, and the claves rhythm that underpins so much Latin/Caribbean music( Sometimes as in teh Bo Diddley rhythm, sometimes with the two bars reversed in the rumba version as in the classic Peanut Vendor". The rhythm was stepped out by dancers in Cumberland, dancing the Cumberland Square Eight, when the people tapped the floor for the last two bars of the figure, before starting out on the next.
The Kurds from Iraq I have been playing with use this a lot on the drums, particularly as a finishing flourish at the end of a song. A Punjab Sikh drummer taiught us some village festival drumming recently, and he used this rhythm(which he called Western) as one of his exercises. And in England it is used universally when knocking on someone's door to indicate "this is a friend visiting, not the taxman or the police". I am sure other examples can be found wherever. I think this rhythm ranks with Indo-European languages, the invention of agriculture, or the idea that neighbouring tribes enjoy unnatural relations with sheep, as one of the deep things that vast swathes of human culture have in common.
"How's your father?
All right
How's your sister?
She might"

Subject: RE: Review: The Bo Diddley Beat
From: Tweed
Date: 15 Mar 03 - 07:24 PM

Jeeziss Greg, only on Mudcat could a person place a link to plug an artist and a favorite bluesclub and have it creep off into Kurdish drummers havin' sexual congress wif a sheep.
Well okay...mebbe on the tweedboard, and only on a full moon, but not many other places thet I know of....

Tweed

Subject: RE: Review: The Bo Diddley Beat
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 15 Mar 03 - 09:30 PM

I first saw Bo perform in 1970. A friend had an extra ticket to a 50's rock-n-roll revival type concert and I agreed to go just to have something to do. I was into real heavy Hendrix/Led Zeppelin type rock at the time and I was pretty sure I'd just be bored 'cause I was way to cool for that 50's shit. Bo blew my socks off. Bo was cool.

Bo is still cool. Bo is so cool that a few years ago he, a Rock-n-Roller, was the headline act at the Florida Folk Festival. Bo rocked.

Bo does a helluva lot of playing for free for charities in the Gainesville area. Bo is one helluva nice guy.

The fact that Bo Didley is a fellow Floridian sorta cancels out the fact that Jeb Bush is one too.

Bruce

Subject: RE: Review: The Bo Diddley Beat
From: Tweed
Date: 15 Mar 03 - 10:53 PM

Hey Bruce,
When you saw that rock and roll revival show all them years ago, did he have a woman in his band who played/humped the bass? I never saw nothin' to compare with that performance. Man that gal had rhythm. Sounds like the same show I went to when I first saw him play. Him and another guy were standing around near the gate at the Fairgrounds Coliseum in Indy and I went and got his autograph for my high school sweety. Even got to shake his hand. The other guy with the jheri curls and bell bottoms turned out to be Chuck Berry but I didn't even recognise him with out a suit and tie on.....what a dumbass kid!

Yerz,
Tweed

Subject: RE: Review: The Bo Diddley Beat
From: alanabit
Date: 16 Mar 03 - 07:23 AM

You sure hear that rhythm everywhere. It turned up in U2's "Desire" and George Michael's "Faith" a few years back. No doubt I would hear it in modern pop music these days too if I kept the radio on.

Subject: RE: Review: The Bo Diddley Beat
From: Metchosin
Date: 16 Mar 03 - 11:17 AM

I've also heard the Beat also referred to as "a shave and a haircut" beat......Love to dance to this stuff! Wonderful to hear that old Bo Diddley is still hamboning it.

Subject: RE: Review: The Bo Diddley Beat
From: Ian Darby
Date: 16 Mar 03 - 07:23 PM

"shave and a haircut, two bits"

I don't know what a bit is, but I've got a tape of him at the Seville Guitar Legends Festival performing with a load of guitar wizards.

He makes the best entrance ever and milks the crowd for all its worth, he said in an interview that he opened the door with THAT beat, and everyone rushed through while he was still holding the handle...

I wonder who made those weird shaped Cigar box guitars for him?

Subject: RE: Review: The Bo Diddley Beat
From: mkebenn
Date: 17 Mar 03 - 07:36 AM

Gretch

Subject: RE: Review: The Bo Diddley Beat
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 17 Mar 03 - 08:26 AM

A "bit" is an American slang term (no longer in use) for a quarter. The line means a shave and a haircut for fifty cents.

Jerry

Subject: RE: Review: The Bo Diddley Beat
From: greg stephens
Date: 17 Mar 03 - 10:15 AM

Come on, Jerry, you're an American! You should know two bits is a quarter, one bit is 12.5 cents, an eighth of a dollar( the old Spanish silver dollars had lines on them so you could break them into eight bits easily).

Subject: RE: Review: The Bo Diddley Beat
From: Metchosin
Date: 17 Mar 03 - 11:29 AM

two bits is still in use in Canada, but the rest of the jingle is obsolete unfortunately.

Subject: RE: Review: The Bo Diddley Beat
From: Tweed
Date: 17 Mar 03 - 07:30 PM

BUM BABA BUM BUMP = "shave and a hair cut two bits"

BUMBABUMBABUM BUMP BUMP = Bo Diddley Beat "HEYY.....MOH..NAHH!"
There, you see? Not at all alike! ;~)
Yerz,
Tweed

Subject: RE: Review: The Bo Diddley Beat
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Mar 03 - 10:40 PM

thank-you Tweed.....been trying to figure out how to articulate the difference to my ear of the two rythyms. Good job!   bg

Subject: RE: Review: The Bo Diddley Beat
From: greg stephens
Date: 18 Mar 03 - 12:13 AM

The Bo Diddley and the "Shave and a haircut, two bits" are two versions of the same rhythm, as are "Hows your sister? She might" ,"never clean the window with a soft-boiled egg", "He played his ukulele as the ship went down" or"If youre an angel, where's your wings?".There are Spamish phrases I believe as well, that go to the claves beat that is the underlying structure of all these rhythms. And, I would predict, African mnemonics as well, but I dont know any. I will do some research.

Subject: RE: Review: The Bo Diddley Beat
From: Tweed
Date: 18 Mar 03 - 06:51 AM

The Bo Diddley and the "Shave and a haircut, two bits" are two versions of the same rhythm

You think so Greg? Could this actually be the oldest European Folk Song? ;~)
Hey, I'm just kidding. I think it's completely unrelated to the annoying "shave and a haircut" thing. They are products of two entirely different cultures. (IMHO)

Yerz,
Tweed

Subject: RE: Review: The Bo Diddley Beat
From: greg stephens
Date: 18 Mar 03 - 07:28 AM

Tweeders, old chap. Get your guitar out. Start singing

Bo Diddley buy baby a diamond ring
(shave and a haircut two bits)
If that diamond ring dont shine
(Shave and a haircut two bits)
He's gonna take it to a private eye
(Shave and a haircut two bits)
etc etc

or alternatively, try

I'm gonna tell you how its gonna be
(How's your father? All right)
You're gonna give-a your love to me
(How's your sister? She might)
I wanna love you night and day
(Never clean the window with a soft boiled egg)
You know my love not fade away
(Never clean the window with a soft-boiled egg)

Now, do you see what I mean?

Subject: RE: Review: The Bo Diddley Beat
From: Tweed
Date: 18 Mar 03 - 08:52 AM

Greg old bean, get yore guitar out and start playin' it the right way. There ain't no shave and a haircut nowhere close to the Bo Diddley beat. I think you're hearing a couple extra bumba's where there ain't none. Really....I ain't lyin' or tryin' to be a wiseass. It's completely different to my ear.

Yerz,
Tweed

Subject: RE: Review: The Bo Diddley Beat
From: greg stephens
Date: 18 Mar 03 - 09:03 AM

Well the suns on the back of my house, there are seats on the verandah, there's gin in the cupboard, lemons in the fruit bowl and tonic in the fridge. Come on over Tweed, with guitar, and lets sort this out.

Subject: RE: Review: The Bo Diddley Beat
From: Tweed
Date: 18 Mar 03 - 09:08 AM

LOL!! I'd be there in a minute if I could!

Tweed

Subject: RE: Review: The Bo Diddley Beat
From: Night Owl
Date: 18 Mar 03 - 11:02 AM

the "guest" post above was mine (lost my cookie).

I learned the "Hambone" body drumming @ a thousand years ago and am also familiar with the "shave and a haircut-two bits" tag.

Instead of paying attention to my work yesterday, I found myself
body-drumming off and on during the day, trying to fit "shave and a haircut" into the hambone beat. Couldn't do it. (I CAN change the rythym of "Rock of Ages" and play it as a "Cha-Cha" on the piano.)

Seems to me the rythyms and "feel" are VERY distinctly different...same as a Reel is a different rythym and feel than a waltz.

Sooooo.....what am I missing?? Thinking I need a 'primer' lesson here. I agree with Tweed re: "products of two different cultures" but just from the feel of them...no other info.
Wishing you would say a bit more, Tweed.

Subject: RE: Review: The Bo Diddley Beat
From: katlaughing
Date: 18 Mar 03 - 10:52 PM

Found this and thought it might be interest:

Professor McCusker dedicates a chapter to the colonial monetary experience in his book, How Much Is That in Real Money? After the American conversion took place, he notes that many of the colonists continued to sell merchandise in their previous monetary currency, but to pay for goods with dollars and coins. An example is the sign barbers used to post on windows offering a "Shave and a Haircut — Two Bits." The "bits" were known as Spanish silver "pieces of eight," and were worth 12 ½ cents each; thus, "two bits" equaled a quarter, and Professor McCusker says men who wanted a shave and a haircut for "two bits" would readily produce a quarter when the barber finished his work.