Thursday, May 17, 2007

Bad news on the doorstep



IF YOU'RE A MUSIC FAN, you're not going to like what's in your morning paper.

Bo Diddley is in intensive care here in Omaha after suffering a stroke Monday. The Omaha World-Herald
has the story:

Bo Diddley let his audience know Saturday night that he wasn't feeling well, but few in attendance at Harrah's Horseshoe Casino would have guessed that the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer would be hospitalized for a stroke the next day.

Susan Clary, a publicist for Diddley's management team, said Wednesday that the 78-year-old musician was listed in guarded condition in the intensive care unit at Creighton University Medical Center in Omaha.

Tests indicate that Diddley - who has a history of hypertension and diabetes - had a stroke that affected the left side of his brain, impairing his speech and speech recognition, Clary said.

Clary said she has no other details on Diddley's condition or how long he would be in intensive care.

In August 2004, the bluesman had a toe amputated in Gainesville, Fla., due to complications from his hypoglycemic condition.

Katie Hansen, a spokeswoman for Harrah's in Council Bluffs
[Iowa -- R21]
, said Diddley performed shows at 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Saturday in the Whiskey Roadhouse club.

At one point, she said, Diddley announced from the stage that he wasn't feeling the best and that he had been coughing a lot during the past week. The next morning on the way to the airport, Diddley became ill and was taken to Creighton.

Diddley, with his black glasses and low-slung guitar, has been an icon in the music industry since he topped the R&B charts with "Bo Diddley" in 1955. His other hits include "Who Do You Love," "Before You Accuse Me," "Mona" and "I'm a Man."

Diddley was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987 and was given a lifetime achievement Grammy in 1998.

Diddley was born Ellas Bates on Dec. 30, 1928, on a small farm near the town of McComb, Miss.

He moved with his family to the south side of Chicago in the mid-1930s. He studied the violin for 12 years, composing two concertos for the instrument.

For Christmas in 1940, his sister Lucille bought him his first guitar. That's when he acquired the nickname "Bo Diddley" from his fellow high school students.

After more than a decade of playing on street corners and in clubs around Chicago, Diddley recorded "Uncle John" and "I'm a Man" in the spring of 1955. He took the recordings to brothers Leonard and Phil Chess, owners of Chess Records in Chicago.

The two songs were re-recorded and released as a double A-side disc "Bo Diddley"/"I'm a Man" on the Chess Records subsidiary label Checker Records. It went straight to the top of the rhythm-and-blues chart. It was later hailed as one of the most influential debut singles in history and one of the cornerstones of rock music.
ABOVE, YOU'LL SEE a video of Bo Diddley, whose real name is Ellas McDaniel, on The Big T.N.T. Show, a 1966 rock 'n' roll extravaganza that later was turned into a concert film. Watch it, and know that you're seeing a legend in his prime.

Know, too, that Bo Diddley had a lot to do with just about everything you hear on the Revolution 21 podcast.

And do you have faith in God above? Then say a prayer for his speedy -- and full -- recovery.

Man, I dig those rhythm and blues.

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