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Rock legend's influence, bomp-de-bomp rhythm can be heard in songs of many artists today
By Malcolm X Abram
Beacon Journal popular music writer
Published on Thursday, Jun 05, 2008
Local folk veteran Alex Bevan, who has a new album called Falls & Angels was supposed to be in this spot, but then rock 'n' roll lost another innovator when Bo Diddley died of heart failure Monday night, so we'll get to Mr. Bevan at a later date.
Everyone who considers themselves a fan of rock music knows Diddley's famous bomp-de-bomp beat either directly through his classics such as Bo Diddley, Who Do You Love or through the many artists who have covered and/or commandeered that carnal groove to propel their own tunes.
Several years ago before he was to play a show in Kent, the then 76-year-old Diddley talked to me a bit about the Bo Diddley beat which he discovered while trying to play Gene Autry's I've Got Spurs That Jingle, Jangle, Jingle and how his dozen years of violin lessons helped his guitar playing.
''That's one of my successes, my rhythmic patterns,'' he said, while fighting a cold. ''I mix it up and my wrist is educated to different movements in playing.''
Like many of his contemporaries, Diddley was in the music business when artists (especially black artists) with no knowledge of the ins and outs of music publishing signed truly egregious and shady record deals just to get their music out to the public. Diddley was one of many who signed away his publishing rights (obviously without knowing that his music would endure) just to stay alive.
Diddley's buddy Little Richard used to make light of the fact that often when he would see 45s of his singles in the record stores he would discover that he and two people he never met were sharing songwriting credits.
Richard and Chuck Berry, for example, would eventually get their publishing and business straightened out enough to retire comfortably, but Diddley never quite got his business in order, and he was pretty sure as to why.
''It makes me think I got ripped off from record companies that have been involved with my product,'' he said of those early years.
Undoubtedly, but being a highly influential living legend celebrating 50 years in the business must count for something right?
So, was he bitter?
Hell yes.
''I am bitter,'' he said matter-of-factly. ''Maybe someone will find it in their heart to put a check in my mailbox for all the work that I've done and all the people who have made it off of my inventions.
''There is satisfaction [in being recognized as an innovator], but satisfaction don't pay bills, I got bills just like everybody else,'' he said.
The interview ended early because Diddley was on his way to the doctor and if my memory serves me, the show had to be postponed, but he did return to the Kent Stage to perform.
Now that he's shuffled off this mortal coil and the bills that come with it, here's hoping Ellas Otha Bates aka Ellas McDaniel aka the one and only Bo Diddley is playing his classic rhythm alongside the friends, colleagues and acolytes that have gone before him in rock 'n' roll heaven.
New music
We're continuing with last week's roundup of relatively new and recent releases by local artists. Let's start with the happy stuff first in the form of more new music from your local music troops.
Winslow
'Crazy Kind of Love'
I've been talking up this groovy, soulful Cleveland/Kent quintet since the first time I saw them a few years ago because it is one of the few R&B/pop-flavored bands playing original material in the area. Winslow's debut album was released in March and it's a good capsule of the band's capabilities. The band has been through a couple of personnel changes, but it is a musically tight outfit that knows how to construct a song and there are no traces of ''blazing hip-hip and R&B'' cliches.
Singer Maurice Martin is quite a dynamic performer and he and the band members write solid tunes such as the title track that recalls the acid jazz movement of the 90s and performers such as Sade (or more specifically the Sade-less offshoot Sweetback).
But if Winslow sounds retro it's only because actual musicians playing actual instruments has become a relatively quaint notion as have songs about love minus the bump and grind and baby mama drama.
Brian Robertson's funky syncopated bass lines in the rock-flavored opener Break Down and the cool, breezy Tango Between the Line is perhaps the band's secret weapon. Neal Campbell lays down plenty of funky guitar on the soulful Move On, which also features P-funk legend Bernie Worrell, and takes a tasteful lead on the hip-shaking Control, which sports a catchy radio-ready chorus.
If there's a complaint, it's that when he gets excited, Martin pushes his tenor past its natural range and sometimes sounds as if he's straining where I imagine he's going for a more sinewy, rough-hewn sound.
Nevertheless, this is a good debut from a band that should only get better.
Web site: http://www.winslowsoul.com.
K.C.
'Step Back or Get Stepped On'
A model of DIY, this Akron rapper, who calls himself the LeBron James of Akron hip-hop but is known as Ernest Gregory by his mama, has been recording and releasing records on his own and using the Internet (the album's liner notes list 13 Web sites and his albums and ringtones are available on Itunes) to spread his name and music and the music of his Team Tuck cohorts for several years.
K.C. calls Step Back or Get Stepped On a soundtrack to a film he's writing but you don't need to try to piece the 20 tracks together conceptually.
Featuring many of his Team Tuck family, K.C. and crew spend much of the album lacing their verses with the standard tough talk, physical and metaphorical threats and a bit of gun waving. It's not the most original subject matter but the album is aimed directly at the streets. It definitely hits its mark with braggadocio-filled rhymes such as Game on Lock, and Who Soft.
For me, the album picks up about halfway through when K.C. lets down the bulletproof veneer and allows some actual emotion into his lyrics. On the slow boiling Lonely he talks about falling in love (yes, LOVE!) too fast with someone you hardly know, and friends and family who betray his trust.
On the ominous synth-laden History featuring Akron rapper Chaka, K.C. shows that he's a talented storyteller as he details the difficulties of a child growing up in a rough environment without a positive role model for guidance.
Bout Me finds the blue collar rapper talking about balancing his dream of being a successful rapper with being a husband, father and provider. Shake It Off rides a G-funk beat and a tight punch line-filled verse from Cam Cawshun.
The beats are mostly synth laden but vary from Dirty South head nodders and sparse snap music to West Coast G-funk and ominous East Coast grooves.
Web sites: http://www.myspace.com/da1KC; http://www.blastmymusic.com/KC.
Malcolm X Abram can be reached at mabram@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3758.
Local folk veteran Alex Bevan, who has a new album called Falls & Angels was supposed to be in this spot, but then rock 'n' roll lost another innovator when Bo Diddley died of heart failure Monday night, so we'll get to Mr. Bevan at a later date.
Get the full article here.
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