#Diddley Bow

[master-harker]

My homemade Diddley Bow/ One string Blues Slide Guitar

[lylahammar]

musical instruments are awesome there are so many random ones in the world with silly names like diddley bow. scientists have yet to discover every instrument in the wild

[murderballadeer]

sometimes when people find out my dad is a professional musician they ask me what that's like. and the answer is i just had a long conversation with him about how many different kinds of stringed instruments you could turn into banjos (a la banjo uke or banjo mandolin) so as to create a maximum number of increasingly esoteric banjos with different numbers of strings

[julio-viernes]

En 1965, Feldman, Gottehrer y Goldstein crearon el grupo The Strangeloves. La portada de su único LP en 1965 es africana y muy significativa, esto no es garaje de guitarras, el énfasis está puesto en los instrumentos de percusión, un elepé heredero directo del titán Bo Diddley y de cosas como "Willie and The Hand Jive" de Johnny Otis. Hay que escuchar como suena el latigazo de batería en ese "New Orleans" de Gary US. Bonds. Amores extraños, y uno de los discos más festivos, rítmicos y personales de la era del garaje que incluía "Nigh Time", recuperada por Lenny Kaye en su glo-rio-so "Nuggets" de 1972, y sus éxitos "I Want Candy" y "Cara-Lin". De "Candy" me quedo con la versión inmediata de Brian Poole and The Tremeloes, antes que con la de Bishops o la de Bow Wow Wow.

[kemetic-dreams]

Blues has evolved from the unaccompanied vocal music and oral traditions of slaves imported from West Africa and rural Africans into a wide variety of styles and subgenres, with regional variations across the United States. Although blues (as it is now known) can be seen as a musical style based on both European harmonic structure and the African call-and-response tradition that transformed into an interplay of voice and guitar, the blues form itself bears no resemblance to the melodic styles of the West African griots. Additionally, there are theories that the four-beats-per-measure structure of the blues might have its origins in the Native American tradition of pow wow drumming. Some scholars identify strong influences on the blues from the melodic structures of certain West African musical styles of the savanna and sahel. Lucy Durran finds similarities with the melodies of the Bambara people, and to a lesser degree, the Soninke people and Wolof people, but not as much of the Mandinka people. Gerard Kubik finds similarities to the melodic styles of both the west African savanna and central Africa, both of which were sources of enslaved people.

No specific African musical form can be identified as the single direct ancestor of the blues. However the call-and-response format can be traced back to the music of Africa. That blue notes predate their use in blues and have an African origin is attested to by "A Negro Love Song", by the English composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, from his African Suite for Piano, written in 1898, which contains blue third and seventh notes.

The Diddley bow (a homemade one-stringed instrument found in parts of the American South sometimes referred to as a jitterbug or a one-string in the early twentieth century) and the banjo are African-derived instruments that may have helped in the transfer of African performance techniques into the early blues instrumental vocabulary. The banjo seems to be directly imported from West African music. It is similar to the musical instrument that griots and other Africans such as the Igbo played (called halam or akonting by African peoples such as the Wolof, Fula and Mandinka). However, in the 1920s, when country blues began to be recorded, the use of the banjo in blues music was quite marginal and limited to individuals such as Papa Charlie Jackson and later Gus Cannon.

Blues music also adopted elements from the "Ethiopian airs", minstrel shows and Negro spirituals, including instrumental and harmonic accompaniment. The style also was closely related to ragtime, which developed at about the same time, though the blues better preserved "the original melodic patterns of African music"

[3rdeyeblaque]

On May 8th, we also venerate Ancestor Robert Johnson on his 112th birthday 🎉

A renowned ICON of Hoodoo History, Culture, & Folklore, and a Delta Blue's legend, Robert Johnson's storied yet brief success has cemented him at the crossroads of Hoodoo Folklore & American History. He is known for his exceptionally eerie singing & masterful guitar play amid living a hard and fast life; after having struck a deal with the Devil to become one of the greatest Blue's musicians of all time.

According to Hoodoo Folklore, it was a cool October night when Robert Johnson walked alone with his guitar down a dark road in the Mississippi River Delta on a full moon night to the crossroads at Highways 49 & 61 in Clarksdale, Mississippi. As he walks he thinks about his sorrow. He thinks about the jeers & shouts for him to get off stage. In his misery, he cries out into the night. For his weakness, jealousy, fear, & the anguish of failure. But he’s not alone. Here, he meets the Devil. The Devil heard his cry & appeared, offering to fashion him a talent so he could play unlike any other in exchange for his soul. Thus Robert Johnson rose to fame as the King of the Delta Blues.

Robert Johnson was the eleventh child of his mother's children & born out of wedlock. He was born and grew up with his mother in Hazlehurst, Mississippi until he left to stay with his father for a time in Memphis,TN. His childhood is largely a mystery. Those that knew of him, claimed that he took up the diddley bow (a wire attached to nails sticking out of houses), as music was his life long interest.

As a teen, Robert Johnson met fellow Blue's legend Son House and Willie Brown. They became his musical mentors as they played in small towns throughout the Mississippi Delta. Thus began his showmanship & his iconic fusion of singing, guitar-playing, & songwriting. From then on he lived the life he sang about, the life a mysterious traveling musician. Though as the old folks of the era would say,  “The Blues was never meant to be taken seriously or reflectively. It was simply a force, expressing the deepest roots of their lives”. That there are only 3 known photos of him in existence only adds to his mystery.

By 1931 he was a popular name in bars and nightclubs throughout the region. While passing through Jackson, Mississippi in 1936, Robert Johnson caught the eye of a talent scout who'd go on to arranged his first recording session, which went on to selling 5,000 copies throughout the region. This was the very 1st time that  Robert Johnson's singing voice & guitar play was recorded. Despite his short life & career, he became a major influence on Blue's & Rock N Roll in the '60s & '70s. He'd go on to influence the likes of Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones,��Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, the Allman Brothers, and Eric Clapton. In 1961 Columbia Records released, King of Delta Blues, which was a compilation of his early recordings; spanning just 29 cut between 1936-1938.

In 1938, a music producer at Columbia Records learned about his recordings & sought him out to perform at Carnegie Hall in NYC in front of an all-Black crowd. Unfortunately, Robert Johnson passed away the night before the show was set.

To this day, the cause of his death remains in dispute. Some say he was shot dead by the man of a paramour he'd messed around with. Others say it was a poison that killed him. His death certificate, however, officially states that his cause of death was Syphilis. Still, whether literally or figuratively, there are those who believe that the Devil did in fact collect his due.

At the time of his death, his grave remained unmarked thus no exumation effort could ever conclude with 100% certainty that the uncovered remains are his. Today, what has long-since been presumed to be his remains, is buried in Little Zion Baptist Church's cemetary, in Greenwood, Mississippi. 

"I pray that my redeemer will come and take me from my grave" - Robert Johnson’s final words

We pour libations & give him💐 today as we celebrate him for his legendary contributions to the art, history, and lore of Blue's & Black Culture. May we elevate him in light & healing.

Offering suggestions: listen to/share his music, play Mississippi Delta Blue's , & menthol cigarettes paired with dark liquor

*Note: offering suggestions are just that & strictly for veneration purposes only. Never attempt to conjure up any spirit or entity without proper divination/Mediumship counsel.

[randomvarious]

Today's compilation:

Baby Boomer Classics: Rockin' Fifties 1985 Rock & Roll / Rockabilly

Bunch of early rock & roll hits from the mid-to-late 50s on this cheat code release from the Baby Boomer Classics series here. You won't find anything on this that could remotely be considered obscure, but this is still a pretty sweet selection of essential listening if you've never really taken the time to venture back into this paradigm-shifting era before. Beloved music critic Robert Christgau has compiled his own lists of what he calls the 'basic record library,' which distills eras down to their must-haves for any collector/serious listener, and I think if we're talking 50s rock & roll, a majority of these tunes would be indispensable entries on a list like that.

So let's get into some of these then, starting with one-hit wonder Frankie Ford's jaunty New Orleans-made "Sea Cruise," a #14 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 from 1959 that sees Ford donning a deliberately brazen vocal affect that delightfully creaks on the choruses. His version of "Sea Cruise" is actually a cover of a song by another New Orleans R&B and rock & roll legend, Huey "Piano" Smith, whose own recording of it didn't see the light of day until 1971. And the reason why this piece of information is particularly important is because Frankie Ford used the *same exact* backing track from Smith's version that went unreleased for so many years. And what's more is that that backing track itself is really a piece of proto-ska, predating the dawn of that genre by about half a decade in Jamaica, which would eventually lead into the formation of reggae. So, on the surface, a song like "Sea Cruise" might seem like just some fun and silly rock & roll hit from the late 50s, but it's really so much more than that!

Next, "Keep A Knockin'," by one of the freest spirits that rock & roll has ever known, Little Richard, whose contagious and unbridled amounts of seemingly limitless energy managed to help him sell millions of records while being both black and visibly queer during an virulently racist and homophobic American 1950s. Released in 1957, this terrific shouter of a tune, with loud and brash sax too, would achieve top-ten Billboard Hot 100 status, and on Led Zeppelin's own classic 1972 hit, "Rock and Roll," John Bonham would show tribute to it by kicking off with its very drumbeat.

And lastly, "Willie and the Hand Jive," by Johnny Otis, a first-generation Greek-American who grew up in a predominantly black community in Berkeley, California, and decided that, despite the fact that he was not black himself, he would live his life as a black American anyway, and then legitimately went on to become the "godfather of rhythm & blues," not only as a musician, but as someone who had a knack for spotting real talent before anyone else. We seriously may have never heard of people like Etta James, Jackie Wilson, and Big Mama Thornton had it not been for this guy! 🤯

And as he adopted black culture—and also helped grow it—his most famous song would adopt its sound from one of rock & roll's greatest black rockers too, Bo Diddley, whose own unique and signature style would get its own name as the Bo Diddley beat. The most prominent song to employ this 'beat' for a good period of time was not one of Diddley's own, but Otis' "Willie and the Hand Jive," which would reach #9 on the Hot 100 in 1958. Following that, though, its status as most iconic Bo Diddley beat-song would be usurped by The Strangeloves' 1965 piece of proto-punky garage rock bubblegum in "I Want Candy," which would then be famously covered in 1982 by new wave group Bow Wow Wow too.

So, again, nothing underheard on this album, but overall, a short collection of very popular songs that people should still know about. As time goes on and classic rock and oldies stations proceed to advance their playlists further forward in time, these songs find themselves less and less appreciated, but a lot of them are really no less important now than they were when they were first recorded, because they really represent the edifice that holds up so much of everything else.

Highlights:

Eddie Cochrane - "Summertime Blues" Frankie Ford - "Sea Cruise" Buddy Holly - "Peggy Sue" Jerry Lee Lewis - "Great Balls of Fire" Little Richard - "Keep A Knockin'" Johnny Otis Show - "Willie and the Hand Jive" Chuck Berry - "Maybellene"

[rhythmandtones]

Seasick Steve - Diddley bow

[liminalflares]

New Order’s “Blue Monday” performed by Orkestra Obsolete as though you were experiencing it at a 1930s nightclub.

Weimar Republic club scene vibes, which feels... disconcertingly relevant. "New Order's Blue Monday was released in March 1983, and its cutting-edge electronic groove changed pop music forever. If it had been made 50 years earlier, what would it have sounded like? Watch masked musicians Orkestra Obsolete play the song using authentic instruments available in 1933: the harmonium, Diddley bow, singing wineglasses, dulcimer, Theremin and musical saw." via Open Culture and the BBC

[craicmonkeysdelight]

Setting up for my Zoom call to Ukraine. We’re making Diddley Bows today! #ukraine #yeg #library #blues #diddleybow (at Edmonton Public Library - Meadows Branch) https://www.instagram.com/p/ClWcpI1p1_C/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[lboogie1906]

Robert Leroy Johnson (May 8, 1911 – August 16, 1938) was the eleventh child of Julia Major Dodds. He grew up with his mother in Hazlehurst, Mississippi but soon moved up to live with his father, Charles Dodds, in Memphis. He moved to an area around Robinsonville and Tunica, Mississippi to rejoin his mother. People in the Delta who knew him claimed he played the diddley bow when he was younger.

He met Son House and Willie Brown, two Delta blues musicians who would become his musical mentors. He followed them and other musicians as they played in small Delta towns. Often he performed on street corners or in front of barbershops playing blues and on occasion jazz and even country music for tips on his acoustic guitar and harmonica.

He began playing in bars and nightclubs traveling through the region as a wandering musician, he was accompanied only by Johnny Shines, himself an up-and-coming blues artist. He caught the eye of a talent scout H.C. Speir who arranged his first recording session in San Antonio. He recorded for the first time several songs he played across the Delta including “Come On In My Kitchen,” Kind Hearted Woman Blues,” “Cross Road Blues” and Terraplane Blues which became a regional hit, selling 5,000 copies. He recorded in Dallas and began tours that took him as far north as St. Louis. Most of his performances remained in the Mississippi Delta.

He became a major influence on rock music in the 1960s and 1970s when Columbia Records 1961 released the album, King of Delta Blues, which was a compilation of his early recordings. He has been the subject of several documentaries including Crossroads (1986), The Search for Robert Johnson (1992), and Eric Clapton—Sessions for Robert Johnson (2004). #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[goblin-androgyny]

"Freaky Fen's festive arts and crafts" Aka Goblin Christmas

(full image and each half)

drawn back in December...

mixed media but mostly pen and ink drawing on A2 cartridge paper, scanned then coloured in digitally with Krita

the story: Freaky Fen was reading about human holiday traditions and he liked the idea of decorating a tree with all his friends and so he asked the Silly Boys™️ (Snail, Slug, Sprig and Slime {Snail is the facilitator}) if they could help him host a tree decorating arts and crafts at the Silly Boy Lounge!!! they didnt want to chop down a tree so they tied some branches together into a old rusty bucket this is how the arts and crafts went: Slug is enforcing the Silly Boy Safety Rules, much to the dismay of Gunk and Clove who were planning on having a epic sword vs dremel fight Slime is having the time of his life sorting beads by colour to store into a craft caddy Worm started crocheting a little frog, but he got distracted by Dandelion's pet creature MacLag (the scientific name for the greater Australian Bilby is Macrotis Lagotis) so Worm's crochet is just a half finished orb currently Pond is trying his best. Fen and Snail are absolutely thrilled at how well the adventure is going, they even have clipboards! Sprig is giving a talk on how he makes his little dolls (he made the Christmas angel its meant to be himself but a angel complete with googly eyes, yarn hair, and pipe cleaner halo) and Sprigs boyfriend Grub is vandalizing the Christmas tree(?) with a badly drawn penis # powercouple Grove, Dan (short for Dandelion) and Moth (short for Timothy) are being very good listeners of Sprig's talk! (btw Moths shirt has a bass fish in the shape of a bass clef symbol and it says bass clef also his notebook notes they are a song idea, him worrying about if he writes song ideas normally, he realize that he is overthinking again, and underneath is a reminder to grab more cucumber from the community garden) and finally, on the stairs Kbranch (but the K is silent) and his best friend Shrub, they started a fun folk jam on melodica and Diddley bow, and Mugwort has joined in on his Casiotone MT68 synthesizer!! shortly after, Fen joins in on his kazoo and then it rly gets silly 💚

[legon751]

fuck you i made a canjo

its a diddley bow style 1 stringed instrument. i have it in open g. i need to put fret lines on it though because i cant even play regular guitar much less slide guitar

im gonna probably put a piezo pickup in it too and make it electric

[jedivoodoochile]

3217º Álbum: Bo Diddley - Have Guitar Will Travel

(1960) Checker

"La edad es sólo un número". Ésa fue la frase que dirigió la vida de Bo Diddley casi hasta su muerte, en 2008. El músico que supo construir su propia leyenda a golpe de innovación rítmica, guitarras singulares y, sobre todo, de rock and roll, género a cuyo desarrollo contribuyó decisivamente, vivió siempre centrado en la música y los escenarios.

Sus gafas oscuras, su elegante sombrero negro y su sello de fábrica, la guitarra cuadrada construida por él mismo, fueron sus señas de identidad externas durante décadas. Pero lo que hizo de Diddley un músico especial fue el ritmo que imprimió a su sonido. En plena década de los cincuenta, junto a otros artistas de la época como Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry o Little Richard, Diddley comenzó a utilizar las bases del blues, el gospel y el rhythm & blues para dar paso a lo que después se llamaría rock and roll. Él creó el bit sincopado que después sería copiado por todas las generaciones de rockeros sucesivas y también tomó prestado del continente africano el ritmo repetitivo que marcaría muchos de sus temas míticos, como Bo Diddley, donde un solo acorde mantiene toda la tensión del tema desde principio a fin y es la repetición la que hace ir in crescendo la música.

Pero no sólo el ritmo le hizo célebre. Sus letras, sagaces, irónicas y divertidas, y su presencia sobre los escenarios, que tomaba por asalto en todos sus conciertos, cantando, saltando y moviéndose sin parar, le convirtieron en uno de los músicos no sólo más requeridos para actuar, sino también más copiados. Elvis Presley tomó prestados de Diddley sus movimientos de rodillas y otros como Jimi Hendrix se quedaron con su pasión por elevar la guitarra por encima de su cabeza y tocar así, creando espectáculo.

Desde The Rolling Stones a The Beatles, The Clash o The Yardbirds copiaron aspectos de su música, pero también hicieron versiones de sus temas, algo de lo que Diddley siempre se quejó puesto que nunca cobró royalties por canciones suyas como I am a man o Not fade away, que contribuyeron a hacer célebres a otros. Como muchos artistas de su generación, recibía una suma fija por sus discos y ningún royalty. "Le abrí la puerta a mucha gente y me dejaron colgado", declaró en 2003 al diario The New York Times.

No obstante, al menos el reconocimiento de la profesión sí lo tuvo: entró en el Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, en el Rockabilly Hall of Fame, obtuvo un grammy en reconocimiento a su carrera en 1999 y hasta le pusieron una estrella en el Hollywood Walk of Fame. Pero, de todos modos, declaró: "Esos honores no añadieron ni una cifra a mi cuenta corriente".

Bo Diddley nació en McComb (Mississippi), pero con seis años se trasladó a Chicago con una tía, que fue quien le crió. A los siete años comenzó a tocar el violín y a los 12 la guitarra. Sin llegar a terminar los estudios secundarios, comenzó a actuar en un dúo que después se convirtió en banda, The Langley Avenue Jive Cats, en la mítica calle Maxwell de Chicago. En 1954, poco antes de firmar su primer contrato discográfico, el que había nacido bajo el nombre de Otha Ellas McDanields se convertía en Bo Diddley. Según Billy Boy Arnold, que tocaba la armónica con él, fue el propio Arnold quien decidió bautizar así al que después sería para siempre Bo Diddley, un nombre que describía a un tipo "pequeño y algo cómico". Sin embargo, en el delta del Misisipi hay una guitarra de una sola cuerda que se llama Diddley Bow, y también se ha especulado con que su nombre artístico viniera de ahí, aunque él aseguró en vida que jamás la había tocado. En otra de las historias que giran alrededor del origen de su nombre, el propio artista contaba que fueron sus compañeros de colegio quienes le bautizaron así.

En cualquier caso, Bo Diddley fue también el título de su primer single y éxito, al que siguieron otros como I'm a man, You don't love me, Mona o I am looking for a woman.

(Fuente: Bárbara Celis, elpais,com)

Personal:

Bo Diddley: guitarra, voz.

Peggy Jones: guitarra, coros.

Jody Williams: guitarra.

Lafayette Leake: piano.

Willie Dixon: contrabajo.

Clifton James, Frank Kirkland: batería.

Jerome Green: maracas, voz en B1, coros.

Lester Davenport: armónica en B4.

Listado de temas (todos compuestos por Bo Diddley, excepto el indicado):

CARA A:

1. "She's Alright" 3:56

2. "Cops and Robbers" (Kent Harris) 3:21

3. "Run Diddley Daddy" 2:36

4. "Mumblin' Guitar" 2:49

5. "I Need You Baby" 2:18

CARA B:

1. "Say Man, Back Again" 2:53

2. "Nursery Rhyme" 2:43

3. "I Love You So" 2:20

4. "Spanish Guitar" 3:58

5. "Dancing Girl" 2:17

6. "Come On Baby" 2:52

El tema A5, "I Need You Baby", también es conocido con el título "Mona".

El tema B2, "Nursery Rhyme", también es conocido como "Puttentang".

Temas grabados entre el 14 de Julio de 1955 y Septiembre de 1959 en Chicago, Illinois.

Publicado en Enero de 1960.

[olafsings]

Music History Today: January 28, 2023

January 28, 1978: One of music’s most celebrated albums, Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours, went to Number 1 in the UK. Upon its release in 1977, it became the fastest-selling LP of all time, moving 800,000 copies per week at its height, and its success made Fleetwood Mac a cultural phenomenon.

The LP opens with "Second Hand News." inspired by the redemption Lindsay Buckingham was finding in new women, post-Stevie. It was the album's first single and perhaps the most euphoric ode to rebound chicks ever written. Buckingham's "bow-bow-bow-doot-doo-diddley-doot" is corny, but it works.