Bo Diddley: Joe Strummer’s guitar playing hero
For so many classic rock fans, Joe Strummer and the rest of The Clash were bonafide heroes, the epitome of punk rebellion and revolution. As defining voices of the era, it’s easy to see how they gained the status as leading cultural voices and upending the political status quo, becoming a beacon of experimentation for the underground youth scene of the 1970s.
As innovative as Strummer and Co were in their own right, a long line of legendary rockers still came before them, each shaking up an era or pioneering a sound as they went. Like his fans, Strummer had many personal idols whom he looked to for inspiration and creativity, never forgetting where the genre’s roots lay.
Strummer explained in 2002, just months before his untimely death, that his guitar hero was American musician Bo Diddley, who was a key pioneer in the sonic transition between blues and rock and roll. Speaking about the uniqueness of Diddley’s skill, he said: “People can get caught thinking it’s all about technique when it’s not really about technique at all; it’s about something even more exciting and unidentifiable.”
This electrifying approach to playing the instrument was something that immediately enamoured Strummer, who continued: “Everybody else was playing 12-bar blues at the time. He looked around, and he was like: ‘I’ve got to do something different if I want to make it in this town.’”
This mantra evidently struck both a literal and metaphorical chord with Strummer, whose attitude towards music in The Clash and various other ventures embodied this exact sense. It was almost as though he thought himself and Diddley to be long-lost family, even to the point where the latter was invited to open for The Clash on their first American tour—which he, albeit reticently, obliged.
Of course, Diddley was no novice to the fame game, cited as having influenced an impressive role call alongside The Clash including The Beatles, Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, and the Rolling Stones. To this day he permeates the standards of music in hip hop, rock, and pop, owed in no small part to his stylistic innovation and trademark rectangular guitar.
Throughout Diddley’s prime success in the 1950s and ‘60s, young fans like Stummer were enraptured by the guitarist, who marketed himself at the teenage demographic but also broke down racial barriers in doing so, thus representing an early point of revolution that these wannabe rockstars would latch on to. In many ways, with such an illustrious list of latterly world-famous bands who would clearly worship the ground he walked on, it’s fair to say there would be no rock music as we know it without Bo Diddley.
The teenage idol is someone who will always hold a special place in your heart, no matter how old you are. For the likes of Joe Strummer, that influence went on to play a more substantial role in the rest of his life than most, replicating the fame and rapture of his hero as well as his talent. They’re the rock and roll gods together.
