The life-changing advice Bo Diddley gave Paul Simonon
The discussion surrounding the development of rock music usually centres around a familiar cast of figures: Robert Johnson, Chuck Berry, and Elvis Presley, with Muddy Waters and Little Richard also propping up the list. Another figure that invariably comes up, but more as an afterthought, is Bo Diddley, who had a vital role in the transition from blues to rock ‘n’ roll.
A defining influence on the likes of Elvis Presley, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, Diddley installed the blues with a real swagger and more groove than ever before. This refreshing angle is attributed to his use of African rhythms and his signature beat – a simple five-accent hambone rhythm which is now a cornerstone of all popular music, from rock to hip hop. Take his most famous track, ‘Pretty Thing’, for instance. In it, it is possible to hear the range of sounds from The Rolling Stones and Kanye West, reflecting just how consequential Bo Diddley was directly and by proxy.
However, one band that Diddley had a tremendous impact on was British punks The Clash, who were never afraid to shower praise on the blues master. The band’s frontman, Joe Strummer, once said: “My hero is Bo Diddley because… he was playing on street corner and knew that he needed something else. He wasn’t the fretsman in the world, so he went to a junkyard and got some ball cocks out of abandoned lavatory cisterns. Then he filled them with dried peas and gave them to his upstairs neighbour who became his maracas man.”
The Clash loved Bo Diddley so intensely that he opened for the group when they toured America in 1979. Notably, the band’s fans were not overly thrilled with the support act, with some shouting “The Clash!” when he started singing his classic ‘Who Do You Love?’. Despite some fans not being appreciative of the icon in front of them, Strummer was still in awe of his hero: “I can’t look at him without my mouth falling open […] he was more awe-inspiring than we could possibly imagine.”
When speaking to Huck in 2019, Clash bassist Paul Simonon was asked to name the most memorable piece of advice another artist said to him. Looking back on his extensive career, it was a comment from Bo Diddley that taught Simonon to rely on no one but himself, meaning that his influence on the band goes much further than the musical.
He recalled: “It was something Bo Diddley told me. He always carried his own guitar. I said, ‘There’s a person over there who’ll carry your guitar for you, someone who looks after the equipment.’ And he said, ‘No, no, I always carry my own guitar because if I rely on that person and one day they’re not there, suddenly I have a problem.’ That was an important lesson for me. I try to rely on nobody else but myself, which means not blaming anyone else either.”
