A few choice critical thoughts on Bo’s beat.

Robert Palmer, Rock & Roll: An Unruly History : “To young Bo Diddley, growing up in the ‘Little Mississippi’ that was South Side Chicago, what became the ‘Bo Diddley beat’ must have been an environmental presence — booming from Pentecostal storefront churches, popped out with a shoestring rag, implicit in speech rhythms and in the spring of people’s walks. And as John Lee Hooker remarked in Bo’s favorite ‘Boogie Chillen,’ ‘It’s in him, it’s got to come out.’ At the same time, Bo’s claim to have invented something, his insistence that he was doing more than simply parroting an already existing beat, has both sincerity and the ring of truth. The very concept of the ‘Bo Diddley beat’ is inadequate; what Bo came up with was a comprehensive theory of rhythmic orchestration. The traditional rhythms he picked up were merely raw materials.

“Listen again to ‘Bo Diddley,’ ‘Pretty Thing,’ ‘Hush Your Mouth,’ and ‘Say Man’ — records built around the beat, as opposed to the gospel-ish rave-ups, doo-wop, blues, guitar instrumentals, and tongue-in-cheek hillbilly songs that make up a surprisingly large proportion of the Diddley discography. Neither the exact rhythm patterns nor the way these patterns are parceled out among the various instruments remain constant from song to song. What does remain constant is the method of rhythmic layering. Generally, the drummer is directed to concentrate on his deeper drums, especially the bass drum and tom-toms. There is rarely a cymbal patter. Instead, the sort of cross-rhythms carried by hand clapping in the old-time ring shout, and by the ride and sock cymbals in much rock and jazz drumming, are assigned to Jerome Green’s maracas. These maracas are always prominent in the mix, with a presence equal in sonic weight to that of the drum kit.”

Chuck Eddy, The Accidental Evolution of Rock ‘n’ Roll (from the chapter, “What Bo Knows”) : “I even have a soft spot for Burundi rhythms, for example the ones used in Gary Glitter’s 1972 hit ‘Rock And Roll Part 2′ — sort of a doubled, lightened adaptation of the Bo Diddley beat, which Bo somehow developed out of the knit-three-pearl-two rhythm pattern called clavé, first developed on wooden clacking instruments in Cuba and allegedly a common denominator of all Latin and Caribbean grooves: mambos, rhumbas, sambas, calypsos. Other people say Bo’s beat is really the hambone beat; i.e., ’shave and a haircut, two bits!’ Probably they’re right… The beat kind of goes ‘Boom-ChuckaChuckaChuckaChucka-Boom Boom.’ On top, in Bo’s own version anyway, there’s a nasal, raunchy voice, boastful and making fun of you like in rap, and more guitar, noisy like in heavy metal. ‘Who Do You Love,’ where Bo tries to impress some lady by telling her his necktie’s a snake and he walks on concertina wire and builds chimneys from people’s skulls, is nihilist overstatement like in punk rock.”

Joe Carducci, Rock and the Pop Narcotic : “…It’s perhaps stretching it to trace all of prog rock back to him, but the chance and circumstance of rock’s development has led to stranger relationships. His special influence on Brit beat and blues rock bands shone through those and onto the late sixties Brit progressive bands with their eccentric rhythmic approaches… Bo recorded for the Chess/Checker labels and made use of blues rhythm players that could follow his lead. And he lead them through a stomping adaptation of some kind of black Latinate rhythm (maybe Cuban), which due to its unfamiliar loping insistence seemed especially physical — even threatening. Which explains his lack of pop success. What still needs explaining is his lace of influence upon R&B, on which charts his music constantly appeared.”

[New York Times obit]

Gregory Stephen Tate and a dozen others salute Tom Terrell in this week’s Village Voice, a great tribute to a writer and DJ I confess to being barely familiar with before the announcement of his death last week.

“Tom also threw the absolute best D.C. house parties back in the day, affairs eagerly awaited and renowned among men and dogs for their hot fusion of wine, weed, women, and song. Like me, Tom left DJing (and concert production) to scribe in New York: a natural transition, except Tom went on to also do, as he had in D.C., just about every job you could do in the music business without singing, strumming, and dancing. Not just promotion, marketing, and a&r, but tour managing (for Steel Pulse) and rigging lights 50 feet in the air above outdoor stages, too.”

The DJ Who Roared: Tom Terrell

In memory of Tom Terrell, July 16, 1950, to November 29, 2007

By Vivien Goldman (in MOLI)

“It is with great sadness–oh, yeah, right, just ignore that regular intro. It is with a big ol’ hole in my soul that I report the passing of writer, photographer, and inspired music aficionado Tom Terrell, a man who was a true soul brother to me and very many others around the whole musical world. He died this morning of prostate cancer…

“Among Tom’s abundant delights were his enthusiasm for and appreciation of the wacky racket of people and events around him–particularly the music. Tom had an encyclopedic knowledge of so many styles: funk, jazz, and rock too. Tommy Tee was a punk rocker who could launch into an insightful analysis of X-Ray Spex just as easily as of go-go king Chuck B & the Soul Searchers or of George Clinton, who hymned Terrell’s soul hometown Washington, DC, as Chocolate City. He was deeply into Brazilian music and Portugese fado–hell, he was a pioneering world citizen of music.” (Full article here…)

(Thanks to Steve Kiviat for sending this. See also Tom Terrell’s article on “Death and Music” from PopMatters in 2006, in part about the death of his aunt, noted jazz pianist/vocalist Shirley Horn.)

Here’s a roundup of some of the online tributes (let me know if there’s a good one I’m missing) to officially kaput Stylus (see orig. post here):

• Ed. Nick Southall on Why We Killed It
• For Blissblog, this spells G-L-O-O-M
• I Love Music thread (scroll down)
• Poptimists dudes
• And, last but not least, (former) Stylus ed, Todd Burns, signs off with a special “bluffer’s guide to,” chalk full of worthy links to some of the site’s more memorable scribbles.

Stylus Magazine, Respected Online Music Publication, Will Fold After Halloween (New York Observer)

This is really unfortunate news. As a reader, I’ve long felt a particular kinship with Stylus. I can’t think of a single other online or newsstand music publication in the last 10 years–I mean an actual publication, not a blog or chat room–that has catered to my own sensibility so well. Not just in the breadth of the music coverage (and no other ‘zine that I’m aware of has anything like the genuine feel for pop music that Stylus has), but in the way they present their material, in their willingness to exclaim for the old as well as for the new, to explore corners of the pop universe otherwise uncharted (i.e., features on album covers, downloading, the art of mastering, etc.). Stylus doesn’t always hit the bulls eye, of course, but even at its most esoteric, it never strikes me as its own little scene–rather, it seems like a wide open space where music writers can try out all sorts of ideas, where offbeat features are encouraged, where there is no real attempt at forcing on the reader a singular “voice” or attitude.

As a sometime writer for Stylus (only on a very few occasions, mind you), I can attest that working for Todd Burns, Stylus’s Ed-in-chief (and William B. Swygart, who handled the what-is-sure-to-be-missed Jukebox) was a genuine pleasure. Todd was one of the most receptive editors I’ve ever pitched to, and his receptiveness to people’s pitches and ideas has obviously shone through in the ‘zine itself, at least at its very best. I hope both Todd and William go on to bigger and better things (and btw, guys: my e-mail hasn’t changed!).

I look forward to seeing Stylus’s “Greatest Hits-style retrospective” in the week ahead, but otherwise… damn, that’s sad.

R.I.P.

Not a rock critic, obviously, but someone whose imprint on rock criticism is nonetheless immeasurable.

Rock’s Backpages compiles a tribute to the late UK music critic.

Cook, as quoted by Barney Hoskyns: “Describing a piece of music in a way which isn’t either cliché-ridden or merely fanciful is desperately difficult. I suppose if I have any advice to offer, it’s the simple truth that you have to listen properly, and hard, and ask yourself what’s going on and why.”