Blue Monday

I was just taking a break from inking issue one of Black Cat Bone when I got online and found out the news. Blues pioneer Bo Diddley has died in his Archer FL home at the age of 79. Bo was a seminal figure in music history, influencing everyone from Elvis to the Rolling Stones to the Clash. His "Bo Diddley beat" is all over rock and roll, even today.

A sample of his work is "Who Do You Love" (later covered by George Thorogood). The song's lyrics invoke swagger and bravado today's rap "music" can only hope to emulate.

I walk 47 miles of barbed wire,

I use a cobra-snake for a necktie,

I got a brand new house on the roadside,

Made from rattlesnake hide,

I got a brand new chimney made on top,

Made out of a human skull,

Now come on take a walk with me, Arlene,

And tell me, who do you love?

Tombstone hand and a graveyard mine,

Just 22 and I don't mind dying.

I rode around the town, use a rattlesnake whip,

Take it easy Arlene, don't give me no lip,

Who do you love?

Night was dark, but the sky was blue,
Down the alley, the ice-wagon flew,
Heard a bump, and somebody screamed,
You should have heard just what I seen.
Who do you love?

Arlene took me by my hand,
And she said ooowee Bo, you know I understand.
Who do you love?

I'm going back out to the studio now. I think I'll crank up "Can't Judge a Book".