There have been several deaths in the past couple of weeks of show business people that have made me stop, hold my breath and go, “aw shit” but none made my heart miss a beat until I just read that Bo Diddley died today.
There were just so many things to like about Ellas Bates AKA Ellas McDaniel AKA Bo Diddley that it’s hard to know where to even start. Well, of course there’s the famous “Bo Diddley Beat,” heard on the song “Bo Diddley” on his very first single. And the B side of that single, “I’m a Man,” has been covered by almost everyone. Mona, Who Do You Love, Road Runner, Love Is Strange, so many more.
Beyond the songs and the beat, there was the look. That box guitar. The Duchess, that beautiful tall woman standing on stage playing an equally wild guitar. Bo told everyone they were brother and sister because he thought it made a good story (hello White Stripes?).
The thing is, up through the 80s, Bo never stood still. Almost no one bought the records but if they had, they would have heard the output from a still-restless, still-creative, unwilling-to-rest-on-his-laurels mind. He may never have received the amount of acclaim that went to Chuck Berry or Little Richard or other early pioneers of rock, but he was every bit their equal and is unequivocally a member of the rock pantheon.
Also taken from us recently ….
Harvey Korman – brilliantly funny in Mel Brooks movies, in particular Blazing Saddles, but perhaps even more so as a regular on the Carol Burnett Show. He and Tim Conway would stand there on stage, improvising wildly, doing everything they could to make the other break up on camera. The result was some of the funniest TV of its time.
Not one but two Star Trek related deaths:
Joseph Pevney directed 14 episodes of the original Star Trek TV series, including two of the most popular, The City on the Edge of Forever and The Trouble With Tribbles. He directed 35 feature films and also episodes of Fantasy Island, Incredible Hulk and other series.
Alexander Courage wrote the theme music for Star Trek. He wrote other stuff too, but this one brief piece alone guarantees him immortality.
Another TV theme song writing god, Earle Hagen also passed away. “The Andy Griffith Show,” “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” “The Danny Thomas Show,” “I Spy,” “That Girl,” “The Mod Squad,” need I say anything more?
Director/producer/actor Sydney Pollack – his films as a director include They Shoot Horses Don’t They, Jeremiah Johnson, The Way We Were, The Yakuza, Three Days of the Condor, Tootsie, Out of Africa and many more.
And last but certainly not least, Dick Martin, half of the comedy team of Rowan and Martin. Rowan & Martin’s Laugh In changed comedy TV, accidentally helped elect Richard Nixon and probably paved the way for MTV. In the 60s, the other TV networks might as well have gone dark while Laugh In was on. No one watched anything else. In the 70s he became a very successful TV director and married a Playboy Playmate.
All of them will be missed.
