I interviewed Bo Diddley in his hotel room at the Seville as part of my research aided by microfiche newspaper articles from 1959 on in the basement of the NYU library which I had hoped to turn into a book with the help of my Music Business professor. I got the kernel of it from the middle of the Animals song “The Story of Bo Diddley” which in spoken words stated, “Then in the U.S. music scene there was big changes made due to circumstances beyond our control such as payola. The rock n roll scene died after two years of solid rock.” I was intrigued and began feverishly studying the issue based on the premise of the PAYOLA SCANDAL being directly related to the British Rock Invasion. The impact of which was particularly felt by black musicians who by and large had created the new emerging style. White parents did not want black musicians shaking their young white daughter’s hips. The U.S. Congress was not particularly interested in stopping the practice of paying off radio DJs to play certain records but used this as the pretext for pursuing a prejudicial policy based on it. Bo knew it was true but shot my theory down because in his view the British bands were such good students of the nascent rock art form they usurped and surpassed the Americans in general but made him a legend in the process. He may have lost a few bucks in the early days but that was a small price to pay for being regarded as one of the few originators of rock ‘n’ roll and the creator of the BO DIDDLEY BEAT. He felt it was unfair mostly because he wasn’t involved and yet suffered the consequences. To him the young kids were the ultimate barometer. If a DJ put on a record at a sock-hop and nobody danced, they simply didn’t play that record ever again. It was that simple. Rock was new, and nobody knew what the kids wanted until they demanded it played again after the DJ gave it a spin. Bo knows a lot about music but even more about life. I never pursued the book and never even got the article published much to my shame, but the tape lasted and now we can hear without any spin what he believed unedited.
“We’re here a short time and gone a long time so make the most if it while you’re here”
Good words to live by. Bo passed in 2008 may he rest in peace. Bo will be missed.
Bo Diddley with Jon Paris and the Uptown Horns in 1981 when he played Privates.
THE Bo Diddley Interview '81 @ Payola, Songwriting, and George Thorogood!