This book explores the very humblest of beginnings and, at times, heart-rending tale of a poor black boy's struggle to free himself from the shackles of the ghetto and make it to the top. Bo Diddley: Living Legend offers a fascinating insight not only into the life and times of one of rock's first superstars, but also into the soulless and frequently brutal machinations of the popular music industry.
It's almost impossible to be a fan of rock and roll or blues without also being a fan of Bo Diddley! As popular as the musician became later in life, he started out small. Before he performed on big stages, he played music on street corners. No matter how he got his start, Diddley had a message he wanted to send into the world and nothing was going to stop him from doing just that! Read on to find out how this amazing musician went from playing for audiences on street comers to being heard by the whole world. Book jacket.
"Billy Boy Arnold, born in 1935, is one of the few native Chicagoans who both cultivated a career in the blues and stayed in Chicago. His perspective on Chicago's music, people, and places is rare and valuable. Arnold has worked with generations of musicians-from Tampa Red and Howlin' Wolf and to Muddy Waters and Paul Butterfield-on countless recordings, witnessing the decline of country blues, the dawn of electric blues, the onset of blues-inspired rock, and more. Here, with writer Kim Field, he gets it all down on paper-including the story of how he named Bo Diddley Bo Diddley"--
From the jumping rock and blues joints of the 1950s to Woodstock and beyond, Where Are You Now, Bo Diddley? takes a close look at forty-seven musicians whose unique contributions to their thrilling era will never be forgotten. For as we sang their songs, we also preserved a piece of our own personal history along with each tune. But where are they now? How do they feel about their success? How have their lives changed? Now, in this fun-filled, candid, and compelling collection of interviews, acclaimed journalist and author Edward Kiersh talks with each musician, reconstructing their triumphs and defeats, the road to gold and the path to obscurity. Here are the victories over incredible odds, and the struggles with drugs and booze and runaway fame—a fame that, in some cases, ran completely out of steam. But always, the humor, the idealism, the optimism that is the underlying key to success in the music business, as well as in life, shines through. Packed with fabulous photos, Where Are You Now, Bo Diddley? takes readers on a vivid, intoxicating nostalgia trip, giving us an important part of our musical past from the lips of the men and women who made it history.
Ellas McDaniel, born Ellas Otha Bates, on December 30th, 1928, McComb, Mississippi, U.S, known as Bo Diddley, was a singer, musician, songwriter and music producer who played a key role in the transition from the blues to rock 'n' roll. Ellas influenced many artists, including Elvis Presley, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and the Clash.
Births, deaths and marriages, No1 singles, drug busts and arrests, famous gigs and awards... all these and much more appear in this fascinating 50 year almanac.Using a page for every day of the calendar year, the author records a variety of rock and pop events that took place on a given day of the month across the years.This Day in Music is fully illustrated with hundreds of pictures, cuttings and album covers, making this the must-have book for any pop music fan.
Now in paperback, the definitive anthology from a writer who “set the standard for newspaper pop-music criticism” (The Philadelphia Inquirer), the New York Times’ first chief pop music critic and Rolling Stone contributor Robert Palmer. Robert Palmer’s extraordinary knowledge and boundless love of music were evident in all his writing. He was an authority on rock & roll, blues, jazz, punk, avant-garde, and world music—often discovering new artists and trends years (even decades) before they hit the mainstream. Noted music writer Anthony DeCurtis has compiled the best pieces from Palmer’s oeuvre and presents them here, in one compelling volume. A member of the elite group of the defining rock critics who emerged in the 1960s and 1970s, Palmer possessed a vision so complete that, as DeCurtis writes, “it’s almost as if, if you read Bob, you didn’t need to read anyone else.” Blues & Chaos features some of his most memorable pieces about John Lennon, Led Zeppelin, Moroccan trance music, Miles Davis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Philip Glass, and Muddy Waters. Wonderfully entertaining, infused with passion, and deeply inspiring, Blues & Chaos is a must for music fans everywhere.
