Bo Diddley Was a Gunslinger

I can't remember a time when I didn't know the Bo Diddley riff.

That jink -a- jink -a- jink shuffle followed me round in my childhood and my teens. It kept turning up on the radio, in the Rolling Stones' 'Not Fade Away', in The Who's 'Magic Bus', in The Smiths' 'How Soon Is Now', in U2's 'Desire'.

I don't know anyone who can do a Mick Jagger impersonation without thinking of him wiggling his little butt and shaking a pair of maracas. I can't even think of maracas without hearing the Bo Diddley beat. Shave and a haircut, two bucks.

Bo Diddley was a true original, and his groove will live forever. Distracted as a fourteen year old with a hard on, and powerful as a steam train.