QUEEN Guitarist Brian May - BO DIDDLEY "Was A Hero To Us"
June 3, 2008, 16 years ago
QUEEN guitarist Brian May has issued the following tribute to BO DIDDLEY:
"From my point of view ... Bo Diddley was a hero to us, when we were starting off. In our first group, 1984 we used to play his signature tune, 'Bo Diddley' and 'You Can't Judge A Book (By Lookin' At The Cover)', but I doubt if there is any existing recording of this.The original 'Hey Bo Diddley' recording defines a rhythmic riff which has become a standard piece of equipment in rock music - a way down dirty chugging which gets into your mind and never goes away. It is also one of the very few big rock records which uses the device of a 'volume vibrato' on the main riff. This effect is very different from anything which can be done on the guitar - vibratos on electric guitars are done with the "whammy" (Tremolo arm), or by vibrating the string in and out of a bend with the fretting hand (the left hand for a right handed player); and these effects are always a cyclic variation in the PITCH of the note. Bo had used an affect which used to be standard on Guitar Amps, but was little used by our generation - a cyclic variation of volume (loudness). The only other example which comes to my mind is the guitar on the EVERLY BROTHERS fine record 'Always It's You' - but this was a very gentle bit of playing - to which the amp vibrato gave a delicacy."
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