Story Of Bo Diddley Lyrics

Now listen, hear this story of Bo Diddley,
The rock and roll senior general.

Bo Diddley was born Ellis Mac Daniels,
In a place called Macoon, Mississippi, about 1926.
He moved to Chicago about 1938,
Where his name was eventually changed to Bo Diddley.

He practiced the guitar everyday and sometimes into the night,
'Til his papa's hair began to turn white.
His pa said, son, listen here, I know,
You can stay but uh, that guitar has just got to go.

So he pulled his hat down over his eyes,
And headed on out for them Western skies,
I think Bob Dylan said that,
He hit New York City.

He began to play the Apollo in Harlem, good scene there, everybody raving,
One day, one night, came a Cadillac with four headlights.
Came a man with a big long fat cigar,
He said, come here, son, I'm gonna make you a star.

Bo Diddley said, uh, what's in it for me?
The man said, uh, shut your mouth son,
Put your guitar on, you just wait and see.

Well, old Bo made it; he made it real big,
And so did the rest of the rock and roll scene along with him,
And a white guy called Johnny Otis took Bo Diddley's rhythm,
And he changed it into Hand Jive and it went like this:

In a little country town one day,
A little country band begin to play,
Had two guitars and a beat up saxophone,
When the drummer said, woah, those cats begin to roll.

Oh, baby, ooh-wee-oh-oh,
Ooh-la-la that rock and roll.
You hear me, ooh-wee-oh-oh,
Ooh-la-la that rock and roll.

Then the U.S. music scene, there was big changes made,
Due to circumstance beyond our control such as payola.
The rock and roll scene died after two years of solid rock,
You got discs like, uh:

Take good care of my baby,
Please don't ever make her blue.

And so forth.
About uh, one year later in a place called Liverpool in England,
Four young guys with mop haircuts began to sing stuff like, uh:

It's been a hard day's night,
And I've been working like a dog.

And so on.
A place called Richmond, Missouri, way down in the deep south,
They got guys there with long hair down the back singing:

I wanna be your lover, baby, wanna be your man.

And all that jazz.
Well, we've been doing this number Bo Diddley for quite some time, now,
Bo Diddley visited this country last year,
And we were playing the club A-Go-Go in Newcastle,
Our hometown, and the doors open one night,
And to our surprise walked in the man himself, Bo Diddley.

Along with him was uh, Jerome Green, his maraca man,
And the Duchess, his gorgeous sister.
Now, we're doing, uh, we're doing this number,
Along with them came the Rolling Stones and the Mersey Beats,
Everyone's standing around digging it, and I overheard Bo Diddley talking.

He turned around to Jerome Green, he said,
Hey, Jerome, what do you think of these guys doing uh, our material?
Jerome said, uh, where's the bar, man? Please show me to the bar.

He turned around to the Duchess and he said,
Hey, Duch, what do you think of these young guys doing our material?
She said, uh, I don't know,
I only came across here to see the changing of the guards and all that jazz.

Well, Bo Diddley looked up at me and he said,
Uh, with hard closed eyes and a smile.
He said, man, took off his glasses,
He said, man, that sure is the biggest load of rubbish,
I ever heard in my life.

Hey, Bo Diddley...