The “Bo Diddley Beat”

I listened to this CD the other day for the first time in a few years. It’s an eclectic compilation of songs by all sorts of musicians using this beat, which was not original to Bo Diddley, but used extensively by him. It’s called kpanlogo and originates in Ghana. It’s a wonderful beat. I’m pretty sure you’ll know it when you hear it.

Bo Diddley bought his babe a diamond ring

If that diamond ring don’t shine

He gonna take it to a private eye…

SO, for some cosmic reason on last night’s quite wonderful “Bakersfield and Beyond” Thursday radio show on our quite wonderful local station, KWMR, on came this song by the “cowpunk” LA band Lone Justice with the same beat.

East of Eden by Lone Justice on Grooveshark

About Lloyd Kahn

Lloyd Kahn started building his own home in the early '60s and went on to publish books showing homeowners how they could build their own homes with their own hands. He got his start in publishing by working as the shelter editor of the Whole Earth Catalog with Stewart Brand in the late '60s. He has since authored six highly-graphic books on homemade building, all of which are interrelated. The books, "The Shelter Library Of Building Books," include Shelter, Shelter II (1978), Home Work (2004), Builders of the Pacific Coast (2008), Tiny Homes (2012), and Tiny Homes on the Move (2014). Lloyd operates from Northern California studio built of recycled lumber, set in the midst of a vegetable garden, and hooked into the world via five Mac computers. You can check out videos (one with over 450,000 views) on Lloyd by doing a search on YouTube:

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