Guitarist Bo Diddley has died of heart failure at age 79. Here’s how some news outlets are summing up his life:
“Bo Diddley, the pioneering electric guitarist who was playing rock’n’roll when white America was still calling it jungle music…” –The Independent
“Bo Diddley, the rhythm and blues musician whose distinctive choppy rhythm shaped rock’n’roll…” –The Guardian
“Rompin’ Ronnie Hawkins remembers the late Bo Diddley as more than just a rock ‘n’ roll pioneer — for the Hawk, Diddley was one of his biggest mentors when it came to the after-show ritual of picking up women.” –The Canadian Press
“Bo Diddley, the rock ‘n’ roll originator with the rectangular guitar whose signature beat influenced musicians from Buddy Holly to the Rolling Stones, the Grateful Dead and Bruce Springsteen…” –The Vancouver Sun
“He burst into pop music in 1955 with a song named after himself and topped the R&B charts shortly afterward. A few years later, he built his own rectangular Gretsch, nicknamed ‘The Twang Machine,’ which he would use to play thousands of concerts across decades of rousing performance…” –Wired