10. Bo Diddley
Bo was an epiphany. What you learn on Rare And Well Done is that there’s a lot of studio takes that are really far out. What I really love about him is the maracas. There’s always an acoustic element that cuts through and makes it three dimensional, no matter how repetitive it is. What he works with, the three dimensionality of this sort of minimal, minimalism is just phenomenal. It’s this churning rhythm, not just this chuggy-chug-chug, there’s this counterpoint to it. It’s so obvious and simple, it’s masterful.
It also related to the idea of the concept of house music, in that there’s something reliable about a 909 – in a lot of music I enjoy, there’s something really simple. You might think Bo Diddley is one song but it’s really just a style. Bo Diddley should really be a genre within itself. There’s that one specific song, but it carries through and there’s so many different ways to do it. I deal with that in my music too. 20 years in a lot of musicians have to approach that.
