“The Originator” Never Goes Out of Style/Ben Ratliff Appreciation


Yesterday we mentioned Mental Floss and their series of videos that explored the classic “Bo Diddley Beat“.  While we totally appreciate the selections (yes, even the George Michael song), and anything Bo Diddley, we gotta point out that they sorta missed the boat on making mention of basically anything The Gories ever did, which is a shame.  The Detroit band somehow took said guitar and drum beat originated by “The Originator”, and did something totally unique, and amazing with it.   So we figured we would add to the cause with this live Diddley-esque version of “Thunderbird ESQ”.

Also on the Diddley front, I finally got to the end of the latest issue of Granta only to find Ben Ratliff’s wonderful essay “Domp-Domp”, all about, you guessed it, Bo Diddley.  Upon Googling to read more of Ratliff’s stuff, I soon realized that Mr. Ratliff was also the man responsible for the Diddley obituary in the NY Times last year.   This all points to me beginning to like Ratliff more and more.

Oh, and Mr. Ratliff’s “letters” to Alex Ross are a pretty priceless read, but sadly they don’t discuss Bo Diddley.