RIP BO DIDDLEY!!!!!

The Bo Diddley rhythm is the pulse beat of the universe. Or so it seems sometimes, so primal and basic is that three-two "hambone" pattern introduced on his first, self-named 1955 hit, derived from ancient African rhythms and overlaid with eerie, tremolo guitar. It's "one of the fundamental building blocks of the new musical vocabulary" of rock 'n' roll, said blues scholar Pete Welding.

Diddley, 79, who died of heart failure Monday at his home in Archer, Fla., was not as luminous a star as his labelmate Chuck Berry, or contemporaries Little Richard and James Brown, but his influence is every bit as pervasive. He came to recording late, at 26, but like Berry arrived fully formed, with the double-sided No. 1 R&B hit Bo Diddley/I'm a Man displaying his trademark beat, wit, swagger and penchant for third-person references. (He would later write songs declaring Bo Diddley was a gunslinger, a lumberjack, a lover and more.)

It was a startling record; as George Thorogood told Rolling Stone, "You listen to Bo Diddley and you sit there and you get numb." Keith Richards, whose Rolling Stones covered a number of Diddley tunes, told the same publication, "Bo was fascinatingly on the edge. There was something African going on there. His style was outrageous."

Diddley was born Ellas Bates in McComb, Miss., his surname changing to McDaniel after his mother's cousin, who raised him. Moving to Chicago, he learned violin before picking up the guitar. His professional name likely derives from the one-stringed Southern instrument the diddley bow, on which his famed rhythm was often played, although he told several other stories about the name's origin.