I miss my Gretsch Bo Diddley...

smurfco said:
So awesome. I was just thinking about that yesterday actually. What's the story again?
Click to expand...

Given that I knew it was an opportunity I'd doubtless never equal, I wrote it up at the time and saved it in an email. Basically, Bo lived not far from Gainesville and did a one-off benefit for the family of a local policeman killed in a traffic accident. The guy who put the show together was a fan of Crash Pad and asked me if I could round up a bassist and drummer. Right place, right time. Here's the original narrative:

Not that he said a dozen words to me all night, but I
had a GREAT time. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

We were supposed to close. So I show up early and
walk into the bar and Bo is seated onstage, playing.
His daughter Terri, his keyboardist, sees my case and
says "The bass player is here!" I say "Yes, I'll
play bass if this gentleman will let me."

Bo keeps playing.

Now I look up onstage and there's a drum kit. Not my
drummer's kit. The promoter dude asked for a bassist
and a drummer so I got my side-band drummer, burned
him a copy of Bo's best and the poor guy practices up,
makes cheats, loads everything up and they've got
someone else. Crap. I love benefits.

I load in, while Bo is playing to a few dozen people,
futzing around with his guitar synthesizer thingy. I
say to Terri "If you can give me keys it'd be great."
Bo hears and turns around (he is seated facing the
audience) and says "We don't do that 'key' shit."
Haha, welcome to the big leagues, Brian Krashpad!

I'm up there playing with Bo, before the show has
started (his granddaughter or some such relative is
playing drums, while we wait for the keyboards to
arrive) and my drummer walks in. "So I guess I don't
need to unload?" I try to apologize (not that it's
anything I did) while playing. I don't see him for
the rest of the night. Crap.

So the keyboards arrive and Terri finally finds a
workable sound, and she is sweet as pie, telling me
how it is tough to play behind Bo and all, and she's
still not used to it! She also says "You're a brave
man!" and I said something to the effect of that I was
equal parts brave and stupid, but no way would I turn
down this gig.

Bo quits the stage and retires to the VIP room
backstage. Not wanting to be presumptious I stay out
front, I want to be out there when my wife arrives
anyhow. My wife arrives, as does my lead singer from
my side band, less than pleased about the $15 cover
(which my wife also paid).

After a LONG wait (Bo does some sort of interview
backstage in the VIP room), we finally are almost
ready to go on. "Where's the guitar player?"
everyone asks. I was only told they needed bass and
drums. A guitarist from one of the other bands on the
bill shows up, with an acoustic electric. Hmm. That
bit actually turned out OK though.

Bo immediately breaks a string before we start the
first song. He has no backup guitar and not even any
spare strings onstage. A relative is dispatched to go
get his spare strings. A VERY long string change
ensues. Finally, iirc we open with "Hey, Bo Diddley."
It goes over great, and is a song that my studies
have actually prepared me for.

For almost all of the rest of the night, I am making
shit up on the fly. In some cases between songs Bo
will teach a riff to me and the guitarist on the spot,
but almost never actually saying the key or notes. He
will either play it and expect you to play it right
back, or he will sing the melody ("Go: dum dum dum
bah dum bah dum dum") and expect you to instantly
translate it into music.

A little into the set we blow a fuse or something. I
still have power and so does Bo for our stage amps,
and the keys have power but the PA is down so no vox
and no keys or guitar. Another longish delay. The
volunteer tech crew (actually a DJ rather than a live
sound man, who volunteered his PA) eventually gets it
sussed and we plow ahead.

Apparently we were onstage for a couple hours. In
general I think it was very well received. I had a
fucking GREAT time. Towards the end of the set this
guy from the audience comes over and stood on my side
of the stage yelling encouragement and praise (please,
do not compare me to Jack Bruce, that's looney!).
Which is not very common for a bassist playing highly
repetitive simplistic basslines. Even so, I didn't
care.

I played bass for Bo Diddley.
 
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