Bo Diddley
helped give birth to rock and roll in the purest way possible: by being a
true iconoclast, from his signature shave-and-a-haircut beat to his boxy guitars
and even his backup band. How many musicians of the time had a female guitarist
in the band, much less maracas? Bo's unique voodoo brew of island spice and
blues fatback, topped off by his trademark slippery leads, has been a major
influence on musicians of every stripe, not to mention his other talents (he
wrote Mickey and Sylvia's classic "Love Is Strange" under an alias).
Blending
hard rock wallop, alternative rock smarts, power pop songcraft, and punk rock
urgency, Dramarama was a band who seemed on the verge of a major commercial
breakthrough several times during their 11-year career. Puzzlingly, it never
arrived, though the band developed a potent following in their native New
Jersey as well as the West Coast; their almost-hit, "Anything Anything
(I'll Give You)," was cited by L.A.'s KROQ-FM, arguably America's most
influential alternative rock outlet, as the most requested song in the station's
history.