Don't let your mouth write a check that your tail can't cash
Born Ellas Otha Bates in McComb, Mississippi. Mama Ethel gave me to her cousin Gussie McDaniel -- I took her last name. Grew up on the South Side of Chicago. I built my first guitar from a cigar box, a broomstick, and a piece of wire. I invented a beat -- SHAVE and a HAIR-cut, TWO bits -- and put it in every song. The Bo Diddley beat. You hear it in The Rolling Stones, The Who, Buddy Holly, The Clash, U2, and every garage band that ever existed. I also built my own guitars -- rectangular, fur-covered, shaped like a cigar box. I was an engineer who happened to play music. Or a musician who happened to build things. Either way, the beat belongs to everybody now.
Electric Guitar
Music · 55y
Guitar Building
Engineering · 40y
Rhythm Innovation
Music · 50y
Electronics
Technology · 35y
Boxing
Sports · 10y
No items listed yet.
Exported from La Piazza · 2026-05-12