Bo Diddley goes out with a bang!

We tend to avoid covering funerals on Electric Roulette, what with us being a music site. Even when those funerals involve famous musicians, we kinda think that they should be allowed to pass without a buncha hacks cooing over it saying "Oh jeez, man. You shoulda seen his wife. She cried and cried and then eyes darted to his former mistress and everyone shuffled their feet uncomfortably and, apart from our scribbling pens, you could hear a pin drop...".

However, we're gonna cover Bo Diddley's because he went out with real style. We're talking about some final 'beyond the grave' finger flipping gesture to the man... or a video link-up where he pretended he was in heaven... gawd no. This is a man who traded blows with our ears with maximum R&B and supreme style. His guitar sound may have been sublimely crass... but Bo was a man of great cool and pizazz. So what gives?

Bo Diddley's funeral was on Saturday and apart from the mindmeltingly obvious (...friends and family paid tribute to Bo Diddley...) Bo was given a rockin' send-off. "Waitaminute! You ain't gonna tell me that some bozo turned up with a rig and started knocking Bo riffs and crying during the caterwaul of Bo Diddley is a gunslinger are you? Cuz I can't bear that, man. I thought this was gonna be cool... not some Lady Di send-off. Don't tell me Billy Joel was there crying and telling everyone about this time Bo and Ray Charles took him to a gospel church and they got drunk..." wait! Stop yourself. It's not going that way. I promise.

Instead of some all-star tribute (which sadly, is inevitably just around the corner... probably starring Eric Clapton), Bo's music was played by a gospel band (imagine how good that would have sounded!) and as the coffin passed through the hundreds of people gathered outside to bid faretheewell... an impromptu  comingtogether... as the hundreds of mourners clapped and chanted his 'Hey Bo Diddley' song. Now that's the way you wanna go. No candles held aloft for a touching rendition of some saccharine ballad... rather, spontaneous combustive raucous rock'n'roll mayhem!

Of course, famous fans wanted to pay their dues with Tom Petty sending some flowers (...Gee, thanks Tom, I only invented punk music and what, you send me a buncha pansies...) and Eric Burden from The Animals actually bothered dragging himself outta bed pay tribute, saying: "I've been a fan of his since I was 16, 17 years of age. His was probably one of the first records I ever owned." Again, the tribute coulda been better. Something along the lines of "If it wasn't for this great man lying beside us all here, the modern world would be a very different place... a place without crude funky riffs and pure hair-raising attitude. This man, believe it or not, may just be the single greatest artifact of 20th century pop culture. Now, canonise, paint murals on the side of your house... the M.A.N. is rolling out of this place and we'll never see his like again". Okay, I made that up as I went along, but still, it's better than saying "I kinda liked him y'know?"

Addressing the mourners, grandson Gary Mitchell said: “In 1955 he used to keep the crowds rocking and rolling way before Elvis Presley.” His manager Faith Fusillo told the family: "Please know this, because I know Diddley. As much as you loved him, he loved you more."