2008-6-5
HOST:
Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English.
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I'm Doug Johnson.
Today we tell about the new additions to the Library of Congress National Recording Registry ...
Answer a question about the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ...
And remember musician Bo Diddley who died this week.
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National Recording Registry
HOST:
The United States Library of Congress has added twenty-five more sounds to its National Recording Registry. They include the best selling pop music album of all time, the first broadcast across the Atlantic Ocean and some noise from Earth that was sent into space. Faith Lapidus has our report.
FAITH LAPIDUS:
The National Recording Registry began its work in two thousand. Its goal is to protect the "sound" history of the nation. It currently holds about two hundred fifty recordings.
That was "Who Do You Love" from the musician's first album, "Bo Diddley." It came out in nineteen fifty-eight. Bo Diddley was one of the most influential musicians of the nineteen fifties and sixties. The guitarist combined rhythm and blues with Latin and African musical influences and created a new sound all his own -- the "Bo Diddley beat." Many performers copied this sound, including the Rolling Stones, Elvis Presley and the Who.
Here is Bo Diddley performing "I'm a Man," one of his early hits.
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Bo Diddley was born Otha Ellas Bates in the state of Mississippi in nineteen twenty-eight. He grew up in Chicago, Illinois. By age seven he could play the violin. He taught himself to play guitar when he was a teenager. He said blues musician John Lee Hooker was a major musical influence.
As a young man, he changed his name to Bo Diddley and started playing music on the streets of Chicago. He formed a band and started playing in clubs. He signed a recording contract with Chess Records in nineteen fifty-five.
Bo Diddley made hit records throughout the nineteen sixties. Many British rock bands recorded versions of his songs that also became popular.
Bo Diddley was admitted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in nineteen eighty-seven. He received a star on the Walk of Fame in Hollywood, California. And he was honored with a Grammy Award for Lifetime Achievement in nineteen ninety-eight.
Bo Diddley kept performing live shows until last year. He stopped performing after suffering a stroke at a concert in Iowa. He died of heart failure June second at his home in Archer, Florida.
We leave you with Bo Diddley performing "Pretty Thing."
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HOST:
I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today.
It was written by Caty Weaver and Dana Demange, who also was the producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, 51voa.com.
Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA's radio magazine in Special English.