Born Ellis McDaniels, Bo Diddly is one of America's musical treasures. It's almost impossible to play rock and roll without "borrowing" his trademark rhythm. A recent appearance in my neighborhood also confirmed he's still got what it takes. His performance included a song he'd written on the plane ride to Wilkes-Barre (PA) and a stage presence that puts many younger musicians to shame.
I had an opportunity to talk to him about his recent recording, last year's Promises, which he produced and played all the instruments on, but our talk also focused on the question of royalty payments for his Chess recordings. Here's what he told me...
C: I read where you and Al Teller [chairman of MCA Group] co-hosted a press conference in 1992 to address the royalty problems with the Chess Records Masters...
Bo: MCA, to my knowledge, is not involved with the rip-offs. As of now - and prior to now - I haven't found anything to suggest bootleggin' or playin' with royalties. They've been tryin' to do the right thing as far as I know. I have to take their word for it and so far I haven't found any fault with 'em.
C: Have you gotten any money?
Bo: Oh, no. They were supposed to be tryin', but I haven't heard anything. I'm a little bit upset about it because it's the same old story, over and over again. You have to get an attorney and then they tell ya, "Well, we need ten thousand dollars as a retainer." There's no guarantee you're going to find these people and when you do find 'em, it takes you five years to get any money out of them. That's a bunch of bullshit! The old American word... bullshit. See, you people out there been buyin' records and thinkin' the artist is livin' good. Because if you held your money right, you can do ok. It's like anything else. A guy could be a grocery man, but if he saves his nickels and dimes he'll be all right. But I'm in the business of music and makin' people happy, so my payment is a little bit different.
But still and all you've got thugs out there don't want to pay - and they're not payin' - people. You got lawyers that are crooked, helpin' these dudes get away with murder. And I figure that I've been murdered! I've been had. You know, I'm 66 years old and I'm still workin' because I have to work. I'm not financially fixed. I'm not going to tell that lie and say I am. I'm not hungry, but if I can't afford to stop workin'... At 66 you start thinkin', "What's this all about? What have I been doin' for 40 years?" I've been makin' somebody else fat.
C: Especially when you consider almost every song you've written has been covered.
Bo: And I ain't got a dime for it. I think this is crazy. What we call... statute of limitations, is made for crooks. If you don't catch 'em in time, then there ain't no sense you messin' with 'em 'cause of statute of limitations. But there ain't no statute of limitations on murder, and I figure I've been murdered!
C: It seems like MCA has the resources to deal with the problem and recover some money for you...
Bo: Well, they've got to go after the same dudes I've got to go after. But nobody's attached anybody's bank accounts. I think the US government should contact me and get involved, because these people... I'm pretty sure they know where they are quicker than I do.
C: They could go to record stores and look.
Bo: When you find a bootleg record in a bin, the guy that owns the store won't give you the number where he got it from.
C: What about the label info...
Bo: No! It's not that simple. Baby, it's not that simple. These people got post office boxes. They send out catalogues and the only way you get anything from 'em, you have to say, "Well, I'm a record store owner..." and the cat might investigate to find out if you really have a record store. It's crazy. And when you find one of these people and run down on 'em, they're likely to be workin' out of their house. They're still makin' money and not payin' you. I'm the artist, it's my product, and they have no right to do it without me.
I can't go sell Cadillacs without General Motors permission. I feel like, my shits mine. Like General Motors say, "Hey, that's mine." and I can't do it. So, why is it so easy for these people that take your stuff? Copyrights? Now it sucks!"
I hear so much country music that sounds like rock and roll songs from the '50s, ya dig? They've taken part of the song and curved it just enough you may not be able to say nothin' about it. And this sample bullshit. I think one of the things that hurt us is when we lost the musicians union. All the unions actually. Because the union fought for the rights of the person, the worker. I think we need to get back to that. There ain't nothin' wrong with it. You got somebody to go to bat for you. You have an employer that's an asshole and treats you any kind of way, it's not right.
You know, one of the things is - since we're talkin' about employers - you take Japan. I don't care what they say about the Japanese people. They're beautiful people and they work together. I see the reason why they're so successful is because they do work together. They get up and the boss comes through the factory and talks to the people, "Hey, good morning. How you doin'? Let's have a good day today..." and boom, boom, boom. Whatever it is they be sayin', the people are happy and that's the reason why they turn out such good products. We got to take a lesson in this country, from people in other counties, in order to survive. Because they're doin' it.
C: I agree. I think we should cooperate a little more and compete a little less.
Bo: Well, it's called togetherness. You know, there's people don't even know who lives next door to 'em. It's really screwy, it's scary. Everybody in a neighborhood should know who's kids belongs where. That's the way it was when I was comin' up. Everybody for four, five blocks knew where you lived.
C: Your talking about being 66 and having to work.
Bo: Is ridiculous! You should see my walls. You should see the awards and plaques I've got on my wall that many people don't know I have. I look at this shit and I says, "What is this for?" I love the idea people thought enough of me, for what I was doin', to present these things to me. But the public don't know that I got 'em.
C: What steps can the fans take to fight the bootleg problem?
Bo: They need - my fans... old rock and rollers, young rock and rollers - to watch and write record companies and demand that the artist... I think if people started to picketing and not buying records... it would hurt a lot of artists, but I think the artists would understand people are not buying records because the record company's not payin' the artist.
But you don't know which one is the culprit. That's the thing. See, I could belong to MCA. Ok, now MCA has got the Chess catalogue, but some dude in New Orleans just took it upon himself to press up as many Bo Diddly albums, or he'll take a song from Bo Diddly and he'll take a song from Chuck Berry, he'll take one from Elvis Presley, put 'em all on one CD and package it as... Rock & Roll Era. I'll go somewhere, see this damn thing, and look on there and say, "Damn! Where's it come from?" and it's pressed in Holland somewhere.
Now, the United States government can't stop it, but it should be able to monitor everything that goes out of here and comes back. Then ask these people, "Did you pay the artist? Have you payed Mr. McDaniels?" so that they can get the money for me.
