JEROME GREEN
Bo Diddley is rightfully renowned as one of the founding fathers of rock and roll, but he actually only made the Top 40 pop charts once with a novelty number called “Say Man”. Atop a pounding, infectious beat, Bo Diddley trades hilarious comic insults with his maracas player Jerome Green (actually I have seen Green credited lately with having written “Bring it to Jerome”, though it was originally shown as written by Bo). Green’s crazy laugh and shrill drawl is a perfect counterpoint to Diddley’s baritone, and it is amazing how well “Say Man” holds up to multiple plays. The insults are inventive and offbeat: “You so ugly, the stork that brought you into the world oughta be arrested!”, “You that thing I throw peanuts at!”, “[Your girlfriend] was so ugly she had to sneak up on a glass to get her a drink of water”, etc.
Anyway, in the article on “Say Man”, Mark Deming writing for Allmusic has this parenthetical note of praise for Bo Diddley: “let’s pause to mention no other artist would be so obsessed with rhythm and such a visionary that they would hire a guy just to play maracas”.
(December 2012)
