WE'RE GONNA GET MARRIED

Listen to WE'RE GONNA GET MARRIED by Bo Diddley.

Nerve: Analyzing your music, I find that there’s been a lot of humor in there...

BO: Oh yes, I’m doing that again now. I have a girl that I’m working with called Tiffany (not THAT Tiffany) and we puttin’ comedy in there. I’m teaching her how to do it, so she doesn’t sing, so she’s talkin’ the song out. Like I got this song called “Leave”. It’s about a man, that his old lady tells him to leave, to get away from her, she’s had enough of his mess. You know? And it’s funny. Like my old songs where I used to have Cookie. Cookie’s deceased now. And Jerome (Green) is gone. You know, all the people that used to do that with me is gone. (the child on Bo’s end starts crying again) BO: Hold on a minute. (to the child): You got to leave baby, I’m talking on the phone. Go in the kitchen and sit there. You gotta quit cryin’ ‘cos I can’t hear the Man. OK? Look at TV... OK, go ahead man.

Nerve: Back to the humor thing, was Fats Waller ever an influence on you at all?

BO: No way! Don’t ever ask me if someone was an influence! I influenced other guys. I didn’t listen to nobody that I sound like. I sound like ME! Nobody else. (laughs)

Nerve: Back to the Chess era, I’ve always been curious about the artist that did the LP covers, Don Bronstein...

BO: I have no idea who in the hell he is. These guys did something when I was not in town, a lot of it. These guys came out with these screwed up paintings, drawings and shit. Y’know, something that I never OK’d or looked at until the damn thing was handed to me when I walked in... “Oh we got your new album”, and that’s depressing, you know? And I had no say-so.

Nerve: Some of your songs look at the political landscape of the day. Like “Hey, Khruschev”...

BO: That’s REAL old.

Nerve: What do you make of the world today?

BO: Well I got one that I was getting ready to do, and I quit foolin’ with it because I was going through a divorce. It’s called “My Eagle Is Pissed’”. About the Saddam Hussein mess, you know? Meanin’ the United States is pissed off. About what happened with the twin towers. I never thought that people would do that kind of shit.

Photo: Trip to Upper Manhattan (1).