Top Qs
Timeline
Chat
Perspective

Say Man

1959 single by Bo Diddley From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Say Man
Remove ads

"Say Man" is a song by American musician Bo Diddley. Written under his real name of Ellas McDaniel, it was recorded by Bo Diddley in 1958 and released as a single in 1959 on Checker 931.

Quick Facts Single by Bo Diddley, B-side ...

The recording became his biggest US pop hit, reaching number 20 on the Hot 100,[1] and number three on the R&B chart.[2] It arose from a jam session between Diddley and his maracas player Jerome Green, and featured Diddley and Green trading insults in the style of the word game known as The Dozens.[3]

Bo Diddley said of the song: "A lot of the things I did in the Chess studios, we were just goofin' around ... They played it back, and it shocked all of us! Of course, they cut out all the dirty parts."[4] Music critic Maury Dean, while rejecting the idea that the track is "the first rap song", says that it is "the first major soul tune to feature a total spoken patter of pal put-downs to a rockin' beat ... . Bo's lightning right hand chops chords like sugar cane. The incessant beat throbs into the hot American evening nocturne of streetwise savvy. Rap – with a side of ghetto-blast humor."[5]

The recording also appeared on the album Go Bo Diddley.[3]

Remove ads

References

Loading related searches...

Wikiwand - on

Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.

Remove ads