I remember this song as a teenager by George Thorogood. Bo Diddley was a little funkier than his rock and roll peers. He developed that wonderful riff that will live on forever where ever rock and roll is played. I could play this over and over on the guitar and never get tired of it. You can be a beginner at guitar but once you learn this…it sounds better than any other riff you can play…you can play it soft or loud…it doesn’t matter. The riff or beat has been called “The Bo Diddley Beat.”
The rhythm to this version is just infectious. Bo Diddley (Ellas McDaniel) wrote this song. It was released in 1956 but did not reach the charts…that boggles the mind.
In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Bo Diddley’s original song at number 133 on their list of the “500 Greatest Songs of All Time.”
You can be cool… but not Bo Diddley playing his square guitar cool… great guitarist and showman.
I always loved his square guitar. He built a guitar that looked like no other. He designed and constructed a custom built square shaped guitar for himself, he then commissioned Gretsch Guitars and Kinman Guitar Electrix to build further custom built square shaped models for him.
From Songfacts
The title is a play on the word “Hoodoo,” which is a folk religion similar to Voodoo and also popular in the American South. Many blues musicians mentioned Hoodoo in their songs and like Diddley, conjured up images of the skulls, snakes and graveyards.
George Thorogood And The Destroyers recorded a popular cover on their 1978 album Move It On Over. In 1982, Diddley appeared in Thorogood’s video for “Bad To The Bone.” It was good timing, since MTV was new didn’t have many videos.
British blues rockers Juicy Lucy had a #14 hit in the UK in 1970 with their version of this song.
Who Do You Love?
I walk forty-seven miles of barbed wire
I use a cobra snake for a necktie
I got a brand new house on the roadside
Made from rattlesnake hide
I got a brand new chimney made on top
Made out of a human skull
Now come on take a walk with me, Arlene
And tell me, who do you love?
Who do you love?
Who do you love?
Who do you love?
Who do you love?
Who do you love?
Tombstone hand and a graveyard mind
Just twenty-two and I don’t mind dying
Who do you love?
Who do you love?
Who do you love?
Who do you love?
I rode a lion to town, used a rattlesnake whip
Take it easy Arlene, don’t give me no lip
Who do you love?
Who do you love?
Who do you love?
Who do you love?
Night was dark, but the sky was blue
Down the alley, the ice-wagon flew
Heard a bump, and somebody screamed
You should have heard just what I seen
Who do you love?
Who do you love?
Who do you love?
Who do you love?
Arlene took me by my hand
And she said ooo-wee, Bo, you know I understand
Who do you love?
Who do you love?
Who do you love?
Who do you love?
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