Diddy Wah Diddy

Gate to Shambhala?

In this extraordinary moment captured on American Bandstand in 1966, Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band open a conduit to Diddy Wah Diddy.  17 year-old Cathy Fletcher must have assumed Dick Clark put her on the Hotline with some teen idol.  The Captain plays along with the pat banter of promo interview speak but then at :50 the needle drops.    The Bandstand dancers are instantly transported into an enchanted reverie.  At 1:00 we see Cathy again and yet something has changed.  Was the Captain laying down a Trust Us incantation on the other end of the line?  We'll never learn the truth but watch this clip and know that the door to Diddy Wah Diddy was opened for a brief moment and all who see and experience Shangri La will never again be the same.

Check out the kid at 1:27!  When it's over he will remember nothing.  His Mom shows up at 1:40 and kicks it like a snake-handler.  Hat girl at 2:10 is off the chain!  Like dervishes the Bandstand gang is lost in the rapture until Dick breaks the hypnosis with a message from Dentyne Gum.  The fissure is sealed, the moment has passed, did it happen?  The tale is in the tape. 

                                                                              

Trust Us
(From Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band's Strictly Personal)

The path is the mask of love a way a way
The flow is the task above today there is no other way 
You gotta trust us when you need a friend
To find us you gotta look within
You gotta trust us before you turn to dust
You gotta see before you see you gotta be before be

(we love you)
You gotta touch without take
You gotta hear without fear
You gotta feel to reveal
You gotta touch without take
Such is is and uh ain't is ain't 

We're for you love you with you love you just a few

We love you we tell you true we love you
The path is youth let the dying die
The path is life yeah; let the lying lie
Let the dying die let the lying lie
(trust trust trust)

Aint no town, aint no city

The original Diddy Wah Diddy was written by Willie Dixon and Ellas McDaniel (Bo Diddley).

This is the 1956 Bo Diddley recording  released on Checker Records.

Mythical Places of the Florida Negro

I.  Diddy-Wah-Diddy

This is the largest and best known of the Negro mythical places.  Its geography is that it is "way off somewhere."  It is reached by a road that curves so much that a mule pulling a wagon-load of fodder can eat off the back of the wagon as he goes.  It is a place of no work and no worry for man and beast.  A very restful place where even the curbstones are good sitting-chairs.  The food is even already cooked.  If a traveller gets hungry all he needs to do is to sit down on the curbstone and wait and soon he will hear something hollering "Eat me!  Eat me!  Eat me!" and a big baked chicken will come along with a knife and fork stuck in its sides.  he can eat all he wants and let the chicken go and it will go on to the next one that needs something to eat.  By that time a big deep sweet potato pie is pushing and shoving to get in front of the traveller with a knife all stuck up in the middle of it so he just cuts a piece off of that and so on until he finishes his snack  Nobody can ever eat it all up.  No matter how much you eat it grows just that much faster.  It is said "Everybody would live in Diddy-Wah-Diddy if it wasn't so hard to find and so hard to get to after you even know the way."  Everything is on a large scale there.  Even the dogs can stand flat-footed and lick crumbs off heaven's tables.  The biggest man there is known as Moon-Regulator because he reaches up and starts and stops it at his convenience.  That is why there are some dark nights when the moon does not shine at all.  He did not feel like putting it out that night.



A Treasury of Southern Folklore

Stories, Ballads, Traditions, and Folkways of the People of the South

Edited with an Introduction by B.A. Botkin

Crown Publishers, 1949 New York, NY p. 479.

 

Oz Garage!

Running Jumping Standing Still have been to Diddy Wah Diddy.

Handsome wiggler Andy Anderson  will help get you there. 

 Is Diddy Wah Diddy in Australia? 

Maenads of the Bacchanal!

The Remains chuggin' A Go-Go.  À gogo is a French expression, it means abundance galore. 

Yes indeed, you will find it in Diddy Wah Diddy.

 



R. Crumb's Mr. Natural  warily refuses to divulge

the "meaning" of Diddy Wah Diddy.  From the cover

of the first Zap Comix (1968)

 

Blind Blake with a different take.

 For Blind Blake, Diddie Wa Diddie is something other than a place. 

Blake recorded this in 1929 or `30.  For Blake the abundance of

Diddie Wa Diddie speaks to something of a more carnal nature. 

Diddie Wa Diddie

There’s a great big mystery
and it sure is worryin’ me
it’s Diddie Wa Diddie,
it’s Diddie Wa Diddie
I wish somebody would tell me what Diddie Wa Diddie means

That little girl ‘bout four feet four
go on poppa n’ and gimme some more
of the old Diddie Wa Diddie
the old Diddie Wa Diddie
I wish somebody would tell me what Diddie Wa Diddie means

I went out and walked around
Somebody yelled, said “Look who’s in town”
Mister Diddie Wa Diddie
Mister Diddie Wa Diddie
I wish somebody would tell me what Diddie Wa Diddie means

Went to church put my hat on the seat
Lady sat on it, said “Daddy you sure are sweet
Mister Diddie Wa Diddie
Mister Diddie Wa Diddie
I wish somebody would tell me what Diddie Wa Diddie means

I said “Sister I’ll soon be gone,
Just gimme that thing you sittin’ on
My Diddie Wa Diddie
My Diddie Wa Diddie
I wish somebody would tell me what Diddie Wa Diddie means

Then I got put out of church
cuz I talk about Diddie Wa Diddie too much
Mister Diddie Wa Diddie
Mister Diddie Wa Diddie
I wish somebody would tell me what Diddie Wa Diddie means