The gathering celebrated the birth of recorded sound.
WASHINGTON (AP) – Bo Diddley did what he does best, singing and playing his guitar.
Five members of Congress did the best they could, playing his backup group.
Wednesday’s jam session on Capitol Hill commemorated the birth of recorded sound 125 years ago, when Thomas Edison invented the phonograph.
In a green coat, gold shirt and black hat, Diddley entered the room in what he called his “wheelchair Cadillac” that he sometimes uses for a bad back.
“I’m kind of in a good mood,” he said as he fiddled with his guitar.
The cylinders can handle about two to four minutes, so the performances were brief.
The 74-year-old bluesman strummed his guitar as five House members tried to keep the beat, with varied levels of success. Tapping their feet and bobbing their heads behind Diddley were Reps. Mary Bono, R-Calif., John Conyers, D-Mich., Joseph Crowley, D-N.Y., Mel Watt, D-N.C., and Linda Sanchez, D-Calif.
The wax cylinders will go into a time capsule for the Edison National Historic Site in West Orange, N.J.
The Edison Preservation Foundation, which sponsored the event with the Grammy Foundation, is asking Congress to provide nearly a third of the $90 million it says is needed to preserve Edison’s legacy at the historic site, part of the National Park Service.
Diddley rapped for the audience afterward.
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