Do What? Did He?

 Song 639: This week the playlist comes around to Do Wah Diddy Diddy by Manfred Mann, written by Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. Two weeks ago I featured a Mann ensemble in this collection for the first time, highlighting a melodic ride that his Earth Band did, and since I have planned for years to add to the list this particular enlivening ramble, I figured I might as well get around to that too. I don't recall whether I heard this hit as it climbed the charts in the summer following the icier season when the Fab Four first rocked my world, but I do remember my neighbor buddy from across the street mouthing the words one afternoon during that sunny stretch, and I soon joined him, at least in part motivated by a lyrical simplicity that didn't take long to grasp. He was just walkin' down the street singin' "Do wah diddy, diddy, dum diddy do" while snappin' his fingers and shufflin' his feet. Perhaps it was a good thing that we did not know at the time that the same condition which led to Woody Guthrie's demise also lurked inside his system, all too soon haunting his entire existence and bringing him to his final chapter. I share a few of the details of his Huntington's Disease story in my book Expecting the Broken Brain to Do Mental Pushups, and I intend to have an updated second edition of that paperback available in a few months.