(Roughly) Daily

Magnum photographer Martin Parr takes and collects photos of Boring…

BORING, Ore.—2000

..and photos that are boring…

A postcard from Martin Parr’s Collection: "Traveling on Beautiful Interstate 35," 2000

…and photos of the bored…

KOTKA, Finland—From the series "Bored Couples," 1991

See them all at Slate’s “Boring!” (photos, © Martin Parr / Magnum Photos)

As we meditate on the mundane, we might console ourselves that it was on this date in 1955– five months before Elvis Presley’s first appearance– that Ellas Otha Bates, better known as Bo Diddley, made his television debut on The Ed Sullivan Show… and introduced the mainstream American audience to the 4/4 wonder we would come to know as Rock and Roll.  He performed his signature tune, “Bo Diddley”– which prefigured such classics as Buddy Holly’s “Not Fade Away” and the Stangeloves’ “I Want Candy,” among countless others. In the kinescope of the show (below), the studio audience can be heard clapping heartily along.

Diddley later recalled that Ed Sullivan had expected him to perform only a cover version of “Tennessee” Ernie Ford’s “Sixteen Tons” and was furious with him for opening with “Bo Diddley”– so furious that Sullivan banned him from future appearances on his show.  But the damage was done:  as George Thorogood told Rolling Stone: “[Chuck Berry’s] ‘Maybellene’ is a country song sped up… ‘Johnny B. Goode’ is blues sped up.  But you listen to ‘Bo Diddley,’ and you say, ‘What in the Jesus is that?'”