Jerome Green (c. 1934 – c. 1973) was an American percussionist and occasional lyricist and vocalist, known for playing maracas and acting as Bo Diddley's foil in his performances and on his recordings in the 1950s and early 1960s.
[2] Needing to add percussion to boost his sound, but not wanting to have to carry a drum kit between venues, he recruited Green to play maracas, which he made out of toilet floats filled with black-eyed peas.
[4] Referring to himself, Green, and bassist Roosevelt Jackson, he commented: "We used to be three dudes going down the street with a washtub, a little raggedy guitar and another cat with maracas... We would go into the club and we would stand right by the front door because we weren’t old enough to be in there.
[8] On "Say Man", which became Bo Diddley's biggest chart hit in 1959 and which was edited from a jam session in the recording studio, he and Green traded insults in the style of the word game known as the Dozens.
Writer Elijah Wald commented: "Although they didn't mention mothers, it was otherwise a typical street corner exchange, starting with jokes about each other's girlfriends and moving on to personal signifying".