Douglas Hofstadter on the Bo Diddley cover problem

As I said I would do in my seminal post on the Bo Diddley cover problem, I emailed Douglas Hofstadter (Pulitzer prize-winning author of Godel, Escher, Bach and director of the Center for Research on Concepts and Cognition at Indiana University) for his opinion on the matter. With his permission, here is our correspondence. First, my query:

From: Zachary Drake
To: Douglas Hofstadter
Subject: Should singers covering Bo Diddley's "Bo Diddley" change the lyric to their own name?

Dear Professor Hofstadter,

I was writing a blog post on the following question: Should singers covering Bo Diddley's song "Bo Diddley" change instances of "Bo Diddley" in the lyrics to their own name? I know from Le Ton Beau de Marot that you are not a fan of rock music, but the issues involved in addressing this question reminded me quite strongly of themes in your work.

I see this question as somewhat analogous to the problem of how to translate "This sentence, written in English, would be difficult to translate into French" into French, with "English" and "French" mapping on to "Bo Diddley" and {the name of the cover artist} respectively. So I was wondering if you or any of your associates in the Fluid Analogies Research Group have written specifically on this issue or on a similar problem in the author-performer space. I've done a quick Google search and perusal of your website and haven't found anything that specifically addresses this question.

I would welcome any comments or contributions from you or an appropriate member of your group. Thank you for your time and consideration. I am a great admirer of your work; Godel, Escher, Bach made me so happy to have a brain well-trained enough to appreciate it.

-Zachary Drake

Here is the post in full:[I appended a copy of this post]

And Hofstadter's reply:

From: Douglas Hofstadter
To: Zachary Drake
Subject: full resolution of the mystery

Dear Mister Diddley,

I was terribly sorry to hear that you were
ailing and died last year (I hope it wasn't too
painful and drawn-out), but it was a
counterbalancing relief to know that you managed
to resurrect yourself as the Yaling Zachary
Drake. As such, you sound rejuvenated and filled
with fresh new ideas. This is exactly as it
should be, and I wish you a rich and creative
long life in your brand-new incarnation.
I understand that you wrote a song about
your previous incarnation, using your old name,
and that you now want to sing it in your new
incarnation. That does pose a problem, because
few people will connect your two names. What to
do?
Well, if I were you, Bo, I would simply use
my own name (and you know what THAT is!) --
that's the choice that makes by far the most
sense. Isn't that what you would do if you were
me (although of course that's hardly likely). So
bo for it!
As for the title of the song on the album,
well of course that has to be the same as the
name of the singer/composer -- that's bovious!
However, as for all those dizzying details
of delicate dactyls and such, I must admit, I
don't know diddly. Sheet music poses yet another
intricate problem, of course, but I'll let you
think that one through yourself.
If you ever have more questions concerning
tricky self-referential translation problems, I'd
suggest you contact my Australian colleague
Egbert B. Gebstadter, who has written a whole
book about such things, entitled "The Graced Tone
of Clément: À la louange de la mélodie des mots"
(published in Cahors by Éditions Noitide). Plus
-- and this ought to really please you -- Egbert
is completely and totally smitten with rock
music. It's the only kind of music he ever
listens to. In fact, he has a radio show on
which he only airs rock -- plus a few puns, now
and then, although in my opinion, he's not
terribly good at them.
I hope this little note helps clear up the
mystery you raised, Bo. Glad to have been of
some help. I send you all my best wishes for the
New Year.

Sincerely,
Duck Hofstadter.