BO DIDDLEY-The Originator Forum
Allmusic.com review:
Ride On: The Chess Masters, Vol. 3 - 1960-1961
Bo Diddley
Rating
4.5 Stars
Release Date
Jul 21, 2009
Recording Date
Jan 1960-Feb 1961
Label
Hip-O Select
Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
One of the great things about Bo Diddley, something that often goes unmentioned, is that he was a home-recording pioneer, building his own studio years before any other rocker.
The full fruits of this labor can be heard on Ride On: The Chess Masters, Vol. 3 -- 1960-1961, Hip-O Select's third installment in their complete Bo Chess/Checker masters and easily the weirdest set yet. All 54 songs here were recorded over the course of 13 months: a whopping 17 them have never been released (an additional seven have never seen release in the U.S.), every one of them was cut in his home studio in Washington DC, and not a one reached the charts. That lack of commercial success should in no way be seen as an indication that the music on Ride On is subpar -- odd and messy, yes, but the music here is fueled by a mad genius that could only have flourished in a hothouse setting like a personal home studio. Bo wound up succumbing to every studio habit that would eventually become cliché: he messed around with tempos, tinkered around endlessly with the same theme, left instrumental backing tracks without vocals, sped up his own voice to create an alter ego (Frankie Jive, who jousted with Bo on the "Say Man" rewrites "Funny Talk" and "Bring Them Back Alive"), kept sloppy notation so records by other musicians were called his (Peggy Jones claims to have recorded everything on the instrumental "Aztec").
On top of this, Diddley wrote a clutch of cheap, infectious dance-rock cash-ins, appropriated old folk tunes as his own, wrote plenty of self-mythologizing tunes ("(&Bo Diddley's A) Gunslinger," "Bo Diddley is an Outlaw," "Bo Diddley is an Outlaw," "Bo Diddley Is a Lover," "Bo's Vacation"), tossed off some killer-diller jokes and a few classic rockers like "Ride on Josephine" which gives this collection its name.
Much of this music was heard on the classic LPs Bo Diddley Is a Gunslinger and Bo Diddley Is a Lover, but in many ways the way to hear it is on this wild, wooly complete compilation, where all the flights of fancy sit next to the big, booming rockers, where the variety proves Bo to be the visionary he is.
Dusty Groove America review:
Ride On -- The Chess Masters 1960 to 1961
Bo Diddley
CD (Item 490160) Chess/Hip-O Select, 1960/1961 -- Condition: New Copy
Another stellar collection of Bo Diddley's Chess Masters -- incredible material from the beginning of the 60s -- with Bo's incendiary, influential beat -- but in a bevy of styles!
Bo is justifiably most famous for his oft-imitated beat, getting lifted by everyone from Johnny Otis, to Buddy Holly, to The Who over the years, but he doesn't get enough credit for working it into some pretty far out, wildly divergent styles over the years. These early 60s numbers find Bo working in more wild styles than ever before, from from bluesy soul, to Latin influences, to old folk tunes -- but it's all down in the Diddley style, as well as variations on his proto rock, late 50s genius.
Amazing stuff, with lots of previously unreleased stuff, as well has gritty classics! The first disc includes tracks recorded at Bo's DC home studio in the first couple months of 1960, with "My White Horse (take 4)", "Live My Life", "Scuttle Bug", "Love Me" and unedited version of "Walkin And Talkin", previously unreleased versions of "Mule Train", "Marengue (Limbo)", and "Say You Will", "Ride On Josephine", "No More Lovin", "Do What I Say", "Cheyenne", "Googlia Moo", "Working Man", "(Bo Diddley's A) Gunslinger" and more.
The second disc has tracks recorded in the DC home studios in late 1960 and early '61, "Hey, Hey (What Are You Going To Do)" (fast version and slow version), previously unreleased numbers like "Can You Shimmy?", "I'm Hungry", "Hey Pretty Baby" (fast version and slow version), "Doodlin", "Watusi Bounce" and others, plus great tracks like "Bo Diddley Is A Lover", "Call Me (Bo's Blues)" and more. 54 tracks on 2CDs!
(Limited edition of 5000 non-numbered copies.)
© 2009, Dusty Groove America, Inc.
The Napster Blog: Bo Diddley Chess Masters Series:
July 21, 2009
Bo Diddley Chess Masters Series
There's that beat, that Bo Diddley beat. It's been utilized by almost every rock band ever. From Buddy Holly ("Not Fade Away") to The Stones ("Please Go Home") to Bow Wow Wow ("I Want Candy") to U2 ("Desire") to The Smiths ("How Soon Is Now") to Black Eyed Peas ("Electric City") to KT Tunstall ("Black Horse and the Cherry Tree"), its pervasive impact on pop music will be felt forever. Diddley, the man who invented it, had a remarkably small number of hits in the '50s and '60s, but his overall influence on rock and roll is massive and cannot be easily summarized.
Hip-O Select/Geffen Records has released a series of Diddley retrospectives over the last few years. These albums are invaluable as a means to experience and enjoy Diddley's music. They depict an artist possessed of amazing depth, creativity and joy and one whose value extends well beyond his namesake beat.
I'm a Man contains tracks recorded from 1955 to 1958, Road Runner presents material from '59 and '60, and Ride On, the most recently released addition to the series, covers '60 and '61.
This is a fantastic series covering one of rock and blues music's essential pioneers.
http://blog.napster.com/napster/2009/07/bo-diddley-chess-masters-series.html
"Record Collector" magazine, London, England, (September 2009, Issue #366):
Bo Diddley - Ride On: The Chess Masters 1960-1961
A pivotal year in the life of the maverick blues man
After a string of US R&B hits for Chess' Checker imprint that had begun in 1955, in 1960 Bo Diddley upped sticks and moved from Chicago to Washington DC, where he set up his own studio in the basement of his house. The informative sleevenotes to this set, written by Diddley's biographer George R White, reveal that there were so many comings and goings from the house that the police thought Diddley was running a brothel.
Frustrated by record company interference, what Diddley really yearned for was creative autonomy and, in this respect, setting up his own studio established a new, almost revolutionary precedent for African-American artists. Once ensconced, Diddley got down to the business of recording with a vengeance, churning out a slew of tracks dominated by his jangling guitar and shouted vocals.
This 2-CD set - the third instalment so far chronicling Diddley's Chess output - features previously unheard demos and alternate takes, as well as official singles and album cuts. Some of the demos, such as the wonderfully low-fi Aloha and Funny Talk, are wild and raw, but capture the visceral energy and hypnotic appeal of Diddley's idiosyncratic guitar-led grooves.
4 stars
Hip-O Select | B 0012946-02 (2-CD)
Reviewed by Charles Waring
http://www.recordcollectormag.com/reviews/review-detail/4431
© 2009 Diamond Publishing
A member of the Metropolis Group
Ride on, Josephine, ride on....Man, it's hard to accept that Bo's gone, but his music lives on forever.
You mention some raw & unpolished materia as well as polished materia. I recall on one album, "Gunslinger" I think. While in midst song, Bo gets a 'frog' in his throat...and never misses a beat.
