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.
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.
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.
Boy, I should use spell check...
Raw & unpolished songs & polished songs.
I recall on one album, "Gunslinger" I think, Bo gets a frog in his throat mid song....and never misses a beat.
