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Bo Diddley - Bo Diddley / Go Bo Diddley (Twofer) (1959)

Track listing:
  1. Bo Diddley 2:30
  2. I'm A Man 2:47
  3. Bring It To Jerome 2:29
  4. Before You Accuse Me 3:07
  5. Hey Bo Diddley 2:13
  6. Dearest Darilng 2:51
  7. Hush Your Mouth 2:52
  8. Say Boss Man 2:33
  9. Diddley Daddy 2:29
  10. Diddy Wah Diddy 2:31
  11. Who Do You Love 2:30
  12. Pretty Thing 2:47
  13. Crackin' Up 2:07
  14. I'm Sorry 2:27
  15. Bo's Guitar 2:35
  16. Willie And Lillie 2:17
  17. You Don't Love Me (You Don't Care) 2:45
  18. Say Man 3:12
  19. Great Grandfather 2:30
  20. Oh Yeah 3:09
  21. Don't Let It Go 2:42

Notes

Legendary guitarist, gifted songwriter, master of rhythm, snappy dresser — Bo Diddley is all these things and more, and this two-fer CD, which reissues Diddley's first two albums on one convenient compact disc, offers a solid introduction to this man's special brand of musical innovation. While anyone looking for a full overview of Diddley's career should obviously go elsewhere (His Best [Chess 50th Anniversary Collection] is a great one-stop shopping place for beginners), these 23 tunes serve up a young Bo Diddley at his raw and primal best, and confirm that right out of the box the guy didn't sound like anyone else in rock & roll. Between Diddley's hypnotic, rhythmic guitar lines; the implacable rattle of Jerome Green's maracas; the spacy echo that threatens to envelop everything around it; and the borderline surrealism of the lyrics (witness the updated "Mr. Bones" routine of "Say Man," the overpopulated family of "Say Bossman," or the supreme bad-ass-ism of "Who Do You Love"), this man's music existed in a world of its own, and while you might not want to live there, the one-hour tour offered on Bo Diddley/Go Bo Diddley makes it sound like a great place to take a vacation. In the interest of accuracy, this disc even includes the same take of "Dearest Darling" twice, since the tune managed to appear on both Bo Diddley and Go Bo Diddley; nice to know someone at Chess' reissue department was paying attention to the details.