The Definitive Collection

The Definitive Collection

Category: (Music)

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Customer Reviews

Bo Diddley-The Definitive Collection

Reviewed by Mitchell S. Friedman, 2009-02-08

Bo Diddley invented his own sound-and that's a hard thing to do. His African rhythms are a cornerstone of Rock and Roll. This collection shows how diverse he was. Anyone who had their songs covered by Eric Clapton, George Thorogood, and The New York Dolls had to be on to something!

Bo Diddley at His Best

Reviewed by Stephen F. Maziarz Jr., 2009-01-06

Wow, what a cd. High quality sound, great selection of hits and some songs that I heard for the first time. There were two songs that I didn't care for but the rest were super. Don't be afraid to add this one to your collection.

Diddley does Diddley

Reviewed by S. Gartner, 2008-12-22

Took me back in time.Sound quality is super.I saw Bo's act in a Conn.club in the fall of 1960.A true legend.

An amazing album

Reviewed by Matthew Smith, 2008-07-28

This is just a really good collection assembled here. There's always those purists who think one song shouldn't have made it on a greatest hits type album and that another should have gotten its place, but the fact is that this is a really good album.

As someone who has only recently started listening to the Blues, I was surprised when I first introduced myself to Bo Diddley because I knew so many of his songs but just not sung by him. I was amazed to find out how much influence this man had on my own musical experience without my ever even hearing about him until very recently. I was happy to remedy that situation with a great album such as this one. This is the type of CD you can put in and just listen over and over again. The only reason to touch the dial after you put this CD in is to turn it back to re-listen to one of your favorites.

From the rough and fast Who Do You Love to jocular Say Man this album has great songs. We recently lost this musical giant but with this recording and many like it he will live on forever.

I Said -Who Do You Love?

Reviewed by Alfred Johnson, 2008-06-23

The last time I had occasion to mention the late Bo Diddley in this space was in connection with a series of interviews and performances along with Chuck Berry, Little Richard and others in Keith Richards Chuck Berry tribute film Hail, Hail Rock and Roll. The talk centered, rightly, on the dismal fate of many black recording artists who developed what would become Rock and Roll when the white artists like Elvis took it over and reaped the benefits of a mass audience. Well, those interviews occurred a while ago, back in the 1980's, but Bo's sense of not having been properly recognized I believe remained until his death. Yet, when one thinks of the sounds created by the founders of Rock and Roll can anyone deny that Bo's primal beat was not central to that explosion? I think not.

Here, in one album we have, if not all of Bo's creative work then a good part of it, at least a good place to start. Of course, the classic song Bo Diddley and its offshoots and variations are here. However, the one Diddley song that will probably outlive them all though is Who Do You Love. Although not a theme song it nevertheless expresses the raw energy of rhythm and blues/ rock/ carib sound like not other. Hell, George Throughgood was able to make a whole career on the basis of having covered that song and other Bo work (and to be fair, covering the work of Elmore James and Hound Dog Taylor as well).

And that is a good point to finish on. The really great rockers, and Bo is in that company, unlike the one-shot johnnies get covered because their work expresses something that someone else later wishes to high heaven that they had created. (George has been quoted directly on that point.) Finally, I give the same warning here as others have given in their comments about the sameness of this CD and the Chess 50th Anniversary CD from 1997. Get one or the other and save those pennies to get more of Bo's work. "I said- I'm just 22 and I don't mind dying. Who do you love?" Thanks for that line Bo. Kudos