Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!: Day 164 - Bo Diddley

Go Bo Diddley - Bo Diddley

Checker

Produced by Leonard Chess. Phil Chess and Bo Diddley

Released July 1959

Personnel
    Bo Diddley – vocals, guitar; violin on "The Clock Strikes Twelve"
    Peggy Jones (Lady Bo) – guitar, backing vocals
    Jerome Green – co-lead vocals on "Say Man", maracas
    Willie Dixon – bass
    Clifton James – drums
    Frank Kirkland – drums
    Billy Boy Arnold – harmonica on "You Don't Love Me (You Don't Care)" and "Little Girl"
    Lafayette Leake – piano
    Otis Spann – piano

Singles From Go Bo Diddley
"Crackin' Up"
February 1959    
R&B Chart #14    
Hot 100 #62

"I'm Sorry"
May 1959     
R&B Chart #17

"Say Man"
August 1959     
R&B Chart #3    
Hot 100 #20

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Go Bo Diddley is the second studio album release by Bo Diddley. It was released on the Checker label which was a subsidiary to Chess Records.

The first thing that strikes you about the album even before you put the needle on the record is the sheer class of musician that is playing back up to Bo Diddley. Here's a few of them:

Otis Spann on Piano - considered to be the best Postwar Chicago Blues Pianist. A look at his CV and  see who he's played with it's easy to see why he was one of the best: Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, B.B.King, Chuck Berry, and Big Walter Horton to name but a few.

Peggy Jones (Lady Bo) on Rhythm Guitar - She is considered to be the first female rock guitarists in a successful rock band and was known as the Queen Mother of Guitar.

Willie Dixon bass guitar - next to Muddy Waters Willie Dixon is recognized as the most influential person in shaping Post-World War II sound of the Chicago Blues. He is well known as a truly gifted songwriter and anyone who was anyone in the Blues has at some point in their life recorded a Willie Dixon song.

And much more talent besides.

All songs were written by Bo Diddley (under his own name Ellas MCDaniel) with the exception of "I'm Sorry" which was a collaboration with Alan Freed and Harvey Fuqua.

The album was ranked #214 on The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time by Rolling Stone magazine.

One of the things I love about these old albums from the 1950's is that they were sharp and short. Twelve songs in just under thirty one minutes and all under three minutes. If you can't say what you want to say in three minutes or less it's probably not worth saying at all!

I can't recall where I first heard Bo Diddley but for a lot of folks my age who were into Punk it was probably around the time he was supporting The Clash on their American Tour!

Have a listen, it might be the best 30 minutes and 57 seconds of your day.

Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!