Improving Bo Diddley: His Best AKA The Definitive Collection - Pick 6

The original Love Is Strange. So many classics in so many styles.

 

1. Cops and Robbers
   Diddy Wah Diddley
   ley

• Cadillac

She's Fine, She's Mine
Oh Yea

 

Here Tis

 

It is probably the best option on lp but still misses some great tracks.



This 2 cd set is a good option on cd as I believe it has more tracks than both the Chess Box and Gold.

 

Which album is this actually on? It’s been darn near impossible to get a hold of and practically every GH or BO collection doesn’t have it.

 

It's on the 2 cd compilation album in the post above yours for one, The Story Of Bo Diddley: The Very Best Of Bo Diddley.

It's also on these.

 

Story definitely looks like the most definitive set I’ve seen. Doesn’t look like either of these has been readily available on CD. Then again outside of the first two, Spotlight and Cowboy, most of them haven’t been widely available either.

 

It's a real crime that most of his individual albums are out print in the U.S and some have never been released on compact disc. It's also more confusing because his some of his albums were released under different titles in the U.S. and U.K.

 

"He Got a Key" is a jaunty blues, which apparently has Bo concentrating on his vocals (with others including Jimmy Vaughan on guitars) so his singing is upfront. Thanks for noticing that Bo's career didn't end in the 60s or 70s.

 

The Bo Diddley Story is a U.K. only release that is actually licensed from Chess and not a European public domain release. It is sort of the British equivalent of Gold or the Chess box in the U.S. The cool thing is it has some tracks like Here 'Tis that rarely appear on his compilation albums. It is a 2 cd set but can be found pretty cheaply as an import. I wish it also included the later period gem Mama, Keep Your Big Mouth Shut.

FYI - They also released one for Chuck Berry as well called Reelin' And Rockin' The Very Best of Chuck Berry. It is also a 2 cd and has a few of his better Mercury tracks added to the classic Chess material.

 

Thank YOU for noticing! Funny that so many people ignore this part of his career. He went out with a good album, one to be proud of.

 

Coco Montoya's cover of "Pills" is REALLY worth the price of admission!

 

Even though Bo's last album was on a major label, I don't recall any promotion or real acknowledgment of the release. I just recently heard the album myself, having found a used copy in one of my local record stores. It certainly won't replace his most classic sides but it's a love fest with appearances by Keith Richards, Johnnie Johnson, Ron Wood, Johnny Guitar Watson, Jimmie Vaughan and others. I like the song "Coatimundi" because it sounds so different from his usual fare. I guess a lot of comeback albums from the greats are not really acknowledged and it's sad. I'm partial to Willie Dixon's 1988 release "Hidden Charms" and I guess there're others.

 

These two are among my favs



Bo Diddley - Limber

 

I'll have to look that Bo Diddley release over -- I used to have some contact with MCA in the US and always implored them to include "Here 'Tis" on a Bo Diddley anthology, because of its familiarity as a Yardbirds track, but the powers-that-were at Universal in the 1980s and 1990s were oblivious. (I couldn't complain, as they did let me do the notes for one of his most dubious releases, The London Bo Diddley Sessions, which were recorded about 8000 miles from London but had to be titled that way to fit in with the Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters, and Howlin' Wolf albums carrying that title. I couldn't pass up the chance to get my name of a Bo Diddley release).

Similarly, I periodically tried to remind them that they also owned the Mercury Chuck Berry library, and there was some worthwhile stuff there (more than most people think) that wouldn't be totally out-of-place on a best-of or an anthology, but I might as well have been speaking another language.

 

The question is what they did they insist on including over Here Tis?!?

Thanks for trying anyway, Bruce.

 

The Who also covered “Here ‘Tis”

 

I'm listening to Bo Diddley is a gunslinger. 24 minutes album. What a charming and joyous record!

 

Eh. I read this all my life, in all the "rock guides".I finally bought the thing. It's (always) in abyssmal fake stereo and the track order and selection defy comprehension. The "His Best/Definitive" comp is MUCH better.

 

I've been obsessed with this nutso track as of late. "Bo Diddley's a Lumberjack". "Mumblin' Guitar" is an especially wild instrumental. "She's Fine, She's Mine" has had its riff, melody and some words ripped off in various combinations, in songs that have sold millions of copies, notably in "No No No" and "You don't love me...." But also in Dylan's "Obviously Five Believers".

Speaking of "Lumberjack".... Anyone know if the later 60's "stereo" release of this wonderful "Bo Diddley and Company" album was true stereo, or whether those stereo mixes only showed up more recently?

 

Meant to include....

 

Also worth considering: "Give Me A Break." It also shows up as "Shank" on an earlier album, and as "Stinkey" on a later UK one, but this is THE version.