Bo Diddley - I’m A Man: The Chess Masters 1955-1958

Seminal early recordings from one of rock’s architects

In May 1955, an unknown Mississippi-born blues singer stormed up the US R&B charts with a song called Bo Diddley, a mesmeric combination of chanted vocals, choppy tremolo guitar and pounding tom-tom drums. Raw, primal, and boasting a refrain as addictive as heroin, it was unlike anything that had been heard before. Record buyers may have been a tad perplexed by the fact that the artist’s name was also Bo Diddley, but that didn’t stop them buying enough copies to send it rocketing to No 1. It wasn’t until the early 60s, though, that the song made a profound impact in the UK, influencing nascent blues-based beat groups like The Rolling Stones and The Animals. Though time and familiarity may have diluted the potency of Diddley’s early sides for Chess’s Checker subsidiary, the 48 tracks on this new 2-CD compilation possess an eccentricity combined with visceral earthiness that still fascinates. Every track that Diddley cut in an extremely fertile period spanning 1955-58 is here in chronological order. Though this might please pedantic aficionados, the chronological approach is flawed, resulting in three different versions of the singer’s debut hit appearing in the first five tracks. Overall, though, this is a fine retrospective enhanced by exemplary annotation.

Hip-O Select | 80009231-02

Reviewed by Charles Waring
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