Bo Diddley
Where It All Began

After 12 unparalleled months in the history of Rock, during which albums such as “Sticky Fingers” by the Rolling Stones, “What's Going On” by Marvin Gaye, “Who's Next” by the Who, and “Led Zeppelin IV” were released, in 1972 rock was mature and had dominated the album charts since rock musicians began favoring LPs over singles in the mid-sixties. The music scene was in great turmoil, with various expressive forms within the broad container of rock multiplying: in England, glam exploded, in Italy and Europe, prog dominated, hard rock found its consecration with a growing fanbase, black music continuously updated its musical language, and jazz rock was in its nascent stage.

In this creative fervor, a Man (I am a Man ...) named Otha Ellas Bates, also known as Bo Diddley, also called The Originator of Rock And Roll for his essential contribution in the previous two decades to the transition from blues to rock, recorded the best album of the third decade of his artistic career, though at the time it went almost entirely unnoticed. After all, when all the bands that had learned from Bo's direct blues and tribal sounds were innovating the formula and reaping the fruits of this process, Bo was now considered an old glory, obliged to play only his historic successes.

Indeed, it had been 7 years since Bo had achieved a good commercial result, as he had consistently done between 1955 and 1965. His record label tried to relaunch him in 1967 with the release of two works that, following in the footsteps of the English super bands, united, in the first case, Muddy Waters and Little Walter (“Super Blues”) and, in the second, Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf (“The Super Super Blues Band”). Both attempts failed (commercially ...), then in 1970, he released “The Black Gladiator” with a renewed style compared to the classic Chicago electric blues, incorporating funk and psychedelic blues into the Man's tried-and-tested musical formula, but the public's reception was not as hoped. This was followed by a further restyling attempt with the release in 1971 of “Another Dimension” aimed at broadening Bo's audience by introducing more soul sounds, thus winking at the Motown style, but this attempt, in this case, was unsuccessful.

With the release of “Where It All Began,” there is, therefore, a partial return to the past: the album revisits the funk sounds of Black Gladiator, a bit of soul, and, in at least a couple of tracks, we even find the dear old Bo with pieces where the guitar becomes a percussion element with the rhythm stealing the scene from the harmony. After all, Bo became famous for tracks that often have no chord changes, which means that the musicians play the same chord throughout the piece, and the master is the Groove that only people formed between the Mississippi delta and Chicago know how to bring out.

As mentioned, a couple of tracks – the first “I've Had It Hard” and the last “Bo Diddley-Itis,” both composed by Ellas alone – are real Bo Diddley standards. They also pick up one of the Man’s quirks: using his stage name in the text, indeed, in the majority of cases, he even slipped it into the title: “Bo Diddley,” “Diddley Daddy,” “Hey Bo Diddley,” “The Story Of Bo Diddley,” “Bo's Blues,” “Bo Diddley Is Loose,” ... and so, nothing new, but listening to the Bo Diddley beat is always a pleasure. Certainly, there are guitarists better and more virtuous than Bo, but for The Originator, one chord is enough to stir souls to obsession, even though, to be honest, “Bo Diddley-Itis” concludes with a thunderous solo.

With “Woman,” however, we enter the full seventies atmosphere, and the first notes already take you back to a smoky, ill-frequented billiard room in a U.S. slum. It's a great blues with a seventy-style riff; in this case, young debtors partly repay the master who is inspired by his devotees. “Look At Grandma,” and “A Good Thing” are enriched by fantastic choirs with Bo's voice being decidedly secondary. The first, moreover, with lyrics that seem written today (signed by two women ..., the backing vocalist Connie Redmond and Bo's wife at the time Kay) and which, I suppose, takes aim at youthful excess: "Grandma, grandma, what are you trying to do? Grandma, grandma, everyone's watching you - She parked a Rolls Royce and hopped on a minibike - It wasn't long before grandma almost disappeared - She went to the place where teenagers meet." Surprising for the time, especially if directed at a woman, but after all, “The Graduate” had already been released in cinemas in 1967 and Mrs. Robinson must have taught a lesson!

“Hey, Jerome” is a jam of two wild guitars that does not shine for originality but is pleasantly listenable; “Infatuation” is a soul piece that softens the tones and projects you poolside surrounded by people with afro hairdos swaying on the spot with a cool air; “Take It All,” perhaps the weakest track, is an ear-catching funk distinguished by a fine interplay of guitar and bass. But my favorite of the bunch is “Bad Trip,” a funk, acid from the title, with singing that reminds me of Jimi Hendrix and a spectacular guitar solo, just to clarify that the Man is a virtuoso of the six strings with more than one note in the neck of the Gretsch Cigar Box!

The work stands out, therefore, for featuring songs of different styles under the umbrella of blues-rock and flows pleasantly to the end. Unfortunately, this was not what was expected of Bo; the public opinion had relegated him to the priesthood of the Latin-Caribbean-Afro-Cuban rhythm, and no digression was allowed, even if the time was dense with great novelties.

Years of oblivion will follow, but faithful to the charge that history has reserved for him, his influence continued to be felt, and towards the end of the seventies, when punk brought rock back to the origins of immediacy and energy, the most obvious connection was with The Originator, so much so that, in 1979, the Clash hired him to open their concerts.

“Where It All Began,” if released between 1972 and 1975 by 5 young Englishmen with long hair and pirate clothes, would probably have had better fortune. Certainly, it is not a masterpiece, but listened to today, even though it genuinely reveals the era in which it was recorded (and for some, this might be a merit) remains a great work: three stars all around, and for lovers of the genre, a must-have record. Even the cover results dated and to the younger eyes, with incomprehensible graphics. But, just imagine adding a comic strip with the writing: “… a Guitar Hero stands out among the skyscrapers of sprawling Chicago …” and adding the Marvel Comics logo for everything to fall into place: we are in the seventies baby!