Bo Diddley – Hit Or Miss
Bo Diddley – He Got All The Whiskey
Bo Diddley – Stop The Pusher
Sometime ago, I was eyeing a reasonably priced copy of Bo Diddley’s funk/psych freakout record Black Gladiator at a local spot. I didn’t have the cash for the record so every now and again I’d check to see if it was still there until eventually within that month it was gone. When I saw a copy of this album I made sure not to make the same mistake and snatched it up quickly.
Big Bad Bo finds Diddley far away from his signature sounds. Though the record was released in 1974, it sounds like it might have been recorded a few years before, just based off of the kind of funk on display here. “Hit Or Miss” is probably the best known song, because of it’s use in the LP mix of De La Soul’s “Buddy.” I prefer Diddley’s version to Odetta’s original. The pace is a bit quicker, the vocals a bit looser and Diddley injects a certain strutting badness to the song that translates nicely onto the dancefloor. It won’t please fans of Bo’s indestructible beat, but the record as a whole is a solid funky effort and worthy of a spot in not only collection, but likely in yours as well.
Cheers,
Michael