Where It All Began

Chronique

Johnny Otis and Pete Welding produced this surprisingly successful soul effort by Bo, which succeeded in reshaping his sound, not as a Sly Stewart wannabe or a lounge act covering Creedence Clearwater Revival hits. Bo at least sounds comfortable and natural doing songs like "Look At Grandma" and "Woman," and the latter is a pretty damn good song -- Bo finally emerged as a soul singer in his own right, and it worked, artistically at least. "Hey Jerome" even recalls tracks like "Say Man" in a not-unflattering light. Unfortunately, none of this mattered to the people who still cared about Bo Diddley -- they wanted the beat and the old sound, which was present here on "I've Had It Hard," and the extraordinary "Bo Diddley-itis," but not in the kind of quantity they craved. He gave them his classics in concert, but not on this album. And it all came so late in the day: not only in terms of Bo's identification as anything but an oldies act , but as part of the history of Chess Records (now subsumed into the GRT corporate operation, the Chess imprint having no meaning or significance), that Where It All Began vanished from sight, leaving scarcely a trace or a ripple on the charts.

© Bruce Eder /TiVo