15 February 2021

BO DIDDLEY

 

For all of the distorted bombast that dominates the world of outsider punk consumption, it's hard to image anything this side of Kawakami whipping young adults into a blind sweaty fervor as Bo Diddley in 1959. Recorded live in front of a bunch of Cornell University students who probably thought they were just going to a regular frat party...and found themselves placed under his spell. Bookended by the raucous "Hey Bo Diddley" and "Bo Says Night," Cornell Spring Weekend is a series of slow swinging standards and southern stomps - the fast and loose attack turns back the clock on the roots of punk and the repetition nods to Krautrock monotony long before there was even an inkling of such a thing. I might be reaching here but....I don't think so. The folks at Loathed Sound (I miss you) slapped an audio collage of Diddley clips and snips on the flip side, and includes a studio version "Hey Go Go" in its entirety. Not hard to see why the suburban grown ups were scared shitless of this motherfucker. 

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