Bo Diddley - Have Guitar, Will Travel (LP)
- LP
- 1 piece(s)
- 1960
- 11 tracks
- 32 min
- blues
Have Guitar, Will Travel
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4.3
Average of 3 reviews
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Awesome album, but the pressing/mastering isn't that awesome. Shame :(
Unfortunately, this is a fake stereo recording. I'm not sure if you can find a mono mix of this on LP, except for the early pressings.
Bo Diddley's music from the '50s and '60s will forever bring me joy, but "Have Guitar, Will Travel" isn't quite up there with my top picks. Sure, it's got that signature "Beat", it's wild and full of energy, a non-stop party. It might seem harsh to label any of Bo's work as "derivative" – that was kind of his trademark, after all – but there are times when you swear you've heard these tracks before, only to realize he's just taken his previous work and put a new spin on it. I get that's his style, but for some reason, it feels a bit lazy on this album. I actually think his earlier records show more variety, despite the self-imposed limits he set. That, I believe, was his true brilliance. But putting those thoughts aside, this was an era when Bo couldn't put a foot wrong, so you'll find yourself dancing and cheering along with every song. I'm starting to think that some of these Scorpio reissues just found a clean copy of an older pressing (maybe even a CD?), made a copy from that, and then adjusted the EQ to match what they thought the original sounded like. I can't picture this being from a master tape. It's like listening through a thick cloth. So much of it's been muddied to give it a "fuller" sound. Every Bo Diddley album deserves respect from the engineers, and sadly, this one didn't get that. A quick job to make a quick profit, which matches my memory of paying next to nothing for this album. (I think it was around $12 or $13 when I bought it new about 20 years back.)
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