Bo Diddley - The Black Gladiator Bo Diddley is responsible for a lot of things, the Bo Diddley beat and the rise of a hundred garage bands being just a couple, but badass funk isn't necessarily one of those things that comes to mind. Around the same time that The Black
Gladiator hit the streets Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf recast themselves in a modern light utilizing a cast of modern session players and dabbling with psychedelic textures and styles. In the same mold of experimentalism meeting commercialism Diddley took a detour through the psychedelic stomp with plenty of hard tap funk driven over the top. As with his peers, this album was panned on its release and written off as a poor exercise in trying to alter artists to fit a new mold. However, just as the other two albums, it contains some wonderful gems that certainly hold the seeds of inspiration for more than a few trailblazers of tripped out blues and garage of late (Aquarius brings a good point, there's no way Jon Spencer doesn't own this album.) For the countless uninitiated this one has been reissued and repressed to vinyl, just waiting for your needle to hit the run-in and find the freakout. Diddley's got some interesting cuts nestled deep in his catalog and its good to see someone taking notice. Download: [MP3] Bo Diddley - Elephant Man Support the artist. Buy it: HERE