Notes:
- The first Bo Diddley album was recently reissued by Acoustic Sounds in their Chess Records 75th Anniversary Series. I already owned an original pressing, but side 2 of that one is very noisy, so I bought the Acoustic Sounds version.
- Acoustic Sounds is famous for their near perfect reissues, almost always housed in beautiful old-school tip-on covers. The problem I have with this album is the gatefold cover, as it’s a useless feature with the disadvantage of taking the space for 2-3 regular albums in your cabinet. Space matters. I’m not against gatefolds in general, but I’ve seen too many now with just two photographs printed on the inside – these could have been included on an insert as well. And, if the original pressing has a non-gatefold jacket, maybe the reissue shouldn’t have one either? Or is this purist talk? I guess this was all started with Music Matters and later Blue Note’s Tone Poet series. Of course, in the case of Blue Note reissues, it was (and is) an hommage to Francis Wolff as well, and in general it was done more tastefully, but still… I think inserts would have done perfectly as well.
- A review of this reissue can be found here.