There are more than enough jewels - and jewels that are likely never to appear otherwise on compact disc - to attract serious rock & roll listeners, if you can swing the price, which is around $120. If the collection seems like overkill, that's because it is, and there's some poor material here from the late '60s and early '70s, when Bo was searching for a new commercial sound, although some of the latter isn't really bad - his covers of Al Kooper's 'I Love You More Than You'll Ever Know' or the Band's 'The Shape I'm In' from Another Dimension are soulful and moving, but just aren't what one buys a Bo Diddley album to hear (along with the girlie chorus on 'Bad Moon Rising'). Charly Records' The Chess Years has assembled most - though not quite all - of the music that the Originator recorded for Chess Records, which, unfortunately, means a lot of his lesser work as well - 282 recordings, made between 19, on 12 CDs looking at it is like staring across the Grand Canyon, except you want to jump into this if you have any sense.
