Men of mojo

Among the many gratifying messages we have received in connection with our Kurtz chronicles column in the Star Tribune are two that follow up on our discussion last night of “Got My Mojo Working.” Michael Mills writes:

Thanks to Big Trunk. I was reminded while reading his post this morning that my substantial record collection includes “Fathers and Sons.”
Hope my neighbors don’t mind a little mid morning blues blasting out my window ’cause I have “Got My Mojo Working” playing as I write.
He’s right. It’s a bona fide gem.
My only problem now is getting my mind back to what I’m supposed to be doing today. It wants to go someplace else. Let’s see, where is that little baggie my brother-in-law gave me last month? Hmmmm.

John Earnest writes:

Just a note aboout how sometimes the slightest 60’s musical refernce will spin me out into a six-degrees-of-separation riff, as I am certain you have experienced. You know, sort of like a daisy-chain anti-personnel matrix, where when one goes off, a dozen more fire in such rapid sequence the first blast is still unrolling when the last starts. Within seconds of reading “Paul Butterfield” (Muddy doesn’t count because it seems fairly obvious: Muddy-Wolf-JohnLeeHooker-BB,etc), my synapses fired Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Al Kooper, Noel Redding, Canned Heat, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Grateful Dead, John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers (switchback to Butterfield?), Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Stevie Winwood,and I stopped because I realized I consciously thought of Cream Zep and Blind Faith. An this happened in something like a second, unbidden. I can’t remember how I associate any of these until John Mayall, and then it becomes fairly widely known Mayall British blues gods progeny. Maybe you know why I associated Butterfield to Kooper, and then to Noel Redding, et seq. Regardless, you sound like a guy that takes his 60’s blues/rock fairly seriously. Shameful confession: the “School Of Rock” rock history blackboard diagram? I SO wanted to see it all and match myself. Dweeb. I know very little pop/rock (absent some U2 and Stones) after about 1976.

Is John Kerry a man of mojo? I would have thought not, but it bespeaks some magical quality in him that an ex-girlfriend would post a tribute to him like this one.
HINDROCKET adds: The ex-girlfriend’s site is pretty impressive–it gives me a better impression of Kerry than anything else I’ve seen, even though it’s a bit creepy that when she says “This was our baby,” she’s talking about Earth Day 1990. And I wouldn’t want to encourage the general concept of “memorabilia” web sites by ex-girlfriends. It could get ugly, fast.
UPDATE: Reader M.B. Hallwig writes:

Little known true fact about the song. It was not original with Muddy Waters although he made it his theme song. It was original to an R&B singer named Ann Cole. You can hear her original version on Blues Masters Vol 5: Jump Blues. I recommend it.

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