Got My Mojo Working


"Got My Mojo Working" is a blues song written by Preston "Red" Foster and first recorded by Ann Cole in 1956. Muddy Waters popularized it in 1957 and the song was a feature of his performances throughout his career. A mojo is an amulet or talisman associated with hoodoo, an early African-American folk-magic belief system.
Rolling Stone magazine included Waters' rendition of the song on its list of 500 Greatest Songs of All Time at number 359. In 1999, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences gave it a Grammy Hall of Fame Award and it is identified on the list of "Songs of the Century".

Origins of the song

The song was written by Preston "Red" Foster, an African-American musician unrelated to the actor of the same name. Music publisher and executive Sol Rabinowitz described Foster as "one of the shyest human beings I've ever met", and a judge in the early 1970s described him as "a Black man, about forty years of age... with bleached blonde hair and highly modish clothing sat quietly in the courtroom."
According to Rabinowitz, Foster approached him in the mid-1950s with several songs. Rabinowitz recalled:
In his biography of Muddy Waters, Robert Gordon gave a similar account: Waters and his band learned the song while backing Cole on a Southern tour and promptly recorded it after returning to Chicago. Rabinowitz claims he regularly sent Foster checks for songwriting royalties amounting to $20,000–30,000 a year in the 2000s. Foster later set up GetIt Records in Jamaica, New York, and released singles under his own name and as "The Mojo Kid".
Music historian Larry Birnbaum states that the 1955 R&B hit "Hands Off", written by Jay McShann, which he recorded with singer Priscilla Bowman, was the "obvious basis" for "Got My Mojo Working". The two songs were combined by Elvis Presley while jamming in the recording studio in 1970 and were released on the 1971 album Love Letters from Elvis.

Muddy Waters rendition

While Cole's version of "Got My Mojo Working" reflects more of a doo-wop style, Muddy Waters emphasizes a driving rhythm. AllMusic critic Matthew Greenwald also notes the song's rhythm: "A sturdy jump blues rhythm and tempo drive the song, while a basic 1/4/5 chord progression defines the melody. The meeting of these two styles is the basis for the rock & roll genre and makes the song one of the most influential."
Waters used many of Foster's lyrics, but added a reference to acquiring a mojo from his 1950 song "Louisiana Blues": "I'm goin' down in New Orleans, get me a mojo hand, I'm 'on show all you good lookin' women, yes how to treat your love". His popular 1954 song, "Hoochie Coochie Man", written by Willie Dixon, also mentions a mojo. According to Waters:
Waters recorded the song on December 1, 1956, for Chess Records in Chicago. Little Walterand James Cotton have been mentioned as supplying the harmonica parts.

Litigation

This song has been the subject of copyright litigation. McKinley Morganfield, a.k.a. Muddy Waters, heard Ann Cole perform it while she was on tour with him in 1956. He modified the words, and attempted to copyright his own version. Dare Music, Inc., holder of the Preston Foster copyright, and Arc Music Group, holder of the Morganfield copyright, settled out of court, with Arc deferring to Dare's copyright. In Strachborneo v. Arc Music 357 F. Supp 1393, Ruth Stratchborneo sued co-defendants Arc Music, Dare Music, McKinley Morganfield and Preston Foster, claiming that all had infringed on her copyright in the song "Mojo Workout". In disagreement with Plaintiff Stratchborneo's claim, the ruling held that the term "Mojo" was essentially in the public domain and that the various uses of it in recordings by Ann Cole, Muddy Waters, Jimmy Smith and Bill Cosby did not, therefore, constitute infringement.
"MOJO is a commonplace part of the rhetoric of the culture of a substantial portion of the American people. As a figure of speech, the concept of having, or not having, one's MOJO working is not something in which any one person could assert originality, or establish a proprietary right."
Importantly, the ruling also unequivocally established the copyright of Preston Foster and Dare Music, Inc. in the song "Got My Mojo Working".
"I find that defendant Dare is the owner of a valid copyright originally issued to Foster on October 29, 1956 and duly assigned to Dare, covering the words and music of "GOT MY MOJO WORKING," as set forth in a 1956 lead sheet filed in the Copyright Office and on the demonstration record, Ex. 6, and that such work is an original musical composition of words and music made by Preston Foster, which does not infringe any rights of plaintiff."

Foster lyrics excerpt

Got my Mojo working but it just won't work on you
Got my Mojo working but it just won't work on you
I want to love you so that I don't know what to do
I got my black cat bones all pure and dry
I got my 4 leaf clover all hanging high
I got my Mojo working but it just won't work on you
I want to love you so 'til I don't know what to do

Excerpt from Waters lyrics

Got my mojo working but it just won't work on you
Got my mojo working but it just won't work on you
I want to love you so bad I don't know what to do
Going down to Louisiana to get me a mojo hand
Going down to Louisiana to get me a mojo hand
I'm going to have all you women, getcha under my command
Got my mojo working

Excerpt from Stratchborneo lyrics

I got my mojo working
Well my mojo working
Well my mojo working
Well my mojo working
My mojo working but it just won't work on you.
You grab your little girl and spin her around
You grab both hands and holler out loud
You turn and turn till you're back to back
You move your feet and you don't look back.
You do the mojo workout
Well the mojo workout
You do the mojo workout
I got my mojo working
Well my mojo working
My mojo working.