When music got the mojo, blues hit home

Words have often found expression through poetry and music. In fact, poets and musicians have often added oodles of meaning, stretched connotations, and teased new meanings out of words through their oeuvre. But if there is one word that music can proudly claim to have brought into a mass lexicon, it has to be 'mojo'. 

The blues musicians, during late 19th century, took the word 'mojo' out of its tribal habitat, adorned it with new meanings and connotative ornaments. This exotic, nubile, dark, mystique and intrigue of a word moved like torrential rain, gathering in its wake tonnes of interpretations.

From its origins in Africa, 'mojo' is a word that multitasks. It can refer to a shaman or medicine man; the work of the shaman; the amulets and charms of the shaman; the mojo bag that contains these amulets and charms; and all the magic which the amulets and rituals confer. Its meaning, at best, reflects the belief, common in many cultures, that some people have the ability to influence others to their own advantage, by casting spells. 

In African-American folk beliefs, especially in the deep south during late 19th and early 20th centuries, a mojo was a small bag worn by a person under the clothes. The mojo bag usually contained a mix of herbs, powders, sometimes a coin, and other objects thought to promote supernatural action or protection. The use of mojo bags is characteristic of the southern United States magical tradition of hoodoo. 

Towards the beginning of the 20th century, the term started getting fluid, with many different meanings assigned to it, often subtly, by the black musicians of the deep south. In blues songs, mojo almost always refers to "magic, the art of casting spells, or a charm or amulet used in such spells. For example, there's Mojo Blues recorded by Charley Lincoln sometime in the 1920s, "Oh the mojo blues mama, crawling across the floor / Some hard-luck rascal done told me I ain't here no more / ...Aw she went to a hoodoo, she went there all alone / Because every time I leave her, I have to hurry back home". Though some portions appear to be somewhat imponderable, it seems clear that the woman is using a mojo to bring her man back.

One might get the impression a mojo has something to do with sex, mainly because nine times out of ten it does have something to do with sex, in the form of a love charm or aphrodisiac or something. Scarey Day Blues by Blind Willie McTell makes this pretty clear: "My good gal got a mojo, she's trying to keep it hid / But Georgia Bill got something to find that mojo with / I said she got that mojo, and she won't let me see / And every time I start to love her, she's tried to put them jinx on me. … Well she's a hotshot mama, and I'm scared to tell her where I been / Said my baby got something, she won't tell her daddy what it is / But when I crawls into my bed, I just can't keep my black stuff still."

I imagine the expression "black stuff" requires no explanation. 

One of the greatest hits by Muddy Waters in the 50s and 60s was Got my Mojo Working. 

Some of these blues tunes were covered by white rock & roll bands in the 1960s. The tunes thus reached audiences unfamiliar with the rural African-American folk beliefs referred to in the lyrics of the songs. The exposure to uninformed audiences led to misunderstanding: usually, to refer to male virility, libido, or even the sexual organs. This misunderstanding was popularised by Jim Morrison of the Doors, who named himself "Mr. Mojo Risin'" — an anagram of Jim Morrison — in the song L.A. Woman. Some other slang meanings of mojo in common use include: charm, charisma, karma, cocaine and thing (as in "Gimme that mojo!").

But today, in contemporary usage, mojo is attributed to men and women who have the chutzpah, an attitude that borders on oomph, sexual predatoriness and sexual aggression, an open and honest conviction to admit that sex is beautiful and necessary and that life is all about being happy and making others happy. It is used primarily for women who have some inexplicable magical charm inside that can attract any number of men, if she wants to. 

When the cotton-picking African-Americans of the Southern US added oomph to the Appalachian music that was making inroads from further south (Mexico), they inadvertently added mojo to their music. And that, ladies and gentlemen, became the blues. 

Now you know why I love the blues so darned much!

Shekhar Ghosh is a Blues music aficionado who holds the rhythmic genre responsible for getting his mojo working.