Home · Songs · The Paul Butterfield Blues Band · I Got My Mojo Working
Chords in progress
We have not analyzed this song audio yet. Once it is ready, you will see the chord player synced with the video.
From album
The Paul Butterfield Blues Band
The Paul Butterfield Blues Band · 1965 · Track 5
Details
If you like this, try
The story behind
The first time you listen to I Got My Mojo Working, the harmonica and guitar riff grabs you by the throat and won’t let go. It’s not a song that drags on: it starts with a sharp punch, as if someone had started an engine at full speed with no turning back. Paul Butterfield’s harmonica sounds raspy, urgent, as if each note were a spell cast into the air. The bass and drums push relentlessly, and within less than a minute you’re already tapping your feet without realizing it. This isn’t parlor blues: it’s blues from a flaming tavern, the kind of music that makes you forget you’re listening to a song and not a live scream.
The story behind it is almost as wild as the track itself. It was written by Preston "Red" Foster in the mid-50s, but the first to record it was Ann Cole in 1956, with a style closer to doo-wop. Muddy Waters heard it by chance when Cole’s band was backing him on a tour through the South; he liked it so much that he adapted it on the spot and brought it back to Chicago to record it in 1957. Waters’ version is the one that took off: a jump blues rhythm that brooks no excuses, with a harmonica that sounds like an out-of-control train. Years later, Foster received royalties in the millions, though he was a shy man who preferred to stay out of the spotlight. There were even legal disputes over the rights, but in the end it was clear the song was his. Later, Elvis Presley mixed it in the studio with another track in 1970, and the result ended up on a 1971 album. Today it plays in jukeboxes, in movies, and even in ads, but when performed live, it still smells of sweat and old amplifiers.