Great Moments in Pop Music History: Long John Baldry, “Got My Mojo Workin”
The song, of course, is not Long John Baldry’s, but Muddy Waters’s. Or is it? After no small amount of time in court, “Got My Mojo Workin’” (or, alternatively, “I’ve Got My Mojo Working”) has been credited to a little-known fellow named Preston Foster, who wrote it in about 1956. Ann Cole recorded it the following year, and Muddy Waters followed, also in 1957, claiming the song with such blues-belting authority that it remained his for the rest of his life.
But John William Baldry has claim to it, too, as one of the first British artists to play blues music in the late 1950s. How he got to the sound before so many others is a subject of some mystery, since he grew up in the green northern English countryside in the days before pirate radio, and far from the ports where blues records came into the country courtesy of globe-girding sailors. Still, by the age of 15 he was playing the guitar, and well enough that the following year he was invited to join the American minstrel Ramblin’ Jack Elliott on a European tour. Ramblin’ Jack doubtless taught him a thing or two about the blues, and about shape-shifting, too. Tall enough at 6′7″ to earn his Robin Hoodesque sobriquet, Baldry then played with Alexis Korner’s Blues Incorporated, along the way teaching a few other British players a thing or two about the blues—among them Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton. Oh, and Elton John, too, who reputedly took his last name in Baldry’s honor....
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But John William Baldry has claim to it, too, as one of the first British artists to play blues music in the late 1950s. How he got to the sound before so many others is a subject of some mystery, since he grew up in the green northern English countryside in the days before pirate radio, and far from the ports where blues records came into the country courtesy of globe-girding sailors. Still, by the age of 15 he was playing the guitar, and well enough that the following year he was invited to join the American minstrel Ramblin’ Jack Elliott on a European tour. Ramblin’ Jack doubtless taught him a thing or two about the blues, and about shape-shifting, too. Tall enough at 6′7″ to earn his Robin Hoodesque sobriquet, Baldry then played with Alexis Korner’s Blues Incorporated, along the way teaching a few other British players a thing or two about the blues—among them Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton. Oh, and Elton John, too, who reputedly took his last name in Baldry’s honor....