Burn to Shine album cover

*

(1) MOJO: BEN HARPER –

THE WOMAN IN YOU (BURN TO SHINE 1999)

B-side: Glory & Consequence (The Will to Live 1997)

“Love carved sorry in his face

The woman in you is the worry, the worry in me”

A voice like smooth smoky honey with a soft sad blues aftertaste – Ben Harper is an insanely talented singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, playing an eclectic mix of blues, folk, soul, reggae and rock.

Ironically my entry here, “The Woman in You” from his fourth studio album Burn to Shine in 1999, was effectively a B-side as inexplicably it was never released as a single.

As for the B-side of my entry, “Glory and Consequence” was a single from his third album The Will to Live in 1997 – the lyrics just have that hauntingly evocative resonance for me.

“I would rather me be lonely

And you have someone to hold

I’m not as scared of dying

As I am of growing old”

That hits me right in the heart – perhaps a little too hard.

RATING: 4 STARS****

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

(6) MOJO: DEPECHE MODE –
PERSONAL JESUS (1989)
B-SIDE: I Feel You (1993)

“Reach out and touch faith”

A song from my life soundtrack.

Depeche Mode might well have been a funk entry, with their bubble-gum synth-pop from the early 1980s, such as “I Just Can’t Get Enough” but then they took a turn to mojo later in the eighties with a harder sound as well as a darker and more sexual tone.

“Your own personal Jesus
Someone to hear your prayers
Someone who cares
Your own personal Jesus
Someone to hear your prayers
Someone who’s there”

Their new mojo brought them to world fame and their creative peak with albums Violator and Songs of Faith and Devotion – but for me their highlight was the 1989 single, “Personal Jesus”, from the former album, with a distinctly lapsed or pagan Catholic feel to it (or a play on that old evangelical refrain of a “personal relationship with Jesus”. She is the goddess and this is her body – o yes!)

“Feeling unknown
And you’re all alone
Flesh and bone
By the telephone
Lift up the receiver
I’ll make you a believer ”

It is also one of my ‘soundtrack’ songs for the film in my mind. I was delighted that the music video evoked something of the neo-Western road movie in my mind’s eye, although I had imagined it a little differently.

“Take second best
Put me to the test
Things on your chest
You need to confess
I will deliver
You know I’m a forgiver ”

And I was also delighted when the man in black himself, Johnny Cash, covered the song in a stripped-back acoustic version in 2002 – “probably the most evangelical gospel song I ever recorded”.

“I feel you
Your sun it shines
I feel you
Within my mind
You take me there
You take me where
The kingdom comes
You take me to
And lead me through
Babylon”

My B-side is a single in a similar vein from their Songs of Faith and Devotion album – I Feel You.

RATING:
B-TIER (HIGH TIER)

Single cover art (fair use)

(7) MOJO: BOMB THE BASS – BUG POWDER DUST (1994)

B-SIDE: BEAT DIS (1988)

“I think it’s time to discuss your, ah, philosophy of drug use as it relates to artistic endeavor”

Yeah, that opening narration pretty much sums up this 1994 single, “Bug Powder Dust”, by Bomb the Bass.

Well that and it’s effectively the four minute musical version of Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs, as suggested by the title. Indeed, it’s quite the game trying to unpack all the references to Burroughs and his novel as well as other pop cultural references in the relentlessly dense, ‘cut and splice’ lyrics. I’ve heard it said that songwriter and guest vocalist Justin Warfield essentially just tried to cram in as many references as possible – along with other lyrical oddities, “never been a fake and I’m never phony / I’ve got more flavor than the packet in macaroni”. In fairness, it makes about as much sense as the novel by Burroughs and its notorious ‘cut-up’ style. The lyrics get a little spicy – watch out for the recurring references to mugwump bodily fluids, particularly in the chorus accompanied by the titular bug power dust. Again – not too different from the original novel.

Arguably, Bomb the Bass – musician Tim Simenon’s electronic music ‘trip hop’ alias – is as much funk as mojo, as reflected by my B-side “Beat Dis”. Bug Powder Dust itself samples Alphonso Johnson’s bassline from Brazilian jazz fusion singer Flora Purim’s 1976 album title track “Open Your Eyes You Can Fly”.

I’m going to go more with mojo on this one, namely because of those trippy lyrics and because of the reference(s) to Jim Morrison, literally as Mr. Mojo Risin’ – “Mr. Mojo Risin’ on the case again”. (I’m pretty sure there’s another Morrison or Doors reference in “Waiting for the sun on a Spanish caravan / Solar eclipse and I’m feeling like staring, man”). Despite its relative (and esoteric) obscurity, those dense trippy lyrics and the reference to Mr Mojo Risin’ sees it as an enduring entry in the soundtrack in the film in my mind, hence its top ten placement (and top tier ranking).

“I think it’s time for you boys to share my last taste of the true black meat; the flesh of the giant, aquatic, Brazilian centipede”

RATING: 

B-TIER (HIGH TIER)

Screenshot from the official music video

(9) MOJO: GNARLS BARKLEY – GOING ON (2008)

B-SIDE: RUN (I’M A NATURAL DISASTER) (2008)

“But I’m going on

And I’m prepared to go it alone

I’m going on

May my love lift you up to the place you belong

I’m going on

And I promise I’ll be waiting for you”

A song from my life soundtrack – or the soundtrack of the film in my mind.

Psychedelic soul duo Gnarls Barkley (or Danger Mouse and Cee-Lo Green) are better known for their first album St Elsewhere and its hit single “Crazy”, but I prefer this song from their second album The Odd Couple in 2008.

As is clear from the lyrics, the song is about leaving something (and clearly someone) behind and, well, going on – to answer a powerful call, whether a call to freedom, the mythic hero’s call to adventure or even a mystical call to something beyond this world altogether. Hence it’s another song from my life soundtrack as it coincided with a time in my life when I was going on (and had to go on) from someone and something.

Indeed, for me, this song has echoes of Hendrix’s otherworldly Voodoo Child, not so much in its instrumentality (as Hendrix’s guitar is, after all, unmatched), but in how it similarly casts “an even more powerful spell by delivering the lyric in the voice (or chorus) of a voodoo priest” – something that is even clearer in the music video for the song.

As for my B-side, I have to go with Run (I’m a Natural Disaster), a single from the same album – perhaps best known as a song from a film soundtrack, the X-Men: First Class film.

RATING: 

B-TIER (HIGH-TIER)

The iconic album cover

(10) MOJO: CHARLI XCX –

APPLE (2024)

“I think the apple’s rotten right to the core

From all the things passed down from all the apples coming before”.

Yes – Stark After Dark is brat!

Or at least was brat in 2024.

But seriously, I tend to reserve tenth place in top tens for books or popular culture for my wildcard entry as best entry from the previous or present year…and Apple was the song I liked most in 2024.

Apple seems to sum up – in a tidy play time less than 3 minutes – the album description of Charli XCX returning to her roots in “experimental hyperpop sound” (it’s very catchy) and “much more raw, personal songwriting”, here “featuring some idiomatic expressions with the fruit apple”.

RATING: 4 STARS****

X-TIER (WILD TIER)

Perhaps the most iconic image of Jim Morrison – the photograph of him in a 1967 shoot by Joel Brodsky prior to The Doors releasing their debut self-titled studio album

(1) MOJO: THE DOORS (JIM MORRISON) – L.A. WOMAN (1971)
B-Side: The End (1967)
ALBUMS: The Doors (1967) – L.A. Woman (1971)

“Are you a lucky little lady in the City of Light
Or just another lost angel?”

And here we are at the apex of mojo – The Doors with their “dark, theatrical blues-influenced psychedelic rock”, led by the poetic lyrics, deep silky voice and charismatic persona of Jim Morrison “aka Mr. Mojo Risin’ aka The Lizard King”.

At the suggestion of Morrison, their name came from the title of Aldous Huxley’s The Doors of Perception, itself taken from William Blake – “When the doors of perception are cleansed, man will see things as they truly are, infinite” (from The Marriage of Heaven and Hell).

And for this entry, there can only be one song, the title track of their album with Morrison – a song with so much mojo that it famously features as Mr. Mojo Risin’, an anagram of Jim Morrison no less, in the song’s break with its rising crescendo of unmistakably sexual rhythm (and a figure I’ve adopted into my own pagan mythology – I believe in L.A. Woman and Mr. Mojo Risin’).

Mr Mojo’ Risin’, Mr Mojo Risin!. Whoa yeah!

For my B-side, what else but the sprawling trippy Oedipal epic The End

And as for the balance of my Top 10 The Doors (Jim Morrison) songs:
(3) Light My Fire (The Doors 1967)
(4) Queen of the Highway (Morrison Hotel 1970)
(5) Hyacinth House (L.A. Woman 1971)
(6) Break on Through (The Doors 1967)
(7) Touch Me (The Soft Parade 1969)
8) Peace Frog (Morrison Hotel 1970)
(9) Love Her Madly (L.A. Woman 1971)
(10) Riders on the Storm (L.A. Woman 1971)

Honorable mention – well for pretty much every song on their classic six albums from The Doors in 1967 to L.A. Woman in 1971 (for the hardcore Doors fan), or at least those two albums as their best albums.

But some highlights I missed from their Strange Days album and Waiting for the Sun album

Strange Days (1967) –
People Are Strange
Love Me Two Times

Waiting for the Sun (1968)-
Hello I Love You

RATING: 5 STARS*****
S-TIER (GOD-TIER)
SAINT OF PAGAN CATHOLICISM

(2) MOJO: JIMI HENDRIX –
VOODOO CHILD (SLIGHT RETURN) (1968)
B-SIDE: Purple Haze (Are You Experienced 1967)
ALBUMS:
Are You Experienced (1967)
Axis: Bold as Love (1967)
Electric Ladyland (1968)
(The Cry of Love – posthumous 1971)

“Well, I stand up next to a mountain
And I chop it down with the edge of my hand
Well, I stand up next to a mountain
Chop it down with edge of my hand
Well, I pick up all the pieces and make an island
Might even raise just a little sand
‘Cause I’m a voodoo child
Lord knows I’m a voodoo child”

It doesn’t get much more mojo than Jimi Hendrix.

Well, obviously it does in my first place entry, but not apart from that.

Hendrix could make that guitar sing (and sing the Star-Spangled Banner as he did at Woodstock). Or set it on fire – literally.

In the words of his Wikipedia entry, “he is widely regarded as one of the most influential electric guitarists in the history of popular music, and one of the most celebrated musicians of the 20th century” – and “arguably the greatest instrumentalist in the history of rock music” according to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

His three studio albums – Are You Experienced, Axis: Bold as Love and Electric Ladyland – are three of the best and most iconic albums in music.

Ultimately however, there is one song with the most mojo for me – “Voodoo Child”, or more precisely, “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)”, from his Electric Ladyland album in 1968.

Again to quote a review in Wikipedia – “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)” is “a perfect example of how Hendrix took the Delta blues form and not only psychedelicized it, but cast an even more powerful spell by delivering the lyric in the voice of a voodoo priest…”Opening with a simple riff on the wah-wah pedal, the song explodes into full sonic force, the guitarist hitting the crunching chords and taking the astral-inspired leads for which he became infamous. The real guitar explorations happen midway through the song, while the basic, thundering riff is unrelenting”.

Joe Satriani said it simpler – “It’s just the greatest piece of electric guitar work ever recorded. In fact, the whole song could be considered the holy grail of guitar expression and technique. It is a beacon of humanity.”

“I didn’t mean to take up all your sweet time
I’ll give it right back to you one of these days
I said, I didn’t mean to take up all your sweet time
I’ll give it right back to you one of these days
And if I don’t meet you no more in this world
Then I’ll, I’ll meet you in the next one
And don’t be late, don’t be late
‘Cause I’m a voodoo child
Lord knows I’m a voodoo child”

For my B-side, what else but his signature song Purple Haze?

As for the balance of my Top Ten Jimi Hendrix songs – from the classic Hendrix album trinity of Are You Experienced, Axis: Bold as Love and Electric Ladyland (with wildcard tenth place entry from his posthumous Cry of Love album):

(3) 1983: A Merman I Should Turn to Be (Electric Ladyland 1968)
(4) The Wind Cries Mary (Are You Experienced 1967)
(5) Hey Joe (Are You Experienced 1967)
(6) Foxy Lady (Are You Experienced 1967)
(7) Little Wing (Axis: Bold as Love 1967)
(8) Castles Made of Sand (Axis: Bold as Love 1967)
(9) All Along the Watchtower (Electric Ladyland 1968)
(10) Angel (Cry of Love: 1971)

Honorable mention, well, for pretty much every other song on these albums. Seriously – they’re awesome! But my highlights

Are You Experienced:
Fire
The title track – Are You Experienced

Axis: Bold as Love –
Wait Until Tomorrow
The ‘title track’ – Bold as Love

Electric Ladyland –
The ‘title track’ – Have You Ever Been (To Electric Ladyland)

RATING: 5 STARS*****
S-TIER (GOD TIER)
SAINT OF PAGAN CATHOLICISM

(6) MOJO: DEPECHE MODE –
PERSONAL JESUS (1989)
B-SIDE: I Feel You (1993)

“Reach out and touch faith”

A song from my life soundtrack.

Depeche Mode might well have been a funk entry, with their bubble-gum synth-pop from the early 1980s, such as “I Just Can’t Get Enough” but then they took a turn to mojo later in the eighties with a harder sound as well as a darker and more sexual tone.

“Your own personal Jesus
Someone to hear your prayers
Someone who cares
Your own personal Jesus
Someone to hear your prayers
Someone who’s there”

Their new mojo brought them to world fame and their creative peak with albums Violator and Songs of Faith and Devotion – but for me their highlight was the 1989 single, “Personal Jesus”, from the former album, with a distinctly lapsed or pagan Catholic feel to it (or a play on that old evangelical refrain of a “personal relationship with Jesus”. She is the goddess and this is her body – o yes!)

“Feeling unknown
And you’re all alone
Flesh and bone
By the telephone
Lift up the receiver
I’ll make you a believer ”

It is also one of my ‘soundtrack’ songs for my story ideas. I was delighted that the music video evoked something of the neo-Western road movie in my mind’s eye, although I had imagined it a little differently.

“Take second best
Put me to the test
Things on your chest
You need to confess
I will deliver
You know I’m a forgiver ”

And I was also delighted when the man in black himself, Johnny Cash, covered the song in a stripped-back acoustic version in 2002 – “probably the most evangelical gospel song I ever recorded”.

“I feel you
Your sun it shines
I feel you
Within my mind
You take me there
You take me where
The kingdom comes
You take me to
And lead me through
Babylon”

My B-side is a single in a similar vein from their Songs of Faith and Devotion album – I Feel You.

As for the balance of my Top 10 Depeche Mode songs:
(3) Dream On (2001)
(4) Enjoy the Silence (1990)
(5) I Feel Love (2001)
(6) World in My Eyes (1990)
(7) Barrel of a Gun (1997)
( 8 ) It’s No Good (1997)
(9) Home (1997)
(10) John the Relevator (mainly for the name – the song is okay, I guess)

RATING: 4 STARS****
A-TIER (TOP-TIER)