Tag Archives: Music (Mojo & Funk)

Monday Night Mojo – Music (Mojo & Funk): Top 10 (1) The Doors – L.A. Woman

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(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

Monday Night Mojo: Depeche Mode – Personal Jesus (1989)

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MUSIC (MOJO & FUNK): TOP 10

 

(3) 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 1980’s, 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)

 

Friday Night Funk: Fatboy Slim (Norman Cook) – Rockafeller Skank (1998)

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MUSIC (MOJO & FUNK): TOP 10

 

(4) FUNK: FATBOY SLIM (NORMAN COOK) –
ROCKAFELLER SKANK (1998)
B-Side: Weapon of Choice (2001)

Right about now – the funk soul brother! Check it out now – the funk soul brother!

And we’re in the electronic dance funk end of the funk scale, so don’t look for lyrical depth – or any lyrics beyond the above.

A prolific producer or mixer of dance music, Norman Cook has an appealing array of musical funk sub-genres attributed to him by Wikipedia – electronica, acid house, trip hop, nu-funk and the nomenclature with which I identify him, big beat.

Of course, not many people identify him as Norman Cook – he is best known by the moniker he adopted in 1996, Fatboy Slim, and under which he released the album which represented perhaps the height of his acclaim, You’ve Come a Long Way Baby. And that album featured this entry, Rockafeller Skank.

I am also partial to the following Fatboy Slim album Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars, particularly my B-side selection Weapon of Choice and its video, because who doesn’t love Christopher Walken dancing?

And as for the rest of my Top 10 Fatboy Slim songs (including his previous incarnation as Pizzaman):
(3) Happiness (Pizzamania 1995)
(4) Sex on the Streets (Pizzamania 1995)
(5) Going Out of My Head (1997)
(6) Right Here Right Now (You’ve Come a Long Way Baby 1999)
(7) Praise You (You’ve Come a Long Way Baby 1999)
( 8 ) Sunset / Bird of Prey (Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars 2000) – I mean, come on, it samples Jim Morrison!
(9) Don’t Let the Man Get You Down (2005)
(10) That Old Pair of Jeans (2006)

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