Song Of The Day 3/16/2016: Ann Cole – “I’ve Got Nothing Working Now”

Revenge of the Sequels – A lot of people think the blues standard "Got My Mojo Workin'" is about The Male Member. Don't ask which one. That one. More accurately, the "Mojo" actually comprises of the set of required pre-existing conditions and physiological tasks relating to proper extension of said member. There's the initial spark of arousal prompted by the remembrance of supple flesh or printed material, the resultant adrenal rushes to nerve centers in the brain, then the accelerated Hun invasion of blood into readily accepting channels which coerces the crankshaft into a full state of elevation. When I put it like that it sounds really dirty. But it's a beautiful thing that many people spend good money to achieve.

I was mistaken about the origins of "Got My Mojo Workin'," only because the original version of the song was cut by a female singer named Ann Cole, who as far as records show never had the member in question. So you can just take the phallic aspect out of it and stick to the arousal process, the woman's version of which I'm guessing must in some ways be subject to the same prompts and toggles as the man's. I'm not sure; we haven't gotten to that chapter in my correspondence course yet. But I am confident in playing my hunches.

After "Mojo" became a hit at the hands of Muddy Waters, Cole recorded the sequel "I've Got Nothing Working Now (But My Real Old Fashioned Love)." It emits the impression of being sort of a walking back of the original, carnal impetus of "Mojo," refiguring the spark of attraction to the purer, more chaste, moral and intellectual notion of agape love rather than eros. A great idea, but by this point the cat was already out of the bag. And by "cat," I mean "penis."