Mr. Mojo Risin' In 1971? Another Mystery!

[rockinrebel]

I think it was quite obvious that Mojo and Don't Think Twice were impromptu jams. The likes of Merry Christmas Baby (particularly the original edit) and Stranger In My Own Home Town, do sound closer to finished masters, although they do fall into the same category.

However, I'm not sure multiple takes of the latter two songs would have improved the overall feel of them, and the one take jams really capture a spontaneity that would have been lost over repeated takes.

Don't Think Twice is a charming performance, but when listening to it, I'm always left wondering what might have been had Elvis and the band got the lyric sheet and worked on a proper arrangement. The same can be said of the brief snippet of I Shall Be Released.

The success of The Wonder Of You appears to have convinced RCA that the big, orchestrated ballad was the way to go with their 1970 single releases, but personally I think they got this wrong, and they certainly had better choices for single releases than the ones chosen from the June 1970 sessions.

Whilst the Mojo jam certainly had its merits, the idea of issuing it as a summer 1971 single was a desperate move. But as the promising folk album idea had been derailed by the recording of Christmas and gospel albums, RCA didn't have any great alternative performances in the can for a rootsy, rock n roll single release, as an alternative to the big ballads.

This didn't happen until Elvis cut Burning Love in March 1972, and RCA then missed the chance to capitalise on the success of the single by compiling a coherent, mainstream album around it.

[drjohncarpenter]

Yeah, I should have clarified (I was getting ready for work this morning when I wrote this): I was thinking about the "Essential Elvis 4" edit, which might be called the PG version, as opposed to the R-rated version on the "Love Letters from Elvis" FTD. (Not sure which version was on last year's Nashville 1970 box, as I don't own it.)

That said, I don't consider the off-the-cuff nature of "Mojo" to be a bad thing or even a negative thing--more like a selling point. Part of the reason that Dylan's "Self-Portrait" weirded out listeners for decades was the extent to which Dylan's performances were mixed, dubbed, polished, and ultimately sterilized of any and all organic performance elements by Columbia Records.

Was it a largely unknown at the time of release that "Mojo" was an unplanned, between-song jam? Frankly (and here I go back to Dylan) if RCA was trying to pass off Elvis's "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" as an earnest, straightforward performance of that song, they failed.

That Dylan cover closed out a summer 1973 LP of leftovers called Elvis Fool-- the singer HATED that title on the cover -- that failed at retail for that reason. No promotion of the specific track as a classy master recording was ever done.

The off-the-cuff nature of "Got My Mojo Working / Hands Off" would have been acutely apparent in a field of 1971 releases where not a single one was that kind of a recording.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_Year-End_Hot_100_singles_of_1971

[jeanno]

My go-to version of Mojo Workin' / Hands Off goes like this: in 2017, a guy on youtube made a nice intro from different parts of the performance (https://elvis-collectors.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=96307) but also decided to combine the - failed - dubbed master with some parts of the - much better, raw - undubbed recording so...

1- I kept the youtube intro but from the moment Elvis says "She belongs to me!...", it's the undubbed take from the recent "From Elvis in Nashville" that gets started (with that great, prominent organ which gives an awesome gospel vibe) until the very end.
2- the dirty language has been edited out just like the "mediocre sh*t" comment.
3- the whole thing lasts for 4:43 all in all.
4- I love it.

Result:

[joekro1977]

Fantastic work on this Doc - and I'm truly sorry I missed it at the time.

It does rather give one pause to consider how quickly things took a turn for Elvis in terms of chart performance transitioning from 1969/70 to 1971.

Do you think if he'd worked with Chips Moman once more (whether in Nashville 1970, Memphis 1973, or perhaps Hollywood 1975) things might have gone better for him (song selection, vocal performance, etc.)?

[Rob]

Do you think if he'd worked with Chips Moman once more (whether in Nashville 1970, Memphis 1973, or perhaps Hollywood 1975) things might have gone better for him (song selection, vocal performance, etc.)?

I don't think Chips would have accepted anything less.

If Elvis had walked into American Sound saying he wanted to cut "This Is Our Dance," Chips may have told him to take a hike.

[drjohncarpenter]

Do you think if he'd worked with Chips Moman once more (whether in Nashville 1970, Memphis 1973, or perhaps Hollywood 1975) things might have gone better for him (song selection, vocal performance, etc.)?

I don't think Chips would have accepted anything less.

If Elvis had walked into American Sound saying he wanted to cut "This Is Our Dance," Chips may have told him to take a hike.

More likely it would've been publisher Freddy Bienstock bringing in the sorry pile of demos including "This Is Our Dance," and like a year earlier, he would've been asked to vacate the premises. This kind of stuff rankled the old guard, which is why more than a few insiders worked to make Chips Moman a pariah.

My feeling is sessions in 1970 in Memphis would'e been really good, had Elvis still felt the kinship with Moman and the house band. But I also feel that might have been all he'd want to do. Collaboration takes time and effort, and keeping egos in check.

[bluejays3577]

Paperwork does exist which indicates that monaural single mixes of both “Got My Mojo Working / Keep Your Hands Off Of It” and “I Was Born About Ten Thousand Years Ago” were prepared and do exist in the Sony / RCA vaults. These monaural mixes have yet to be officially released. In the July 10, 1971 issue of Cashbox magazine (page 25), radio station WCFL in Chicago, Illinois indicated that they had recently added Elvis Presley’s recording of “Got My Mojo Working / Keep Your Hands Off Of It” to their Top 40 playlist. This may have been the impetus to a potential single release of the song later that same year. At the time WCFL added “Got My Mojo Working / Keep Your Hands Off Of It” to their Top 40 playlist, the song was only available commercially via the “Love Letters From Elvis” album in stereo, which had just been released a few weeks earlier. Snippets of “I Was Born About Ten Thousand Years Ago” were featured on the 1971 album, “Elvis Country." The complete song would not be issued until 1972 on the “Elvis Now” album. Larry Lujack, an on-air radio personality at WCFL at the time, is thought to be the main protagonist in playing “Got My Mojo Working / Keep Your Hands Off Of It” on WCFL.

Screenshot_20230519-223324.png

[drjohncarpenter]

Paperwork does exist which indicates that monaural single mixes of both “Got My Mojo Working / Keep Your Hands Off Of It” and “I Was Born About Ten Thousand Years Ago” were prepared and do exist in the Sony / RCA vaults. These monaural mixes have yet to be officially released. In the July 10, 1971 issue of Cashbox magazine (page 25), radio station WCFL in Chicago, Illinois indicated that they had recently added Elvis Presley’s recording of ZPA4-1601 “Got My Mojo Working / Keep Your Hands Off Of It” to their Top 40 playlist. This may have been the impetus to a potential single release of the song later that same year. At the time WCFL added “Got My Mojo Working / Keep Your Hands Off Of It” to their Top 40 playlist, the song was only available commercially via the “Love Letters From Elvis” album in stereo, which had just been released a few weeks earlier. Snippets of “I Was Born About Ten Thousand Years Ago” were featured on the 1971 album, “Elvis Country." The complete song would not be issued until 1972 on the “Elvis Now” album. Larry Lujack, an on-air radio personality at WCFL at the time, is thought to be the main protagonist in playing “Got My Mojo Working / Keep Your Hands Off Of It” on WCFL.

No doubt RCA's art department wouldn't have been working on a single sleeve unless the audio was being prepared as well.

What popular top 40 disc jockey Larry Lujack was doing at WCFL Radio in Chicago -- and WLS Radio -- was expressing the feeling of Elvis fans all over the country.

They didn't want boring selections like "I Really Don't Want To Know" or "There Goes My Everything" or "Rags To Riches" or "Where Did They Go, Lord* or "Life" or "Only Believe" on their radio, they wanted up-tempo rock 'n' roll or r&b. They wanted excitement.

Thanks, Larry, for trying.







https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Lujack

[Mister Mike]

Had to go through a few airchecks in my collection but I found it (and luckily it was available on Youtube). From the Dick Biondi show on WCFL (Chicago) on June 25, 1971:
(There's a cool Johnny Cash jingle for Pepsi just before Elvis).

[drjohncarpenter]

Had to go through a few airchecks in my collection but I found it (and luckily it was available on Youtube). From the Dick Biondi show on WCFL (Chicago) on June 25, 1971:
(There's a cool Johnny Cash jingle for Pepsi just before Elvis).

Nice find!

The Pepsi commercial is a little bizarre . . . but maybe it helped Johnny Cash get a new house. Notice the Dylan inflection in "Youuuu've got a lot to live . . ." right out of the classic "Positively 4th Street" single.

In case a direct link works better for the radio aircheck:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZ2MwMaAOas&t=1599s


Best of all, I now realize why a Chicago station would be pushing this track: it's Elvis sailing through two classic Chicago blues/r&b tunes.

But RCA had a better idea . . .