Battle of the Bands (BOTB): “Got My Mojo Workin’ “

It’s time for another Battle of the Bands!

I was digging on some Muddy Waters a few weeks back and decided to use one of his signature songs, Got My Mojo Workin’, for my battle this week. “Got My Mojo Working” is a blues song written by Preston Foster and first recorded by Ann Cole in 1956. Muddy Waters popularized it in 1957 and the song was a feature of his performances throughout his career. A mojo is an amulet or talisman associated with hoodoo, an early African-American folk-magic belief system. Rolling Stone magazine included Waters’ rendition of the song is on its list of 500 Greatest Songs of All Time at number 359. In 1999, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences gave it a Grammy Hall of Fame Award and it is identified on the list of “Songs of the Century”. (Source: Wikipedia)

Here is Muddy Waters version:

Of the MANY cover versions, I liked these two the best. You tell us which one of these you like the best.

Canned Heat – Canned Heat is an American blues/boogie rock band that formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1965. The group has been noted for its own interpretations of blues material as well as for efforts to promote the interest in this type of music and its original artists. It was launched by two blues enthusiasts, Alan Wilson and Bob Hite, who took the name from Tommy Johnson’s 1928 “Canned Heat Blues”, a song about an alcoholic who had desperately turned to drinking Sterno, generically called “canned heat”. After appearances at the Monterey and Woodstock festivals at the end of the 1960s, the band acquired worldwide fame with a lineup consisting of Bob Hite, vocals, Alan Wilson, guitar, harmonica and vocals, Henry Vestine (and later, Harvey Mandel) on lead guitar, Larry Taylor on bass, and Adolfo de la Parra on drums.

The music and attitude of Canned Heat afforded them a large following and established the band as one of the popular acts of the hippie era. Canned Heat appeared at most major musical events at the end of the 1960s, and were able to deliver on stage electrifying performances of blues standards and their own material and occasionally to indulge into lengthier ‘psychedelic’ solos. (Source: Wikipedia)

Canned Heat covered this song in 1969.

Eric Clapton – who really needs no introduction but… “Eric Clapton, CBE (born 30 March 1945), is an English rock and blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. He is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist and separately as a member of the Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and influential guitarists of all time. Clapton ranked second in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time” and fourth in Gibson’s “Top 50 Guitarists of All Time”. He was also named number five in Time magazine’s list of “The 10 Best Electric Guitar Players” in 2009

Clapton covered this song in 1977.

TIME TO VOTE! Which version do you like better and why?

And when you’re done voting, please visit these other BOTB participants and check out their cool battles:

• Far Away Series
• Stephen T. McCarthy’s Battle of the Bands Blog
• Tossing it Out
• This Belle Rocks
• Mike’s Ramblings
• Curious as a Cathy 
• Book Lover
• The Sound of One Hand Typing
• dcrelief ~ Battle of the Bands 
• Shady Dell Music & Memories
• Cherdo on the Flipside 
• THE DOGLADY’S DEN 
• Jingle Jangle Jungle 
• WOMEN: We Shall Overcome
• Alex J. Cavanaugh (occasionally)
• J.A. Scott
• Novel Brews
• Holli’s Hoots and Hollers
• Quiet Laughter
• Your Daily Dose