The Electrifying Mojo
I was having drinks recently with my friend Mike who grew up in Detroit and Ann Arbor in the late 70s-early 80s. And I dunno what we were talking about - I think the internet, what’s it’s good at and bad at - and he started to tell me about this radio DJ from his childhood, The Electrifying Mojo.
Mike described this amazing DJ who’d play these long sets mixing stuff like John Cage and Kraftwerk with Parliament and Prince - especially Prince. Like apparently he once made an on-the-fly 20 minute remix of When Doves Cry involving real dove sounds.
And then Mike quoted me this:
“If you’re in your car, honk your horn
If you’re in water, splash
If you’re in bed, boogie on your back…
When you feel like you’re at the end of your rope, tie a knot.
And remember - ain’t nobody bad like you!”
Mike said the Electrifying Mojo would say stuff like that every show and that it was the best feeling to be driving a car - or when he was younger, lying in bed with the radio - and feel a solidarity with all the other Electrifying Mojo fans.
He said he’d tried to find some archives and hadn’t had any luck. Obviously, I offered to look around too. Here’s what I found:
1) Wikipedia entry with lots of history (and some future!)
2) Transcript of Electrifying Mojo’s historic interview with Prince. (anyone got a recording?)
3) Juan Atkins saying the radio show was “the reason [techno] happened in Detroit”.
4) And most importantly…6 Youtube clips of Electrifying Mojo broadcasts! Like:
Wow. Absolutely full credit and thanks to great youtuber mcmorris55, but I used Vixy to make MP3s of his Youtube postings so I could listen on my iPod. And if you want them, you can download the MP3s here.
Hearing it from Mike and reading testimonies online, fans say again and again you can’t get it if you weren’t there. And that’s obvious. I urge you to read some postings here or here. These are testimonies to something truly special to have experienced. But even totally de-contextualized and museumified, this shit is awesome.
And it’s all tied to so much I’m excited about, I won’t even try to talk about it. But. Shout-outs to Umeanmatt’s great Prince project. And to young inheritors of the aesthetic, BFFs Lil’ Wayne and T-Pain.
L