What does 'MOJO' mean?

[tosh]

Hi
Ive seem lots of guitars advertised on ebay recently with the term 'lots of mojo' used.What does it mean and where does it come from?It always seems to be associated with old guitars....but never fender ones it would seem.
Any ideas?

[KokoTele]

Mojo is a term that comes from voodoo culture and was made popular in blues songs. A mojo used to be known as a voodoo charm, but the original definition kind of faded and now the meaning is pretty broad.

Now mojo is kind of synonymous with "vibe". It kind of means "cool" but in a slightly more cosmic and spiritual way.

[The Bone]

Is technically short for "mojo hand", which is a small bag filled with any of a variety of spices, black cat bones, John the Conqueror Root, and other goodies. They are each made specifically for certain powers, good luck, spell casting, wealth, etc. etc.

Musicians as far back as Robert Johnson have spoken of mojo hands in their songs, and Muddy Waters specifically mentions them in his songs. I believe he has a song called "Got my Mojo Workin'". In other words, his charms are working, in the case of his song, I believe it to be sexual in nature.

Over time, the idea of mojo has been interpreted many ways, but in terms of the how it would relate to guitars, my assumption would be that if a guitar has "mojo", it would somehow be "charmed" and bring the player some kind of "sound" or "ability" above and beyond what the player is currently getting. Certainly a big selling point!

[TheGoodTexan]

Originally Posted by The Bone2

Is technically short for "mojo hand", which is a small bag filled with any of a variety of spices, black cat bones, John the Conqueror Root, and other goodies. They are each made specifically for certain powers, good luck, spell casting, wealth, etc. etc.

Musicians as far back as Robert Johnson have spoken of mojo hands in their songs, and Muddy Waters specifically mentions them in his songs. I believe he has a song called "Got my Mojo Workin'". In other words, his charms are working, in the case of his song, I believe it to be sexual in nature.

Over time, the idea of mojo has been interpreted many ways, but in terms of the how it would relate to guitars, my assumption would be that if a guitar has "mojo", it would somehow be "charmed" and bring the player some kind of "sound" or "ability" above and beyond what the player is currently getting. Certainly a big selling point!

Bone...are you a lawyer?

That's got to be the best possible answer to this question that I can think of!!! LMAO.

[shakedancer]

Bone nailed it!!!!

[Raymond]

It's also used by guitar dealers to justify their crazy prices. According to my informal survey, adding the word "mojo" is about $300-500 more in average...

[Joe-Bob]

Isn't a "Mojo Hand" a dried monkey's paw? Still voodoo, though.

[tele0053]

'mojo'
usually translates when selling a guitar to:
modo for nomo

[The Bone]

http://www.luckymojo.com/mojo.html

Enjoy!

[ComingApart]

Simply put, mojo is sex and everything that involves.
Sexual tension, sexual appeal, sexual frustration.
That sum of qualities that makes a man or women desirable is mojo.

A woman that has "put the mojo on you" is basically a woman that you got the hots for.
You "workin' your mojo" is you playing your charms and running your game to get a woman interested in you.

A "mojo hand" is called such because it was claimed to be like an aphrodisiac charm, to help boost your mojo, i.e your sex appeal. Lump it in the same box as Spanish Fly. A good way to make a buck off of tourists and travelers.

Any other supposed meanings or ties to the supernatural or mystic voodoo powers is total crap that was fabricated to sell trinkets and stories.

As it applies to a guitar, it usually ends up meaning that it's either beat to hell and back or it's a clone of one of Jimi or Stevie's guitars.
In either case, it's used to make a quick buck off of an underinformed or easily duped outsider.

[yegbert]

This reference backs up The Bone2's version, and suggests an explanation how the sexual connotation came into usage as well.

I just discovered Wikipedia recently. The nature of how it and other wikis operate makes it open for anyone to add meanings. So, like Internet discussion forums such as ours here, take it with a grain of salt.

[J-man]

I believe 'mojo' refers to the random bits of gunk (mojo) that you get under your pickguard after having a guitar for a few years. :D 8)

[SteveY]

Einstein went down to the crossroads!

[shakedancer]

You might be right but thats funny!!

[TELEJACKER]

Does anyone else feel like Cliff Clavin just walked into Cheers and started talking?

[0le FUZZY]

<li>MOJO iss------
<li>Take a 3 pound coffee can, fill tew the first line with Vin Rose wine, fill tew the second line with 7-UP, fill tew the top with Oly beer.
<li>Stir slightly and drink haff of it.
<li>Yer MOJO will be werkin I gar-ron-tee-tolt-yew!!

(This ress-cee-pee comes tew yew from California in 1964)

HEE! HEE!




Please visit my page

[Dave Brophy]

ComingApart,your post reminds me of the old joke.
Shrink tells his patient."I'm going to give you a Rorschach test.Just look at the ink drawing and tell me what you see."
Patient looks at the first one and says,"That's a man and a woman having sex."
Looks at the next one and says,"That's a woman [blanking] a guy while he [blanks] her [blank].
It goes on like this for a while,until the shrink stops and says,"Gee,you really seem to have sex on your mind."
The patient says,"ME? Hey Doc,you're the one with all the dirty pictures!"

[reverbbb]

Mojo:

It's what the US solders used to say in WWII when they arrived at the coffee shops of France (after ousting the Germans of coarse). When they arrived at the coffee shop, they would initially say "Give me some joe". After their first cup, then they would ask for another simply by saying "Give me some mo-jo". After several cups of coffee, then when they went back out to the cold winter on patrol, they would comment "I got my mojo workin'", meaning the hot coffee made them feel good inside. This became standard lingo and they brought the slang bck to the states. Only, it had lost it's original meaning (you know how guys can morph a joke or term into anything they want). This made it's way into bars across the US. The great bluesmen were quick to pick up on this term because it had a nice phonetic ring to it. Hence, Muddy Waters enjoyed embellishing that phrase, and the rest is history.


(You don't really believe this crap I'm writing - do you? )