Another essential reissue from Sundazed is the new Mojo Men LP, called There Goes My Mind. As the label mention it’s crazy that they never released an album in the 60s, despite recording a wealth of material, sharing members with The Vejtables and recording with Sly Stone. Well they did release an album – Mojo Magic on the small GRT label in 1969 – but billed to Mojo.
The group went through a few different phases, originally recording for Autumn, as a British Invasion style group. When Jan Errico joined, she brought an element of folk-rock and started co-writing most of their material with Jim Alaimo. These two phases were documented on Whys Ain’t Supposed to Be and Not Too Old To Start Cryin’ (The Lost 1966 Masters) respectively. Neither came out on vinyl though.
There’s also the great compilation Sit Down…It’s The Mojo Men which gathers their singles on Reprise as well as unreleased tracks. But in 1968 the group had recorded what was meant to be an album for Warner, called There Goes My Mind. This was eventually reissued by Sundazed 20 years and is now available on vinyl.
While this later era is not my favourite of the group’s output, focusing a bit more on sunshine pop and orchestra arrangements, there are a lot of great songs here. The demos at the end are especially great.
Now we just need someone to put out a 45 with the two unreleased tracks from Jan Errico – “About My Tears” and “Cold Dreary Morning” – and I’ll be happy.
