The missing Mojos masterpiece,

In 1968 I was 14 years old and music played a big part in my life.  However, because this was way before the internet, we were fairly limited in how we found our music. Music papers such as Melody Maker, New Musical Express, and Sounds gave us hints as to what was going on outside of our geographical range, and many hours in record shops, browsing through albums and singles gave us some idea of new acts. Also radio plays gave us hints as to trends.

I'm saying this as an excuse for having missed this masterpiece.

Until My Baby Comes Home

“Until My Baby Comes Home” by The Mojos is the song that I wished I'd heard when I was 14. The Mojos came out of the Liverpool scene, and hustled and bustled through 5 years of changing line ups and some banger songs. 1964's “Everything's Alright” has been covered by many artists including David Bowie, and still stands out as a great example of power pop.

I've delved into the back catalogue quite a bit, but in my opinion “Until My Baby Comes Home” is their masterwork. There is an 'unfortunately' though. Unfortunately that track was really The Mojos in name only. Stu James, the vocalist had written the track (under his real name, Stuart Slater) and recorded it with a different line up. At this time Stu James was trying to relaunch a band that had previously featured such luminaries as Aynsley Dunbar (a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer) who later went on to play with, well, everybody really, including Frank Zappa, Journey, Jefferson Starship and many more. The late actor, Lewis Collins, also played very capable bass for several years before heading off to play Bodie in The Professionals and had a busy acting career.

The band that played “Until My Baby Comes Home”, although coming from a band with a good pedigree, didn't last however and disbanded soon after.

Stu James had a hell of a voice. I honestly think that Long John Baldry would have heard this track and said, “Damn, that boy can sing.” His voice is bluesy, perfectly pitched and carries a lot of emotion. It was mixed back deep into the track, and a lesser singer's voice would have got lost, but the opening line “Ain't no love in this heart of mine lord...” grabs you and pulls you into the song. 

I can't fault the engineering and production. The bass is prominent and really, really good, as are the drums and the blistering (for the time period) guitar. It's the voice and the lyrics though, that take this song from good to masterful.

Damn, how did I miss this?