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Mother's Finest=Most underrated group ever!..

Hoosier_DaddyHoosier_Daddy 141 Posts
edited November 2008 in Strut Central
I remember one of my uncles always listening to the "Another Mother Furtha" back in the day..b, 21b, 21So,i started buying all their album's around 92-93b, 21b, 21Joyce "Baby Jean" Kennedy=Very few females are in her league (simply a badass singer)b, 21b, 21Moses Mo=Unbelievable guitar player,very underrated guitar player..b, 21b, 21Check their YOUTUBE clips from the German music festival "Rockpalast 1978"b, 21b, 21What a amazing group..b, 21b, 21I've heard people say they blew away P-FUNK and all the rock groups they plyed before on stage..I believe it,and that's coming from a die-hard P-FUNK fan.b, 21b, 21Nobody sounded like this group,mixing heavy funk with Jean's amazing soulful voice with elelments of hard rock..They had their own sound and style.b, 21b, 21I still need Mother's Finest self debut albumb, 21b, 21Anyone got a link?b, 21b, 21It would be appreciated!

  Comments

  • pickwick33pickwick33 8,946 Posts
    Mother's Finest were indeed a great group. Ever hear their early nineties album, Black Radio Won't Play This Record, on the Scotti Brothers label, where they basically become an all-out rock band and drop the funk altogether? It was during the whole Living Colour/Body Count era...b, 21b, 21I remember seeing them on Soul Train around '77 or '78...when Don Cornelius asked them to define their sound, one of them replied "punk funk"...this was before Rick James started using the term. I don't hear the punk, but they definitely rocked harder than James did.b, 21b, 21As far as their self-titled RCA album from '72, I've heard it but I don't own it. To be truthful, it doesn't sound all that different from their later Epic albums. That doesn't mean they were stagnant; more like they were just focused...
  • DJ_NevilleCDJ_NevilleC 1,922 Posts
    I grew up in Atlanta and actually went to the same high school as Baby Jean's son. She used to pick up him from school every so often.b, 21Saw them a bunch of times including one New Years Eve show at the Fox Theater and another show at the Agora Ballroom where my friend Rick and I spent the show with our arms on the stage (better than front row!). They kicked major ass! b, 21In 1985 while I was working in an Amsterdam youth hostel I heard Mothers Finest being played on some Dutch radio station. I was quite surprised but I guess the Europeans showed them more love than the US ever did.
  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
    I wont go as far as sayin - the most Underated BUT....b, 21b, 21When i first started giggin, I had a great conversation w/ an older cat in my building who knew I liked Funk. b, 21b, 21He bigged up Mother's Finest. He knew he was throwin me curve ball. I never heard of them. They did have a big love jam on Black radio that Kashif & Melissa Morgan covered - Love Changes.b, 21b, 21I would hang w/ East Village Black Rock contingent and they would wonder who the fusk are you playin BATMON?b, 21b, 21I dont even think MF even have a "cult" status. Mofos are str8 forgot about. b, 21b, 21Look at this post count.
  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
    b, 21b, 21fuskin
  • DocMcCoyDocMcCoy "Go and laugh in your own country!" 5,917 Posts
    I've recently started playing out Dis Go Dis Way, Dis Go Dat Way again, and although it's not especially typical of their shit, it rocks a whole lot harder than a lot of the jams from that period which are getting revived or re-edited. I even thought about sticking it in CoolEdit myself, until I remembered that Harvey did it over on either the fourth or fifth Black Cock EP, which is the only one I don't have.b, 21b, 21The self-titled one from 1976 was when they popped up on my radar - the one with Fire and Give You All My Love on it. John Peel played a few cuts off it, and that was the first time I'd heard them. I was into shit like the Isleys, War and EW&F as well as Led Zeppelin, the Stones, Bad Company, etc, so I could definitely get with what they were doing, but with disco and punk rock in the ascendant, it was difficult to see where they'd fit in, and that's without considering the fact that many white audiences were always going to have trouble with a black act playing hard rock.
  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
    Too White for Black Folks and Too Black for White Folks Syndrome.
  • DocMcCoyDocMcCoy "Go and laugh in your own country!" 5,917 Posts
    Exactly.
  • pickwick33pickwick33 8,946 Posts
    Has anybody heard their 1989 single on Capitol, "I'm 'N' Danger"? I knew nothing of this when it came out, but evidently this was a Top 20 hit on Billboard's black charts that year...were they doing the rock thing at that point? I vaguely remember reading that they were going for an electrofunk kinda deal by then...
  • breadwinnerbreadwinner 535 Posts
    Mothers Finest, Niggizz Cant Sang RockN Roll - Mothers Finest/a1b, 21b, 21b, 21
  • pickwick33pickwick33 8,946 Posts
    /font1
    Quote:/font1h, 21b, 21with disco and punk rock in the ascendant, it was difficult to see where they'd fit in,b, 21b, 21h, 21
    b, 21b, 21In 1977-79 punk was mainly listened to by hipsters. It wasn't on the radio. In the heartlands (a/k/a the Local White Experience ), there still was room for a good hard-rock band - witness Van Halen. Never mind that the members were mostly black; in 1977 America, Mother's Finest were probably a lot more accessible than the Ramones.
  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
    b, 21b, 21
  • Big_ChanBig_Chan 5,088 Posts
    /font1
    Quote:/font1h, 21b, 21 b, 21b, 21fuskin b, 21b, 21h, 21
    b, 21b, 21
  • DocMcCoyDocMcCoy "Go and laugh in your own country!" 5,917 Posts
    /font1
    Quote:/font1h, 21b, 21/font1Quote:/font1h, 21b, 21with disco and punk rock in the ascendant, it was difficult to see where they'd fit in,b, 21b, 21h, 21
    b, 21b, 21In 1977-79 punk was mainly listened to by hipsters. It wasn't on the radio. In the heartlands (a/k/a the Local White Experience img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" 21), there still was room for a good hard-rock band - witness Van Halen. Never mind that the members were mostly black; in 1977 America, Mother's Finest were probably a lot more accessible than the Ramones. b, 21b, 21h, 21b, 21b, 21Yeah, I hear you, absolutely. It was somewhat different in the UK, though. 1976 was a strange year. Musically, things were kinda dry; the whole punk thing had been bubbling all summer in London, and was beginning to get more and more coverage in the music press. Up to that point, the press over here had been talking up a lot of US acts - the likes of Little Feat, Nils Lofgren or Blue Oyster Cult, who'd all been around for a minute, or (then) newer outfits like Pavlov's Dog or Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers - but when punk really exploded, the editorial direction of many of the weeklies changed, just when they were at their most influential. An act like Mother's Finest, who were getting a little bit of radio and whose 1976 album had been quite well-reviewed iirc, might otherwise have been considered hip enough for the press to get behind in a major way, at a time when doing so could still actually make a difference. b, 21b, 21What seemed to happen instead was that the press (or a significant part of it) decided that what was going on over here - whether that be bands with 14-y-o drummers named Dee Generate or bands printing the costing breakdown of how to manufacture and distribute your own 45 on the cover of their records - was infinitely more interesting than just about anything coming out of the US, especially if it didn't have a CBGBs connection. I reckon this is partly why it took Van Halen a lot longer to break through over here, and has a lot to do with why Mother's Finest never broke through at all. Elsewhere in Europe, in places like Germany or Holland, they didn't give a shit about things like that, and so Mother's Finest can still draw a crowd in those countries thirty years on.
  • m_dejeanm_dejean Quadratisch. Praktisch. Gut. 2,946 Posts
    /font1
    Quote:/font1h, 21b, 21Elsewhere in Europe, in places like Germany or Holland, they didn't give a shit about things like that, and so Mother's Finest can still draw a crowd in those countries thirty years on. b, 21b, 21h, 21
    b, 21b, 21Maaaan, where I live, the '79 live version of "Baby Love" is on some White Cherry/Boney M status. Throw that on at corporate party gigs and watch the 30-50 year old beckys go gaga with the air guitar. FONK.b, 21b, 21I've played that song ad nauseum at too many cheesy jobs, preventing me from wanting to check out any other jams they might have.b, 21b, 21Sorry, I don't think I can deal img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/107.gif" alt="" 21
  • pickwick33pickwick33 8,946 Posts
    /font1
    Quote:/font1h, 21b, 21/font1Quote:/font1h, 21b, 21/font1Quote:/font1h, 21b, 21with disco and punk rock in the ascendant, it was difficult to see where they'd fit in,b, 21b, 21h, 21
    b, 21b, 21In 1977-79 punk was mainly listened to by hipsters. It wasn't on the radio. In the heartlands (a/k/a the Local White Experience img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" 21), there still was room for a good hard-rock band - witness Van Halen. Never mind that the members were mostly black; in 1977 America, Mother's Finest were probably a lot more accessible than the Ramones. b, 21b, 21h, 21b, 21b, 21Yeah, I hear you, absolutely. It was somewhat different in the UK, though. 1976 was a strange year. Musically, things were kinda dry; the whole punk thing had been bubbling all summer in London, and was beginning to get more and more coverage in the music press. Up to that point, the press over here had been talking up a lot of US acts - the likes of Little Feat, Nils Lofgren or Blue Oyster Cult, who'd all been around for a minute, or (then) newer outfits like Pavlov's Dog or Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers - but when punk really exploded, the editorial direction of many of the weeklies changed, just when they were at their most influential. An act like Mother's Finest, who were getting a little bit of radio and whose 1976 album had been quite well-reviewed iirc, might otherwise have been considered hip enough for the press to get behind in a major way, at a time when doing so could still actually make a difference. b, 21b, 21What seemed to happen instead was that the press (or a significant part of it) decided that what was going on over here - whether that be bands with 14-y-o drummers named Dee Generate or bands printing the costing breakdown of how to manufacture and distribute your own 45 on the cover of their records - was infinitely more interesting than just about anything coming out of the US, especially if it didn't have a CBGBs connection. I reckon this is partly why it took Van Halen a lot longer to break through over here, and has a lot to do with why Mother's Finest never broke through at all. Elsewhere in Europe, in places like Germany or Holland, they didn't give a shit about things like that, and so Mother's Finest can still draw a crowd in those countries thirty years on. b, 21b, 21h, 21b, 21b, 21It's interesting that you're looking at it from the UK perspective. I have an old issue of Blues & Soul from '78 (a English magazine) which has a story on Mother's Finest...according to one of the members, their label basically told them to deemphasize the "rock" and play up the "funk" for their then-current album, Mother Factor. (Translation: "we're having a hard time breaking this black band on white rock radio!!") b, 21b, 21The author of the article adds that this LP changed his idea of Mother's Finest, because everything he'd heard up to then was way too "hard rock" for him. (I believe the metaphor he used was that it reminded him of the Osmonds!! This may seem farfetched, but I understand that when the Osmonds first broke in the UK, it was with Crazy Horses, which was from their short-lived heavy metal phase, so a lot of people tended to see them in that light.)
  • markus71markus71 937 Posts
    /object1
  • DJ_NevilleCDJ_NevilleC 1,922 Posts
    In high school we used to wonder why they weren't huge everywhere. Atlanta crowds loved them and packed out their shows. I distinctly remember telling a friend that they were getting good crowds up in New York but I can't remember where I heard that or whether it was just wishful thinking on my part.
  • verb606verb606 2,518 Posts
    /font1
    Quote:/font1h, 21b, 21/object1b, 21b, 21 b, 21b, 21h, 21
    b, 21b, 21b, 21Shit is fire, but I kept getting distracted by what looks like a dildo swinging between the legs of the backup singer. "Damn, this is the joi...wait, is that a dildo?" b, 21b, 21 img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ohmyer1.gif" alt="" 21
  • Hoosier_DaddyHoosier_Daddy 141 Posts
    Anyone have their self titled album from 1976?b, 21b, 21Hit me on the PM
  • PlantweedPlantweed 394 Posts
    Played the Another LP recently, couldn't get into it, but noticed that "Mickey's Monkey" ripped off Zepp's "Custard Pie" quite blatantly.
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