(4 / 5)
A brilliantly inventive and soulful, not to mention funky, multi-racial US group who refused to be pigeon-holed, their music spanning soul, funk, R&B, pop and in your face rock.
Mother’s Finest were as comfortable opening for and sharing the stage with the likes of The Who, AC/DC and Black Sabbath as with Parliament/Funkadelic, The Commodores and Ohio Players.
The group began achieving chart success in 1976 with ‘Dontcha Wanna Love Me,’ scoring their biggest US pop hit with ‘Baby Love’ and following it with the R&B classic ‘Love Changes’, written and produced by Skip Scarborough in 1978.
Formed in 1970 in Atlanta, Georgia by vocalists Glenn Murdock and Joyce Kennedy, the band expanded with a nucleus that included guitarist Gary ‘Mo’ Moore and bassist Jerry ‘Wyzard’ Seay and shifted operations to Chicago.
This release is a first-of-its-kind two disc set of their 1983 10-track LP “One Mother To Another,” on Epic, only ever released in Europe and on CD here for the very first time. That is here in full on disc one, called: “Give You All The Love (Inside Of Me)”, plus we get six tracks that were recorded for the group’s self-titled debut album, on RCA in 1972 and only issued on a now out-of-print US CD in 2010, along with the team’s four charted singles, recorded for Epic Records during their seven-year tenure with the label. The second disc is called “Take Me To The Middle Of Your Love.”
Key moments among the 37-track include “Somebody To Love,” produced by Jimmy Iovine, “U Turn Me On” and “Evolution” from the 1981 LP, “Iron Age”. Hot cuts from the group’s three Epic studio albums include “Give You All The Love (Inside Of Me)” and a rocking cover of the Motown classic, “Mickey’s Monkey”.
The extensive liner notes by US writer A. Scott Galloway includes quotes from original members of the group including Glenn, Joyce, Gary and Jerry. This is a really cool addition to my collection, and replaces lost vinyl loaned out yonks ago and never returned. Note to self: Just say no!
By Sally Fox
(1 / 5) ‘Dull Zone’
(2 / 5) ‘OK Zone’
(3 / 5) ‘Decent Zone’ (4 / 5) ‘Super Zone’
(5 / 5) ‘Awesome Zone’
