MOTHERS FINEST

--  From the 2017 in depth biography written by A. Scott Galloway in the liner notes for MOTHER'S FINEST LOVE CHANGES THE ANTHOLOGY 1972-1983. 

 

Formed in 1970, Mother's Finest is a boldly unique multi-racial sextet that broke the barriers as the fiercest band in the land comprised of two of the baddest white cats ever to sling some funk, and four of the hardest rockin' black musicians and singers ever to do the damn thing. No other band can claim sharing bills with The Who, AC/DC and Black Sabbath as comfortably as with Parliament/Funkadelic, The Commodores and Ohio Players. Card carrying members of the Georgia Music Hall of Fame and feted within the Smithsonian National Museum of African-American History and Culture, Mothers Finest ("MF") are stone cold survivors.

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Via signature songs "Baby Love," "Give You All The Love (Inside Of Me)," "Piece Of The Rock," "Truth'll Set You Free" and their '70 soul crossover classic "Love Changes," the Funk Rock pioneers barnstormed the world making music, love and fiercely devoted fans. MF was the launching pad for several chameleonic band members...and one super bold soul sister.

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The Mothers Finest story starts in Chicago with singer Glenn Murdock.

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"My mother, Carolyn Edwina Winters, was a hoofer," he begins. "She was very pretty and formed a social club, The Operalettes, teaching women to sing and dance. She instilled in me the appreciation of all music: from big band jazz to 'Rhapsody in Blue.' My influences were Joe Williams and all the Motown guys, then James Brown, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Elvis and The Beatles."

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"In Chi-town, we sang at sock hops, pantomiming our latest records. I was in two groups: The Vondells (Doo Wop) and US 4 (jazzier stuff a la The Hi Los). One hop in '64 was at a hall in Maywood Village, Illinois. This wasn't a dark nightclub situation with alcohol. This place was big and bright as a supermarket, everybody was 'up' in spirit, and the DJ was broadcasting on WVON. The Vondells had 'Lenora' out featuring our lead singer, Lowrell Simon. And this young girl Joyce Kennedy had a local hit, "I Still Love You." We sat across from each other and had a karmic attraction. And when she got up to sing, she sounded like a grown woman, not a teenager. Her vocals were so heavy... A promoter had brought Joyce to the event but when he saw her talkin' to me, he got pissed and left her. We got stuck at an after party talking 'til daybreak. I always tell our granddaughter, "My life was in black and white until I met Joyce...then it turned to color."

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Joyce Washington was born in Anguilla, Mississippi, her grandfather a fiercely independent Mason and farmer. She was 7 when he died and the family moved to Chicago. Joyce adopted the surname of her stepfather, becoming Joyce Kennedy.

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With a piano in the house, music in school, cousins chirping all over and her grandmother singing in the kitchen, Joyce grew up steeped in music but never dreamed it could be her destiny. "I started a harmony trio with these twin girls...so cute in our gold blouses and black skirts," Joyce recalls. "Then I fell in with a lady whose thing was nurturing young talent. She was hooked into management run by Al Williams, a member of the legendary Four Step Brothers. Through Jade Enterprises, Al got me with RanDee Records where Andre Williams (no relation) produced my first single, 'I Still Love You.'" Joyce cut later singles for Fontana and Blue Rock Records. "My vocal influences were Tina Turner, Nancy Wilson, Etta James and Aretha Franklin - forces of nature. Their vocal chords were kissed by God. Those singers taught me how to stay in tune with myself and be spirit driven."

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Glenn hitched his wagon to Joyce's as a chaperone, singing partner and, quite swiftly, co-parent of their son, Dion. Glenn accompanied Joyce on all her gigs including trips to Southeast Asia, USO shows and engagements throughout the Midwest. Over a few years, "her" act became "their" act - a black Sonny & Cher doing pop covers with some Sam Cooke & Aretha for soulful measure. Though the name never stuck, they were once dubbed "Kinetic & Magnetic!" It was at The Golden Lion club in Dayton, Ohio where they had just fronted Woody Herman's Thundering Herd that they stayed on a second week to be backed by locals The Raspberry Blues Band and met skinny young hometown guitarist Gary Moore.

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"My dad played bass in a country band on the radio," Gary shares, "but then he was in a motorcycle accident. He didn't play much after that but his microphone stands were still up and pictures of his band on the wall. When I was about 11, he brought home an acoustic guitar and taught me to tune it. I tried to learn every song I could. I'd come straight home, stay in my room, turn the radio on and play along until dinner. By high school, I listened to rock and really dug rhythmic players: Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck and Led Zeppelin. And somebody turned me on to Django Reinhardt (the mangled-handed gypsy virtuoso who played with 2 fingers). I was only 17 in The Raspberry Blues: three horn players, bass, keys, drums and me playing James Brown, Buddy Miles and Chicago. I was playing a Marshall but all I ever wanted to do was funk!"

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Ditching their corny revue style, Glenn and Joyce drove to Miami to start a band with a bassist. But when that situation went south, they called a fresh outta high school Gary (and bassis John McIver) to join them. Along with drummer Doug Thompson, they were rockin' out on covers of Sly & The Family Stone's "Sing A Simple Song" and Ike & Tina Turner's "River Deep, Mountain High" among others, soaking up the scene. Doug left the band to serve in Vietnam...voluntarily. John also split and was replaced by bassist William "Lunch" Seay. But Lunch didn't want to stray far from home so he suggested they check out his lil' brother Jerry, a true prodigy who was all over the North Beach scene. Glenn, Joyce and Gary went to The Hump Club in North Miami to see Jerry in a band and were blown away. Gary and Jerry were the same age, three weeks apart, and hit it off instantly; playing all the jams they knew for two days straight.

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Straight outta Miami, Jerry Seay sprang from a musical family of 12 kids: 6 boys, 6 girls. His father, Frank Seay, Sr. was a strong keyboard player, all of his siblings played instruments, and his mother raised them up on church and gospel music. His oldest brother, Frank Jr., was a guitarist and a walking university of music to Jerry. When Frank heard Jerry fooling around with The Animals' "We Gotta Get Out of This Place" on a Gibson Thunderbird that was sitting on the couch, big brother took swift notice. Jerry was also highly inspired by his brother, Edward, a killin' guitar player who approached the bass in the same forward style. "He was bending the strings, playing chords, taking solos and shit...and had been playing like that since the '50s! He was my hero." Jerry was so focused that by 12-years old, Frank had him playing gigs by his side with Jackie Wilson (and education in multiple ways). And when Frank went to serve his country, he passed his gigs on to Jerry who became a fixture on the Miami scene. He even counted future jazz innovator Jaco Pastorius as a friend out in Fort Lauderdale. "I wanted to write comic books but then I snuck out to see James Brown at Miami Stadium, caught all the energy and girls screaming..."

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Jerry, Glenn, Joyce and Gary became the foundation of what would become one bad ass band. "As a musician, I don't like to stand out. I like to stick in," Jerry explains. "And as a group, we wanted to be great music people, travel and entertain. It was not about money and fame. In that spirit, we wanted to call the band The Motherf*ckers...but we wouldn't get many write-ups with that! We knew we were onto something with the initials 'MF,' though. I envisioned it on a shield as a powerful logo. Somehow, we settled on Mother's Finest."

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Honing their live chops during outrageous sets at the club The Flying Machine plus wherever their DeSoto (later, shag carpeted van) could take them, MF caught wind of an even more intense scene called "Underground Atlanta" where good paying rock clubs were in abundance. They found management with Hugh Rogers, started moving into more original material and went through a few more cats, landing on a drummer with lightning fast feet named Donny Vosburgh (out of a Vegas show band called The Entertainers) and, more permanently, a keyboardist/composer named Michael Keck.

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Hailing from Raleigh, North Carolina and raised in Piedmont, Michael was the son of a former upright bassist, tuba and sousaphone player of Native American and black heritage named Demintrious Hiawatha Keck. Though his father quit secular music to marry the woman of his dreams, he encouraged his son's drift toward music by exposing him to all styles and by buying him a succession of instruments from the pawn shop: a ukulele, a recorder, a harmonica, a trombone (which he was too small for) then a trumpet. Soon, he took over the piano that his mother intended fro his sister to play and started writing his first songs which his dad arranged for him to record at local radio station WLLE. After a string of "Nouveau Vaudeville" gigs, young Michael landed a job playing and singing in the Ray Charles and Charley Pride repertoire of an otherwise all-white country band called Bobby Bell & The Blue Bells. They paid him right and treated him nice but he had to "know his place" when they played anywhere the Ku Klux Klan was active. Tri State mini tours for everyone from Joe Tex to Barbara Lewis were followed by studying medicine in college where he played in cover bands on the side. It was during a hold over residency at a club in Atlanta that a girl came in, pulled his coat and told Michael that a band coming in from Florida was looking for a keyboard player.

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"When they came to check me out, I was playing trumpet in this cover band but they also had an organ on stage they'd let me play on a funk number or two," Michael offers, "They invited me to where they were staying and told me they were looking to do more original material. That thrilled me to no end! I told them I had a trunk full of songs, had been writing since I was a kid and played multiple instruments. These people were bright, energetic, focused, fun, involved and connected. I hadn't even heard them play yet but they wanted to be fresh, seek uniqueness and looked at entertainment as an experience. That was my  vibe, too. The fact that they wanted to have a voice elevated my respect for them and right then I knew these were the people I needed to be with. I brought some of my tunes out, they brought some of theirs out and that became the first RCA album."

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With a lineup of "Baby Jean" (from her days of denim hot pants) and "Doc" sharing lead vocals, Gary (a.k.a. "Moses Mo," so dubbed by Joyce for the "miracles" he produced on guitar) Jerry (a.k.a. "Wizzard," self-named under the influence of hallucinogenics and a desire to be a mystical force through the music) on bass, Michael ("Mike") on keyboards and short-lived drummer Vosburgh, Mothers Finest signed to RCA Records in 1972. The deal came through producer Hank Medress, founder of vocal group The Tokens of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" fame in '61 and who was about to have his second biggest hit producing Tony Orland & Dawn's "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round The Old Oak Tree" (!) Hank and his partner Dave Appell flew a very green MF into New York where they cut an eponymous nine song debut. Included here are the A & B side single of the original compositions "Dear Sir and Brother Mann" (a social plea) and "You Move Me" (a balled best remembered as being covered by Joyce's heroine Aretha Franklin two years later). The band got a rude awakening when they were called back to New York to hear their finished album.

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"That album was so heartbreaking," Wizzard laments. "We had a nice budget and a nice hotel. We thought we were stars and shit! They flew us back out to hear the finished record, handed us champagne glasses and said, "Here's your debut!" They had added horns, strings and other musicians. It was awful! By the time Side 2 ended, only one of us was still in the room. We were so depressed. We vowed if this is what the record business was like we would never record again."

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MF was contractually obligated to record a second LP which they did manage to keep more in their own raw style but because the band had no interest in promoting it, RCA shelved it. From that project (with Vosburgh out and Frankie Robbins in on drums), we get "Monster People" (the 'working title' track: a thinly veiled message about shady power people), "Bone Song" ( coming of age jam), "Funky Mountain" (Wyzards's Third Eye song about spiritual enlightenment) the swing piece "Middle Of The Night" (Glenn goes Basie) and "Run Joe" (Glenn goes Belafonte). Most intriguing is "Living Hero" a powerful orchestrated showcase for Joyce about a guru. Outsider Randy Martin wrote the song about an Eastern philosopher from Amritsar, India, that the band was turning on to.

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MF returned to their band house in Atlanta, licked its wounds and got back to writing, rehearsing and performing with a vengeance and no intention of recording anytime soon. That wouldn't last long. Tom Werman, then a staff producer at CBS was in Atlanta recording a Ted Nugent LP. His lead singer Derek St. Holmes told Tom about MF. Knocked on his ass, Tom came backstage trying to pursuade them to sign with Epic Records, MF flatly declined. After two more visits, each with another high ranking executive in town (including A&R man Steve Popovich), MF decided to meet with them. Promised tour support and a relaxed environment in which to grow, MF took the deal. MF also made a key switch to powerful Leber & Krebs out of New York for management. They were performing now with yet another drummer, Sanford Daniels (a.k.a. "Pepe") who was a phenomenal funkateer but suffered from chronic asthma, nightly leaving the stage a drenched, exhausted mess after high energy MF shows. Enter Barry Borden.

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Hailing from Chattanooga, Tennessee, Borden popped his rock cherry the night Led Zeppelin went upside his head over the radio with the psychedelic blues wallop of "How Many More Times" featuring powerhouse drummer John Henry Bonham. When "Whole Lotta Love" appeared on Led Zep's second album, Barry asked his dad for $2.98 to buy it... "and it was all downhill from there," he laughs. Massively inspired by the "Cold Sweat" funk of local hero Clyde Stubblefield from James Brown's band and double bass drum rockin' Ginger Baker of Cream, Barry started playing drums in school and in the band of a local rich kid who got his group gigs at churches and the local mental hospital (Spooky Tooth being a heavy request at the latter). A couple more years of local gigs led to Barry trying the much-buzzed about Underground Atlanta scene where he joined the cover quintet Cisco. "We worked 300 days a year but made no money," Borden howls. "I knew this band was going nowhere but the lead singer, Cynthia, had wild hair, tons of personality...and huge tatas! We did some ZZ Top, Jeff Beck and Janis Joplin stuff. One night we played an outdoor Saturday show and MF was on the bill. They were 'Zeppeliny,' and had an incredible girl singer, dressed to the teeth, funkin' and rockin'. They were the shit! Just so happens Mo (Gary Moore) was taken by our lead singer with the tatas! They had a band house not far from us. MF had a great drummer in Pepe but he was not healthy. I got some courage up one night and told Mo, 'If you guys ever need a drummer...'"

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In a covert operation to keep things from Cisco and Pepe, Wizzard and Mo slipped B.B. a band tape of the upcoming album and covers that then included Zeppelin's "Trampled Under Foot" and David Bowie's "Fame." They then secretly rehearsed B.B. to take Pepe's place six months prior to his taking the gig. MF recorded its self-titled Epic debut in Florida at Criteria Studio B with Pepe playing all the drum parts. Wyzard remembers that Rod Stewart was in Studio A cutting "Tonight's The Night," the Bee Gees were cutting "You Should Be Dancing" in Studio D, and MF stayed in the same hotel  that Eric Clapton had just named his new album after: 461 Ocean Boulevard. Just before their album was released, MF let Pepe go. An executive decision was made to put B.B.'s face on the back cover with a vague one sentence credit near the bottom stating, "Special thanks to Sanford 'Pepe' Daniels for drums." Sadly, not long after, Pepe passed away.

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Finally fortified with the six-piece lineup that would set Mother's Finest into the history books as the funkiest, rockin-est 2/3 black rock band to ever raise asses out of seats, MF delivered two back-to-back albums of signature firepower. Instant catalog classics on the first, MOTHER'S FINEST (1976) were "Rain" (conceived by Wyzard as the band passed through a wall of rain on a long stretch of Texas highway), "Fire" (a gospel rave up-flipped-rock) and the stretched out "Give You All The Love (Inside Of Me)" which set the tone for many MF songs to come: a spiritual message (this one about going inside yourself via meditation) couched in double entendrés of steamy sexuality. The band also resurrected "My Baby" and "Dontcha Wanna Love Me" in leaner versions from the shelved RCA LP. In a constructive review for Rolling Stone, Teri Morris wrote, "With material up to their obviously fine instincts, Mother's Finest might make an album that more seriously questions the limiting distinction between current soul and hard rock"

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That's exactly what MF delivers on its magnum opus ANOTHER MOTHER FURTHER (1977), kicking off with Glenn's inspired mash up of the golden era Motown dance jam "Mickey's Monkey" set to Mo' crunchin' on Jimmy Page's infectious guitar riff off Zeppelin's "Custard Pie." This was followed by what became MF's biggest rock hit domestically and internationally "Baby Love" (ode to one of Wizzard's first loves), "Piece Of The Rock" (a sassy think piece biting T.Rex also inspired by watching The Who's Pete Townshend when MF opened shows for its original lineup in the U.S. and Canada) and "Truth'll Set You Free" (Joyce's anthem partially inspired by scripture that none other than Little Richard used to lay on them when he stopped by their band house). Glenn adds, "Anything that's truly true lasts forever. What we're basically talking about here is the Soul...Self Realization becoming God Realization." At the behest of Joyce's sister in funk rock divinity Nona Hendryx, this song was covered by Labelle on their 2008 reunion CD, Back to Now.

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MF had a ball with Mo's parody "Dis Go Dis Way, Dis Go Dat Way," sending up then inescapable disco with an odd-metered tribal rock throw down (featuring Brazilian percussionist Joe Lala, a frequent MF sideman). "I was trying to make dancers fall over with that one," Mo quips. Then there was "Hard Rock Lover," originally penned by irrepressible Glenn as "Hard Rock Nigga" ("It don't take but one and one to figga / I'm a hard rock nigga"). "At the last minute he changed it," Wizzard says. "We were still getting too much flak for 'Niggaz Can't Sang Rock and Roll' (a concert highlight) from the last album!" On the tender side was "Thank You For The Love," started by Mike in a Columbia, South Carolina hotel reflecting on an old flame. Producer Werman practically begged the band not to record it arguing it was "too R&B" However, the song remains in the band's set to this day, a fan favorite often  used for wedding nuptials.

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Thanks to Leber & Krebs and Epic, MF had elevated to incessant arena road work, collecting fans on the rock and R&B side as that rare (nee ONLY) band that could rock Capitol Center in D.C. on Thursday with Aerosmith then funk the same venue on Saturday with Parliament Funkadelic...playing the exact same set! MF did not see color as it sought to free minds universally, but they still encountered harsh industry realities. When the first Epic album was released, Boston's debut album, also on Epic, came out a few weeks later. It became the company priority when it sold a million out of the box, putting most of the roster on hold. Veteran performers MF opened some concerts for studio band Boston. They made sure to leave the stage in cinders.

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The harshest reality for MF was when they were an 11th hour replacement on a bill with Ted Nugent and Black Sabbath at Spectrum Arena in Philadelphia. B.B. recalls, "I just had gotten a spankin' new Slingerland drum set. I've got my head down, on stage in Seventh Heaven and we're soundin' great. Then I started to notice the sound get thinner and thinner...because the band was walking off stage! Someone had thrown a bottle at Wizzard and someone else threw a knife at Michael! When I looked up the band was yelling for me to get off the stage. It was a redneck audience saying not nice stuff. This was supposed to be the City of Brotherly Love...hello!! And my buds, two of the sweetest, most giving guys I know are getting shit thrown at them for trying to entertain these people? This was forty years ago now and it still pisses me off!"

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Thankfully, this was not the norm for MF. However, in 1978, the band got a visitation from the black music department on CBS' 2nd floor: "How come y'all not makin' any music for the brothers?" That complaint, dually conceded by the rock department, turned into MF's next album, MOTHER FACTOR, being produced by Clarence "Skip" Scarborough, who'd been delivering R&B hits for CBS acts Earth Wind & Fire ("Can't Hide Love") and the Emotions ("Don't Ask My Neighbors"), among others. The result was a lot of the edge being smoothed from their sound for a more riff-and-groove-oriented album featuring the sexy, stutter steppin' "Can't Fight The Feeling," the peacock strut of "Watch My Stylin" and the clavinet driven "Don't Wanna Come Back."

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MF did score a Top 30 U.S. Quiet Storm Soul classic with the introspective ballad "Love Changes" but it came with a price. Skip came to Atlanta to get acquainted with the band and glean insight into how Glenn & Joyce (who finally married in 1975) balanced rock life with home life for the purpose of writing a song. However, when MF got to the studio and Wizzard was laying down Skip's bass line - according to Joyce - it was she who came up with the almighty hook:

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"Love...will...make...you...oh, so happy...inside / Love...can...make...you...oh, so sad...make you cry"

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When the band left the rough track with Skip (Joyce hadn't even cut her leads on the verses yet) while they went to Europe to promote ANOTHER MOTHER FURTHER which was taking off there, Skip copyrighted the song solely in his name. MF had no recourse as SBS saw Skip as a proven R&B hit maker and that they should be grateful. It was covered to even greater success in 1987 as a duet between Meli'sa Morgan and producer Kashif; soaring to #2 R&B. Mary J. Blige also performed it with Jamie Foxx. In certain R&B circles, it is the sole reason MF is known.

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As MF was riding high, the time was right for MOTHER'S FINEST LIVE (1979), colorfully capturing the band at its peak. Along with strong concert renditions of their rock and R&B hits (produced by Bobby Colomby), it included a novel cover of Jefferson Airplane's "Somebody To Love" (produced by - future industry executive - a young Jimmy Iovine).

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Coming off of opening the final fiery concerts for AC/DC with ill-fated lead singer Bon Scott, MF took stock and decided they wanted to pursue a harder heavy metal direction. This resulted in the heartbreaking decision to part ways with Michael Keck. Quietly inspired by The Who's grasp of long form storytelling via its rock opera "Tommy," Keck successfully pursued his dreams of script writing and music composing as well as newfound skills as an actor (including Rev. Sykes in To Kill a Mockingbird) and and creator of multimedia productions ("Voices in the Rain: The Struggle for Survival and Hope," a one-man show in which he plays thirteen characters).

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MF's next 1981 album, IRON AGE (released on Epic in Europe and on Atlantic in the U.S.), included the blistering head banger "Evolution" (highlighted by Mo dueling with himself on guitar) and Murdock in mack mode with "U Turn Me On." At the end of the touring for this album, B.B. also left the band, a decision he anguished over for six months. He went on to work with several other outfits including Molly Hatchet, The Outlaws, and for the last 20 years, The Marshall Tucker Band.

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Though MF was unraveling, their contract called for one last album which became 1983's ONE MOTHER TO ANOTHER. Only released in Europe, the alternative leaning 10-song LP yielded a few gems such as "Secret Service" which Joyce promoted with a video plus a promo tour with outside musicians, including New Orleans keyboardist Doug Bare and Wizzard's brother Harold Seay on Drums.

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Mothers Finest rebounded from this fractured period but not before Joyce pursued a two-album solo career. When MF first returned in '89, they stumbled initially but have since risen again as a force to be reckoned with in key European and U.S. markets as Joyce & Glenn are now rocking with son Dion Murdock on drums, returning founders Mo and Wyzard (today's spelling,) and second guitarist John Hayes.

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Parting Wisdom:

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Glenn: "I never considered myself as talented as Joyce. It's a privilege to share the stage with her. My job was to make sure she wouldn't have to sing every song (to give her a break). As it was, she had more than had 80 percent of the show and she loved it. She's a natural star. Being together was a perk. We woke up in places all over the world and shared all this great coffee! Joyce was everything I wanted and I was proud to be all she wanted and needed in a partner."

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Mo: "Right now, it's a horrible thing. You got Black Power, White Power, Chinese Power... Everywhere you look, people are trying to have their own identity when, in truth, the thing we're supposed to be trying to do is blend together. I'm not so much on race. I try to ignore the color of my skin and would hope that everybody would do the same thing. We don't have to be a color. We can be two people (you and me). Our job as musicians is to put down a melody that'll be here long after we leave. Any music of mine someone picks up on and likes, I'm proud of that."

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Wyzard: "Everybody appreciated the soul of Mo and B.B. in black markets, and everybody appreciated me, Joyce, Glenn and Mike on the rock side. We spent years playing for hostile audiences and embracing audiences. It gave us chops and power that you only get from that experience. I always wanted to be noticed by what people heard and felt before they saw me."

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Joyce: "A name like Mother's Finest has to make its own soil. Mother Energy is one of the most powerful in the universe. We didn't realized that in the beginning but we had a talk with Carlos Santana who is a very metaphysical guy. He told us, 'I feel your collective musical energy in my solar plexus... the area of nurturing.' I'm a a Cancer woman with a Capricorn rising: we will sit in a bed of ants in order to sit at the head of the table! I was neva into sex, drugs and rock n' roll. My thang was tennis shoes, latex and some FUNK! And I was surrounded by guys that were strong, loving and respectful. We're still here because we set the palate for who we are in the 70's. It's a blessing... and we've still got a lil' left."