Mother Finest

Mother's Finest tried to smash the embargo blocking black rock acts with this live record. It was the closest any album came to actually conveying the kind of nonstop excitement, spontaneity, and unpredictability of their live shows, although it also showed how vocally erratic they could be in performance. The failure of a band that had as exciting a vocalist as Joyce Kennedy and did both solid rock and fine grinding funk proved one of the '80s' more puzzling questions. It couldn't just be attributed to racism either, because Mother's Finest actually did better among white audiences than black ones.

Georgia funk rock band Mother's Finest might appear to be only a blip on the radar screen of rock history, but not to any of the headlining bands they've stolen shows from – or any of the audiences who saw it happen. Following in the footsteps of the racially-mixed Sly & the Family Stone, Mother's Finest blended white guitarist Moses Mo and drummer B.B. "Queen" Borden with black vocalists Joyce Kennedy and Glenn Murdock, bassist Wyzard, and keyboardist Mike, for its 1976 self-titled debut album. Tracks like "Rain" and the slightly controversial "Niggazz Can't Sing Rock & Roll" made enough of a ripple to get the band out of Georgia clubs and into regional touring. The follow-up album Another Mother Further lived up to its title. The opening track was a cover of the Holland-Dozier-Holland songwriting team's "Mickey's Monkey," made popular by Smokey Robinson.

“Love Changes – The Anthology, 1972-83,” a first-of-its-kind 2-CD set by Mother’s Finest, considered the premier black rock-and-soul band of the ‘70s and ‘80s. This 37-track collection includes the entire 10-track 1983 LP, “One Mother To Another,” only ever released in Europe and making its worldwide CD debut. In addition, six tracks that were recorded for the group’s first RCA LP (in 1972) and only issued on a now out-of-print US CD in 2010 are also included here along with the team’s four charted singles, recorded for Epic Records during their seven-year tenure with the label, other standouts such as ‘Somebody To Love,’ (produced by Jimmy Iovine) along with ‘U Turn Me On’ and ‘Evolution’ from the 1981 LP, “Iron Age” and key cuts from the group’s three Epic studio albums such as ‘Give You All The Love (Inside Of Me)’ and a cover of the Motown classic, ‘Mickey’s Monkey.’