Mom’s Best performs at Eddie’s Attic and the Buckhead Theatre this weekend. (Images courtesy of the band)
The band, which has been performing because the early Seventies, performs exhibits in two very completely different venues this weekend.
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Mom’s Best rose to worldwide prominence practically a half-century in the past. However the self-described “funk-rock” band has an unbelievable historical past that precedes the tumultuous ’70s.
The venerable group has survived the Vietnam Period, the Nixon years, the following Watergate scandal, ’70s acid rock and punk, ’80s new wave, ’90s grunge, the cultural mashup of the 2000s and the Covid-19 epidemic — and continues to rock on because the instability of the most recent Trump administration unfolds.
When reminded of the act’s uncommon perseverance, co-founder Glenn “Doc” Murdock succinctly attributed the group’s longevity to “self-defense.”
Throughout a prolonged telephone interview with ArtsATL, the metro Atlanta resident expounded on the band’s survival. “I actually do assume our story is all about self-defense,” he stated. “We hold puttin’ it on the market, and we hold working as a result of we need to and since we actually have to! I feel that’s what’s led us from one period to a different for all these years.”
Murdock stated the members of Mom’s Best had thought the tip was close to on a couple of completely different events throughout their spectacular tenure. “However fairly quickly, it’s at all times like, ‘Nicely, let’s go forward and do some new stuff anyway.’ I feel we is perhaps a glutton for it, as a result of we simply need to carry on taking part in. It places meals on the desk, however I feel the perfect half is, we nonetheless have enjoyable doing it.”
Together with co-founder Joyce “Child Jean” Kennedy, Murdock has been a working musician because the late ’60s. They met in Chicago, Murdock’s hometown. The stage antics and powerhouse vocals of Mississippi-born Kennedy rapidly grew to become the focus of their revue-style exhibits.
“We labored anyplace and all over the place we might,” Murdock defined. “USO exhibits, membership gigs, it didn’t matter to us as a result of we simply wished to play our music.” The duo traveled the show-band circuit, crisscrossing the Midwest and East Coast. “It was a variety of laborious work, low pay and excessive mileage!”
By the point the musicians reached Miami in early 1970, popular culture and musical tastes had been altering, whereas tougher rock and soul bands like Sly Stone and the Household Stone (Stone died earlier this week on the age of 82) had been gaining recognition. “By then, I feel we had been changing into what we’d been form of dreaming about. Nevertheless it certain took a very long time.”
With the addition of Jerry “Wyzard” Seay and Gary “Moses Mo” Moore, the core of the band started to take form. In 1972, the band recorded a self-titled debut LP for RCA. The end result was a sonic disappointment for the band. “They’d added strings and stuff. It wasn’t something we wished — in any respect. However being gluttons, we didn’t cease, we simply stored on taking part in and writing,” laughed Murdock.
The fruits of their appreciable labor ripened a couple of years later when producer Tom Werman (Blue Öyster Cult, Low-cost Trick, Motley Crüe) noticed the band play stay in a membership in Atlanta. Quickly, they had been signed to Epic, a serious subsidiary of Columbia Data. The end result was their second self-titled launch in 1976.
“Oh man, when that album got here out,” Murdock defined, “I feel every little thing modified. We’d reduce this actually cool document; it was so natural, and it was simply what we wished. Folks had been saying they thought we had been gonna be larger than Led Zeppelin at that time. However what bought in the best way was Boston. Our document bought buried below Boston. However you recognize what? Like at all times, we simply carried on anyway.”
One of many extra controversial facets of the primary MF Epic launch was the sarcastic “Niggizz Can’t Sang Rock ‘n’ Roll.” Murdock stated it’s nonetheless one in all his favourite songs from the band’s catalog.
“I prefer it as a result of it has a variety of shock worth,” he stated. “I actually went into an area to do this one. Folks like George Clinton and all these guys, they’ve a really particular strategy to convey the meanings of that exact phrase. They will get away with it with out being too graphic. However we did it and we had been specific. That’s from the streets of Chicago for me, you recognize? It was uncooked, it was asphalt, it was a part of the world I got here from. Plus, at the moment, it was largely remedy.”
Murdock stated the message of the track weighed closely on him because the ’70s progressed. “I used to be very apprehensive about shifting south, particularly once they stated, ‘Let’s go to Atlanta.’ Issues had been so brutal then, however, by placing that track out, I feel it was good for us and for our followers.”
“I truly loved when individuals would ask for it,” he chuckled. “I imply, white guys would come as much as me and say, ‘Hey, if you gonna sing that track, man?’ I’d say, ‘Oh yeah? Nicely, what track is that?’ Then it will set up a dialogue.”
By the point One other Mom Additional arrived in 1977, Mom’s Best had been laying down the legislation that they weren’t an R&B band. “They tried to label us as that, and even [Epic labelmates] Earth, Wind and Fireplace had been disenchanted we didn’t match into that mildew. However we had been very comfy with the entire ‘rock music’ factor. That’s the place we got here from, and we weren’t about to vary at that time.”
To drive the purpose residence, Murdock and firm got here up with one in all their largest hits. “Piece Of The Rock” grew to become a staple of laborious rock radio playlists, together with at Atlanta’s 96 Rock.
“We would have liked to say that we wished a chunk of that rock ‘n’ roll,” he continued. “As a result of every so often, we had been denied that entry.” He stated the band rose to the problem.
“Again then, you had been both rock or funk or R&B. You had to decide on. We didn’t need to select. We beloved all these genres, and we’d performed all these issues. We truly nonetheless do, however that track form of grew to become an anthem to say we wished to only be seen as ourselves. It grew to become a little bit of a rally cry.”
The band’s fight tactic labored, and the identical album skillfully featured the extra easy soul monitor, “Child Love.”
“That was a track that individuals might form of tolerate on each side of the fence,” stated Murdock. “However, once more, it has parts of funk, R&B and rock, too. And I need to say, 96 Rock had been large supporters of us. They’d play the entire album, right through. Then these songs took us — not simply all around the States, however to Europe after which all around the world.”
European audiences proceed to be amenable to the band’s mind-set. “We’ll go over there thrice this yr as a result of the audiences there nonetheless get it. They choose you by the music, and there’s no form of racial factor. It’s simply, is it good or is it dangerous? I feel the true motive why we bought widespread over there within the first place is as a result of they understood what actual funk is about. It’s a complete acceptance of what we’re doing.”
Acceptance continues to gasoline the band. “The beauty of all of it is, we nonetheless wouldn’t have modified our methods — and even now, we nonetheless received’t change the best way we do issues. I don’t know if it’s as a result of we’re simply hardheaded or what.”
This week, Atlanta followers have two uncommon alternatives to see the band’s incendiary stay present at two decidedly completely different venues. The MF one-two punch begins on the usually staid listening room at Eddie’s Attic on Friday and continues to the massive stage on the Buckhead Theatre on Saturday evening.
At Eddie’s, the band might be flanked by the venue’s iconic banners that warn listeners to remain quiet and concentrate. Does this imply Mom’s Best is planning to decrease their quantity and ship an intimate acoustic set?
“Hell no,” replied Murdock. “We are able to’t do this! It’s embarrassing, man. We’ve tried it, however the perfect we are able to do is attempt to play just a bit bit quieter. That’s about it. We even tried it with acoustic devices, and that didn’t work both. So the Eddie’s present is just about the identical actual rock present because the Buckhead Theatre. It is perhaps much more intense as a result of everybody is true up there with us in that room.”
Murdock stated each exhibits will function him and Joyce Kennedy on vocals, joined by Jerry “Wyzard” Seay (bass), Gary “Moses Mo” Moore and John “Pink Satan” Hayes (guitars) — and his son Dion Derek Murdock on drums.
“Generally Dion is a ache within the ass, and typically he’s one of many heaviest drummers we’ve ever had,” concluded Murdock. “He’s carrying it on, identical to the remainder of us. He discovered all of it by being there — however, then, so did we! We’re nonetheless right here and we’re all greater than able to rock.”
The place & When
Mom’s Best. 9 p.m. Friday, June 13, $56.18-$68.70, Eddie’s Attic, 515-B N. McDonough St., Decatur. 404-377-4976, eddiesattic.com; and eight p.m. Saturday, June 14, $37-$123, Buckhead Theatre, 3110 Roswell Street NW, Atlanta. 404- 843-2825, thebuckheadtheatre.com.
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Lee Valentine Smith is an Atlanta-born artist, author and musician. At the moment a daily contributor to The Atlanta Journal-Structure, his work has been syndicated internationally. He has appeared at Music Midtown, on CBS Radio and on Air America. He additionally served as artwork director, guide and archivist for initiatives with ’80s hitmakers The Go-Go’s.
