Mid-70’s Funk from The Love Family!
- Listen to this song on youtube: Does Your Mama Know
- Listen to these 45s in a Spotify playlist here with other 45s from the blog (though note, spotify doesn’t have all / many of the songs featured on the site so some playlists may be incomplete or feature slightly different versions than the original 45s I’m referring to here.
- This song is available on Musical Episode #013: Singles Mixer v. 4
Following up on the theme of “family” based records (husband and wife constitute a ‘family,’ right?) today’s musical episode is a nice slab of break filled funk from Rudy Love & Love Family.
I originally picked up another 45 of theirs a while back – Love Electricity- and while not blown away by any measure it’s a decent piece of funk infused disco that I put on one of my 45 mixtapes I make for myself and carried on with my life. A few months back I came across this record and picked it up for a pocket full of change.
As I’m going through my records from that day I plop this duder on and expect more of the same but instead I am immediately grabbed by a killlllllller break at the beginning of the song (one that I actually recognized from Jay-Z’s American Gangster). “Does Your Mama Know” was produced by Bert DeCoteaux who is known for (and displays here) his patented touch for mixing the lush and extravagant with the soulful and Tony Sylvester. Sylvester was a member of The Main Ingredient who DeCoteaux also worked with extensively.
Rudy Love & Love Family were in fact a family, Rudy was one of 14 brothers and sisters from the Love family. He was the oldest sibling and accordingly the leader of the group with sisters Peggy, Shirley and Denise contributing to the brilliance along with brothers Gerald and Bob in the mix. Rudy Love & Co. cut two LPs and 4 singles for Calla in the mid-70’s (this is pretty late in the time line for this blog!) with members coming and going and Rudy remaining the back bone.
As things slowed down with the family Rudy took work as a band leader and manager for the Sly & The Family Stone which, based on their history, could not have been an easy gig. He also found work as a vocalist for Motown and as a song writer for Calla label mates The Persuaders though he eventually gave up the challenges of the road and industry work for the family life of his hometown of Witchita, Kansas.
That’s all for today! Hope you enjoyed today’s musical episode.
-George / Snack Attack
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