The 50th Anniversary of Fanny's Mother's Pride Leaves Me Both Satisfied & Saddened

It was fifty years ago this month Fanny released their fourth album Mother's Pride. While Mother's Pride is a satisfying album it also leaves me saddened as it would be the last Fanny album to feature the classic lineup of June Millington, Jean Millington, Nickey Barclay and Alice de Buhr. 

Before the end of 1973, a physically and spiritually exhausted June Millington left the group. Soon after, de Buhr would depart. It would also be Fanny's last album on the Reprise label.

Fanny's first three albums (Fanny, Charity Ball and Fanny Hill) had been produced by Richard Perry, but the group was seeking a change in musical direction. Initially, there had been discussion about working with Denny Cordell who had produced the likes of The Moody Blues, Procol Harum, Joe Cocker and Leon Russell. Also under consideration was Bernie Taupin, best known as the songwriting partner of Elton John. 

But Fanny would ultimately choose Todd Rundgren. He certainly had credentials of his own having produced albums for Ian & Sylvia's band The Great Speckled Bird, The Band and Badfinger. Rundgren would soon be enlisted to produce for Grand Funk Railroad as well as the debut album of The New York Dolls. During the same period, Rundgren would reach his commercial peak of success as a performer in his own right with Something/Anything? which featured his two biggest hits, "I Saw The Light" and "In My Eyes". Fanny and Rundgren had also performed on the same bill on several occasions and had developed a good rapport.

Because of this rapport, Fanny had hoped Rundgren would give them more input into mixing the album. Instead, upon their first recording session, Rundgren laid down the law. As June Millington recounts in her 2015 autobiography, Land of a Thousand Bridges: Island Girl in a Rock n' Roll World:

Todd got down on the floor hands behind neck, crossed one leg over a knee casually on that dirty rug, and grinned up at us as we gathered in a circle around his head. Imagine it: he looking up for all the world as if on a day at the beach, while we stared at this rock-anointed semi-god. And made this pronouncement: "Ok, you're the artists and I'm the producer, right? [silent nods] And I'm the producer because I know more than you do. That means you have to do what I tell you."

What was this, the 4th grade? And the thing is, we all stared down at him, uttering not a word. I think at that moment we were beaten, that was the end.

Unfortunately, there are moments where one can hear this defeat and it only reinforces the sadness I feel when I listen to Mother's Pride. Nevertheless, Mother's Pride does offer some satisfying moments just not nearly enough.

Mother's Pride opens with a cover of Randy Newman's "Last Night I Had a Dream" with Nickey Barclay on lead vocals. Barclay's vocals are gritty as is her piano playing, but Rundgren overproduces the track nearly drowning her out. Rundgren's touch gets lighter on the next two tracks - "Long Way Home" and "Old Hat". "Long Way Home" is one of June Millington's finest compositions and its lyrics reflect her weariness with life with Fanny (I don't wanna die of a broken heart as dreamers often will/Heaven help the people who try so hard when living is all uphill). "Old Hat" had been recorded the previous year by a U.K. band called Uncle Dog with Barclay was friendly. I am particularly fond of its opening line, "Found an old hat on the ground/You know it fit me."

The next two songs on Mother's Pride are Barclay compositions "Solid Gold" and "Is It Really You?". "Solid Gold" is one of two songs in the Fanny canon where de Buhr takes the lead vocal. She had done so previously with "Rock Bottom Blues" on Fanny Hill. Two years later, Keith Moon would cover the song on his lone solo album Two Sides of the Moon with Barclay playing keyboard. Copious amounts of alcohol were consumed by de Buhr when she sang the song. No doubt the same was true for Moonie. My favorite lyric in "Is It Really You?" is "But it don't seem right/No, it don't seem right". What doesn't seem right is yet another case of Rundgren's ham-handed overproduction. 

Side one of Mother's Pride ends with "All Mine", a mid-tempo song co-written by the Millington sisters. "All Mine" has the distinction of being the only Fanny song to feature male backup vocalists. Here Rundgren falls into the trap of using a sax solo where a guitar solo by June would have been much better. Richard Perry made the same error using horns on "First Time in a Long Time" on Fanny Hill. 

Side two of Mother's Pride begins with back-to-back June Millington songs - "Summer Song" and "Polecat Blues". It has been said that Fanny didn't write songs with hooks, but "Summer Song" has a radio friendly hook and ought to have been heard on every radio on both sides of the Atlantic in the summer of '73. "Polecat Blues" is a New Orleans style ditty featuring a solid back beat from de Buhr and a piano waltz from Barclay. I have no doubt this would have been a fun song to play live to which I can attest as I have heard "Polecat Blues" when June was holding her weekly livestreams during the pandemic. June's vocal on "Polecat Blues" is livelier when heard live than on record.

"Beside Myself" represents the only songwriting collaboration between Jean Millington and Nickey Barclay and, outside of "Summer Song", it is the highlight of Mother's Pride. It is a gut-wrenching ballad featuring plaintive vocals by Jean (I'm just beside myself; I don’t know what to say/You fill my head with lies and I want to believe you) augmented by June's strongest guitar solo on Mother's Pride. One can only imagine what other compositions Jean and Nickey could have conjured up had Fanny stayed together longer.

Following "Beside Myself" are back-to-back compositions by Barclay - "Regular Guy" and "I Need You Need Me". The two songs are like day and night. "Regular Guy" is gentle, acoustic guitar driven ballad while "I Need You Need Me" is a hard driving, cosmic rocker. The penultimate song on Mother's Pride is "Feelings" which marks the second and final songwriting collaboration between June Millington and Nickey Barclay. Fanny's two main songwriters had previously joined forces on "I Just Realized" from their eponymous debut album three years earlier. Coming in at just under two minutes, "Feelings" features a cacophony of flutes which accompany June's vocals. 

Mother's Pride concludes on a positive note with Barclay's "I'm Satisfied". Fanny truly sounds as unified on this song as The Beatles did on "The End" on Abbey Road. But we all know what happened to The Fab Four. While Fanny did not immediately break-up they would not be the same without June Millington and Alice de Buhr. While "I'm Satisfied" fills me with satisfaction, it also fills me with sadness. 

Despite all their credentials, neither Richard Perry nor Todd Rundgren captured Fanny the way they sounded on stage with any consistency. Perhaps this was too tall a task for any producer they would have chosen up to and including George Martin. But what's done is done and none of it changes Fanny's status as rock 'n roll pioneers. Whatever tears may have been shed, if it is satisfaction enough for Fanny then it is satisfaction enough for me.