The Mothers

The original name of Frank Zappa's band; executives at MGM/Verve, who originally signed them, balked at the name, since it expands (taking American slang into consideration) to "The Motherfuckers". So they became The Mothers of Invention, at the suits' behest - often displayed as (should your browseur permit these tags) The Mothers of Invention; many still referred to them as "The Mothers" anyway. It comes, appropriately, from an old Benjamin Franklin maxim "necessity is the mother of invention". It was Franklin, wasn't it?

Morés would eventually allow "mother" to be used in its slang context: a band called Mother's Finest, et al, could have live LPs called A Live Mother for Ya (and similar such titles), and not be censored. Even later, John Mellencamp could speak of "paintin' the mother pink" in MTV's much-hyped Pink House Giveaway, a promotional tie-in to Mellencamp's Pink Houses CD, or whatever it was called.