Bobby Womack 1944-2014
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Bobby Womack
Listen/Download The Valentinos – It’s All Over Now
Listen/Download Percy Sledge – Baby Help Me
Listen/Download Bobby Womack – Take Me
Listen/Download Bobby Womack – A Simple Man
Listen/Download Sammy Gordon and the Hip Huggers – Breezin’
Listen/Download Bobby Womack and Peace – Across 110th Street
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Greetings all
Last week ended on a down note, with news of the passing of the mighty Bobby Womack.
Womack, who was 70, had fought multiple health-related battles over the past few years.
As has been stated in this space a few times in the past, I came to the music of Bobby Womack fairly late in the game.
Womack’s was one of those names that I ‘knew’ (that much was unavoidable) but his music was always just outside of my view.
Typical of my musical wandering, it was via his singing with his brothers in the Valentinos that I first heard his voice.
As an inveterate seeker of all things ‘original’, it was the Valentinos’ ‘It’s All Over Now’, covered by the Rolling Stones, that I had to put my hands on, and I was very happy to do so.
Over the years, thanks to reading about his exploits in a number of books, I became better acquainted with his life, and by picking up his records when I could, his music.
Discussing his passing with a friend on Facebook, I described Bobby Womack as a kind of ‘Zelig’ of soul (referencing the omnipresent Woody Allen character), popping up all over the musical landscape, working with artists like Sly Stone, Aretha Franklin and Janis Joplin over the years.
He got his start singing gospel with The Womack Brothers, that group evolving (much to their father’s consternation) into the R&B Valentinos.
Womack worked closely with Sam Cooke, and after that giant’s untimely death, eventually married his widow, a move that was reportedly so unpopular in the music business that it all but torpedoed his career at the time.
Through the 1960s Womack worked steadily as a guitarist (for Ray Charles, among others) and songwriter, composing a number of Wilson Pickett’s big hits (‘I’m In Love’ and ‘I’m a Midnight Mover’ among others), yet didn’t make it onto the charts under his own name until 1968 and ‘What Is This’, which started long string of R&B hits that lasted all the way until 1986.
The more I listen to his music, the more I realize that Bobby Womack should have been a much, bigger star. I think, had his string of hits started a few years earlier, he would be spoken of in the same breath as Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Solomon Burke and the like.
He was a prodigiously talented artist, as able a composer and musician as he was a singer, able to mix and match those talents as needed.
That he was already held in that high esteem by soul fans is without question. The outpouring of sadness and respect I have seen over the past few days attests to that.
I have posted a number of Bobby Womack (and related) tracks in this space over the last half-dozen years. As I was digging through the archives, I pulled a number of those out, as well as something I’d been wanting to feature for a while.
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The first track is – of course – the Valentinos ‘It’s All Over Now’. Released in 1964 on Sam Cooke’s SAR label, but soon pushed out of the spotlight by the Rolling Stones cover, ‘It’s All Over Now’ is a fantastic piece of early West Coast soul, and maybe the grooviest record ever to feature both the glockenspiel and the tuba. It wasn’t the Valentinos biggest hit – ‘Lookin’ For a Love’ made it into the R&B Top 10 in 1962 – but it is nonetheless amazing.
Percy Sledge
Next up is a track from Womack’s songwriting days, just prior to his own chart ascendancy. ‘Baby Help Me’ was a minor hit for Percy Sledge in early 1967. It is a departure for Sledge, seeing him working the uptempo, soul shouting side of the street.
‘Take Me’ from 1968, was the flipside of his Top 20 R&B hit cover of ‘Fly Me To the Moon’. I am here to tell you – though you’d be able to pick up as much listening to the song – that this is not only one of Bobby Womack’s best (though, strangely enough, composed not by him, but by Big Dee Erwin/Ervin) but one of the finest soul records laid down in the 1960s.
Recorded in Memphis with the American Studios band (of whom Womack had been a part), ‘Take Me’ (this is the 45 mix, noticeably different from, and superior to the LP track) is a mid-tempo epic, with a powerful ascending horn chart, and an epic vocal by Bobby. There are times when this record can bring me to tears, it’s so good.
1971 found Womack in the studio with another Funky16Corners favorite, Gabor Szabo on the ‘High Contrast’ LP (Womack writing four of the album’s seven tracks). He presented Szabo with a new composition entitled ‘Breezin’, and the two of them grazed the R&B Top 40 with their version of the song.
A year later, NY-based Sammy Gordon and the Hiphuggers covered ‘Breezin’ for the Archives label. Gordon, who had come to New York (as did his cousin Benny, of Benny Gordon and the Soul Brothers) from the Carolinas, recorded a couple of excellent, funky 45s. Their amazing version of ‘Breezin’ went nowhere near the charts, but its loopable drum and bass opening (try to keep from nodding your head) and mellow groove is fantastic, and for me far superior to the better known, 1976 hit by George Benson.
The very funky ‘Simple Man’ (co-written with Joe Hicks) is one of my favorite tracks from Womack’s 1972 LP ‘Understanding, which also included ‘Woman’s Gotta Have It’ his first R&B #1 hit. The cut features a wild vocal by Bobby, some rolling electric piano and plenty of fuzz guitar.
I wanted to include Womack’s 1973 cover of Bob Dylan’s ‘All Along the Watchtower’. Recorded with the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section for the ‘Facts of Life’ album, it’s a hard rocking take on the tune, which sounds more like Neil Young than Jimi Hendrix, and is a great window into the complexity and variety of Womack’s sound.
The last track I’m posting today is Bobby Womack’s famous entry into the Blaxploitation world, 1973’s title track from the film ‘Across 100th Street’. A funky cut, with just enough strings (co-written with jazz trombonist JJ Johnson, who created much of the instrumental music on the soundtrack), it is pushed along by percussive keyboards and heavy bass. The song had a second life when Quentin Tarantino used it in his film ‘Jackie Brown’.
He continued to record through the 80s and 90s (having some of his biggest hits with the LPs ‘The Poet’ and ‘The Poet II” in 1981 and 1984 respectively), eventually guesting on the Gorillaz ‘Stylo’ in 2009 (the year he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame)
Bobby Womack was a master.
He will be missed.
Keep the faith
Larry
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Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.
Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).
Themocracy