Artist.......: Bobby Womack
Album........: Album de la Semaine
Label........: n/a
Genre........: Soul
Catnr........: n/a
Source.......: DVBS
Rip.date.....: 2013-04-27
Str.date.....: 2012-10-00
Quality......: 217kbps/48.0kHz/Joint Stereo
Url..........: http://bobbywomack.com/
track title time
1. Album de la Semaine 17:11
* Deep River
* The Bravest Man In The Universe
* Sweet Baby Of Mine
* Please Forgive My Heart
Runtime 17:11
Size 26.77
Release Notes:
A veteran who paid his dues for over a decade before getting his shot at solo
stardom, Bobby Womack persevered through tragedy and addiction to emerge as one
of soul music's great survivors. Able to shine in the spotlight as a singer or
behind the scenes as an instrumentalist and songwriter, Womack never got his due
from pop audiences, but during the late '60s and much of the '70s, he was a
consistent hitmaker on the R&B charts, with a high standard of quality control.
His records were quintessential soul, with a bag of tricks learned from the
likes of Sam Cooke, Wilson Pickett, and Sly Stone, all of whom Womack worked
closely with at one time or another. Yet often, they also bore the stamp of
Womack's own idiosyncratic personality, whether through a lengthy spoken
philosophical monologue or a radical reinterpretation of a pop standard. An
underrated guitarist, Womack helped pioneer a lean, minimalist approach similar
to that of Curtis Mayfield, and was an early influence on the young Jimi
Hendrix. Additionally, his songs have been recorded by numerous artists in the
realms of both R&B and rock, and the best of them rank as all-time classics.
Bobby Dwayne Womack was born in Cleveland on March 4, 1944. His upbringing was
strict and religious, but his father Friendly also encouraged his sons to pursue
music as he had (he sang and played guitar in a gospel group). In the early
'50s, while still a child, Bobby joined his siblings Cecil, Curtis, Harry, and
Friendly Jr. to form the gospel quintet the Womack Brothers. They were chosen to
open a local show for the Soul Stirrers in 1953, where Bobby befriended lead
singer Sam Cooke; following this break, they toured the country as an opening
act for numerous gospel groups. When Cooke formed his own SAR label, he
recruited the Womack Brothers with an eye toward transforming them into a
crossover R&B act. Learning that his sons were moving into secular music,
Friendly Womack threw them out of the house, and Cooke wired them the money to
buy a car and drive out to his Los Angeles offices. the Womack Brothers made
several recordings for SAR over 1960 and 1961, including a few gospel sides, but
Cooke soon convinced them to record R&B and renamed them the Valentinos. In
1962, they scored a Top Ten hit on the R&B charts with "Lookin' for a Love," and
Cooke sent them on the road behind James Brown to serve a boot-camp-style
musical apprenticeship. Bobby eventually joined Cooke's backing band as
guitarist. the Valentinos' 1964 single "It's All Over Now," written by Bobby,
was quickly covered by the Rolling Stones with Cooke's blessing; when it became
the Stones' first U.K. number one, Womack suddenly found himself a rich man.
Cooke's tragic death in December 1964 left Womack greatly shaken and the
Valentinos' career in limbo. Just three months later, Womack married Cooke's
widow, Barbara Campbell, which earned him tremendous ill will in the R&B
community; many viewed him as a shady opportunist looking to cash in on Cooke's
legacy, especially since Campbell was significantly older than Womack. According
to Womack, he was initially motivated to look after Campbell in an unstable
time, not to tarnish the memory of a beloved mentor. Regardless, Womack found
himself unable to get his solo career rolling in the wake of the scandal;
singles for Chess ("I Found a True Love") and Him ("Nothing You Can Do") were
avoided like the plague despite their quality. the Valentinos cut a couple of
singles for Chess in 1966, "What About Me" and "Sweeter Than the Day Before,"
which also failed to make much of a splash. To make ends meet, Womack became a
backing guitarist, first landing a job with Ray Charles; he went on to make a
valuable connection in producer Chips Moman, and appeared often at Moman's
American Studio in Memphis, as well as nearby Muscle Shoals, Alabama. In the
process, Womack appeared on classic recordings by the likes of Joe Tex, King
Curtis, and Aretha Franklin (Lady Soul), among others. He recorded singles for
Keymen and Atlantic without success, but became one of Wilson Pickett's favorite
songwriters, contributing the R&B Top Ten hits "I'm in Love" and "I'm a Midnight
Mover" (plus 15 other tunes) to the singer's repertoire.
Womack had been slated to record a solo album for Minit, but had given Pickett
most of his best material, which actually wound up getting his name back in the
public eye in a positive light. In 1968, he scored the first charting single of
his solo career with "What Is This?" and soon hit with a string of inventively
reimagined pop covers -- "Fly Me to the Moon," "California Dreamin'," and "I
Left My Heart in San Francisco," the former two of which reached the R&B Top 20.
A songwriting partnership with engineer Darryl Carter resulted in the R&B hits
"It's Gonna Rain," "How I Miss You Baby," and "More Than I Can Stand" over
1969-1970. A series of label absorptions bumped Womack up to United Artists in
1971, which proved to be the home of his greatest solo success; in the meantime,
he contributed the ballad "Trust Me" to Janis Joplin's masterpiece Pearl, and
the J. Geils Band revived "Lookin' for a Love" for their first hit. He also
teamed up with jazz guitarist Gabor Szabo on the LP High Contrast, which debuted
Womack's composition "Breezin'" (which, of course, became a smash for George
Benson six years later). Most importantly, however, Womack played guitar on Sly
& the Family Stone's There's a Riot Goin' On, a masterpiece of darkly
psychedelic funk that would have an impact on Womack's own sound and sense of
style.
Womack issued his first UA album, Communication, in 1971, which kicked off a
string of excellent releases that ran through the first half of the decade. In
addition to several of Womack's trademark pop covers, the album also contained
the original ballad "That's the Way I Feel About 'Cha," which climbed all the
way to number two on the R&B chart and became his long-awaited breakout hit. The
1972 follow-up Understanding spawned Womack's first chart-topper, "Woman's Gotta
Have It," co-written with Darryl Carter and stepdaughter Linda (Womack divorced
Barbara Campbell in 1970). The follow-up "Harry Hippie," a gently ironic tribute
to Womack's brother, also hit the R&B Top Ten. Later that year, Womack scored
the blaxploitation flick Across 110th Street; the title cut was later revived in
the 1998 Quentin Tarantino film Jackie Brown. Released in 1973, The Facts of
Life had an R&B number two hit in a rearrangement of the perennial "Nobody Knows
You When You're Down and Out," and the following year's Lookin' for a Love Again
found Womack revisiting his Valentinos hit; the re-recorded "Lookin' for a Love"
became his second number one R&B single and his only Top Ten hit on the pop
charts. Follow-up single "You're Welcome, Stop on By" made the R&B Top Five.
Womack was by this time a seasoned veteran of the rock & roll lifestyle, having
befriended the likes of the Rolling Stones, the late Janis Joplin, and Sly
Stone. After his brother Harry was murdered by a jealous girlfriend in 1974 (in
Bobby's own apartment), the drug usage began to take a more serious turn. Womack
scored further R&B Top Ten hits with 1975's "Check It Out" and 1976's
"Daylight," the latter of which seemed to indicate a longing for escape from the
nonstop partying that often masked serious depression. Despite Womack's new
marriage to Regina Banks, the song was a sign that things were coming to a head.
Womack pushed UA into letting him do a full album of country music, something
he'd always loved but which the label regarded as commercially inadvisable
(especially under the title Womack reportedly wanted to use: Step Aside, Charley
Pride, Give Another Nigger a Try). They eventually relented, and when BW Goes
C&W met with predictably minimal response, UA palmed the increasingly difficult
Womack off on Columbia. A pair of albums there failed to recapture his
commercial momentum or reinvent him for the disco age, and he moved to Arista
for 1979's Roads of Life, which appeared not long after the sudden death of his
infant son.
At a low point in his life, Womack took a bit of time off from music to gather
himself. He appeared as a guest vocalist on Jazz Crusader Wilton Felder's 1980
solo album, Inherit the Wind, singing the hit title track, and subsequently
signed with black entrepreneur Otis Smith's independent Beverly Glen label. His
label debut, 1981's The Poet, was a critically acclaimed left-field hit,
rejuvenating his career and producing a number three R&B hit with "If You Think
You're Lonely Now." Unfortunately, money disputes soured the relationship
between Womack and Smith rather quickly. The Poet II was delayed until 1984, and
featured several duets with Patti LaBelle, including another number three R&B
hit, "Love Has Finally Come at Last." Beverly Glen released a final LP culled
from Womack's previous sessions, Someday We'll All Be Free, in 1985, by which
time the singer had already broken free and signed with MCA. Another hit with
Wilton Felder, "(No Matter How High I Get) I'll Still Be Looking Up to You,"
appeared that year, and his label debut, So Many Rivers, produced a Top Five R&B
hit in "I Wish He Didn't Trust Me So Much." Released in 1986, Womagic reunited
Womack with Chips Moman, and he also backed the Rolling Stones on their remake
of "Harlem Shuffle." By the following year he'd christened himself The Last Soul
Man, which proved to be his final recording for MCA.
In the years since, Womack has made high-profile returns to the music business
only sporadically. Released in 1994, Resurrection was recorded for Ron Wood's
Slide label and featured an array of guest stars including Wood, Keith Richards,
Rod Stewart, and Stevie Wonder. In 1999, he fulfilled a longstanding promise to
his father (who passed away in 1981) by delivering his first-ever gospel album,
Back to My Roots. While he continued to perform throughout the following decade,
his guest appearance on the 2010 Gorillaz album Plastic Beach seemed like a
return. A couple years later, after being the subject of TV One's Unsung
documentary series, he released The Bravest Man in the Universe, a collaboration
with the XL label's Richard Russell and Gorillaz's Damon Albarn.