What Can You Tell Me About Bobby Womack?

[marv2]

I know Bobby Womack and his music, but there is a lot to his story that I think would make for an interesting discussion, including his recordings and songs he wrote.

[sansradio]

He's one of my older brother's idols. He told me the story of seeing him in concert during the early '70s at the height of Womack's drug use. Bobby was so high that he had to be physically carried onstage already seated. He then proceeded to give the concert of a lifetime [[after which he was carried off in his chair). He's one of the truly unsung giants.

[marv2]

He's one of my older brother's idols. He told me the story of seeing him in concert during the early '70s at the height of Womack's drug use. Bobby was so high that he had to be physically carried onstage already seated. He then proceeded to give the concert of a lifetime [[after which he was carried off in his chair). He's one of the truly unsung giants.

Wow! Now that is a story! I like to learn the good and the not so good about the greats. I first became familiar with Bobby Womack and his music myself while still a kid in the early 70s. Songs like Harry Hippy, Looking for A Love and probably my all-time favorite Bobby Womack song, Across 110th Street.

[nativeNY63]

Wow! Now that is a story! I like to learn the good and the not so good about the greats. I first became familiar with Bobby Womack and his music myself while still a kid in the early 70s. Songs like Harry Hippy, Looking for A Love and probably my all-time favorite Bobby Womack song, Across 110th Street.
I still jam off 110th St
too. Remember the movie too.

[nativeNY63]

I remember his final album, had his hand with a disjointed thumb on the cover. Unfortunately, like many artists who abuse their bodies, his voice was barely recognizable. No longer the If You Think You're Lonely Now Womack voice. So sad. If I recall correctly, he died from Alhziemer's Disease or Dementia. 😞

[Guy]

If I had to pick just one of his songs -- and it's hard because he had several great ones -- it would be "Daylight." It reminds me of my childhood.

There is a TVOne"Unsung" about him and a biography, "Midnight Mover."

[Boogiedown]

Wow! Now that is a story! I like to learn the good and the not so good about the greats. I first became familiar with Bobby Womack and his music myself while still a kid in the early 70s. Songs like Harry Hippy, Looking for A Love and probably my all-time favorite Bobby Womack song, Across 110th Street.

I'd like to learn more about him too! Kind of flew under the radar for me , but I always liked his voice. Would it be right to say he sort of falls into the Jerry Butler type of an artist?....mellow... . HARRY HIPPIE was the 'b' side of his version of Diamond's SWEET CAROLINE , but radio jocks flipped the single .

I fondly remember this being in rotation on the LA R&B stations :


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPMJFqwsi6E

[marv2]

Did you know that the Rolling Stones had their first U.S. hit with a song Bobby Womack wrote and recorded called "It's All Over Now"?

[JimBagley]

Good book. Bobby was never boring.
https://www.amazon.com/Bobby-Womack-Story-1944-2014/dp/1782199845

[sansradio]

Did you know that the Rolling Stones had their first U.S. hit with a song Bobby Womack wrote and recorded called "It's All Over Now"?

He also famously married his mentor Sam Cooke's widow just over two month's after Sam's death--for whose funeral Bobby was spotted in one of Sam's suits.

[splanky]

He also famously married his mentor Sam Cooke's widow just over two month's after Sam's death--for whose funeral Bobby was spotted in one of Sam's suits.

A lot of folks had major problems with that and some still do to this day. Online I've seen
people still talking about his song I Wish He Didn't Trust Me So Much was Bobby expressing post event guilt over his relationship with Sam Cooke. Anyway Bobby's
book I agree was very good but there is so much he left out of it that I've often wondered about. He played , uncredited, on Sly Stone first releases but never really
said much about it. Same thing for George Clinton's P-Funk All Stars first album. Glen
Goins, Parliament's guitarist and singer, legendary for calling down the Mothership in
concerts was Bobby's guitar player prior to P-funk but Bobby never mentions him by name. There's a lot of other things I'd like to know like how he came to play as a sideman on Tracy Chapman's Matters Of The Heart....too much...

[marv2]

I do remember the big hubbub that was made over Bobby Womack's marriage to Barbara Cooke.

[sansradio]

A lot of folks had major problems with that and some still do to this day. Online I've seen
people still talking about his song I Wish He Didn't Trust Me So Much was Bobby expressing post event guilt over his relationship with Sam Cooke. Anyway Bobby's
book I agree was very good but there is so much he left out of it that I've often wondered about. He played , uncredited, on Sly Stone first releases but never really
said much about it. Same thing for George Clinton's P-Funk All Stars first album. Glen
Goins, Parliament's guitarist and singer, legendary for calling down the Mothership in
concerts was Bobby's guitar player prior to P-funk but Bobby never mentions him by name. There's a lot of other things I'd like to know like how he came to play as a sideman on Tracy Chapman's Matters Of The Heart....too much...

Didn't know about P-Funk All-Stars and Matters of the Heart [[which I own)! I do know that he composed "Trust Me" and gave it to Janis Joplin; he was also with her hours before she fatally overdosed.

[splanky]

Didn't know about P-Funk All-Stars and Matters of the Heart [[which I own)! I do know that he composed "Trust Me" and gave it to Janis Joplin; he was also with her hours before she fatally overdosed.

Yes, Bobby and ex Living Color axe slinger Vernon Reid both assisted Tracey on that release. I and some old friends of mine called it her "black album". There was early in her
career a trend to bill her as this folk singer but we considered her a blues singer. But hey
as Nina Simone said aren't we all folk singer, isn't all of the songs made by "folks"?...

[Boogiedown]

Did you know that the Rolling Stones had their first U.S. hit with a song Bobby Womack wrote and recorded called "It's All Over Now"?

man they sound more like the Stones , than the Stones!!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71XrZ7ghpZg

[mr_june]

I liked his 60's output a lot. His soulful versions of standards like Fly Me To The Moon and I Left My Heart In San Francisco along with What Is This, It's Gonna Rain and More Than I could Stand and others were what initially got my attention.

[marv2]

If I had to pick just one of his songs -- and it's hard because he had several great ones -- it would be "Daylight." It reminds me of my childhood.

There is a TVOne"Unsung" about him and a biography, "Midnight Mover."
'Daylight " was a special favorite of mine too. I can remember those late nights out and even a few times hearing it on the car radio while making back home.

[heikki]

Personal favourite: Somebody Special on Minit in 1967 - with Chips Moman:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_8lW3mug_0

Best regards
Heikki

[MIKEW-UK]

Heikki, same personal favourite "Somebody Special" by Bobby! Actually, a joint favourite along with "Baby, I Can't Stand It". Very similar in style. When these came out on Minit, they were my first real introduction to Bobby as a a performing artist, although he was receiving recognition for his guitar playing and composing with Wilson Pickett. At Minit, he also collaborated with Jimmy Holiday, who produced material on Bobby including "Baby I can't Stand It".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1dnlSVThJo

[motony]

I knew Bobby & all the Womack brothers & spent alot of time up at Bobs' house in Hollywood Hills during '74/'75 when I lived with Mary Wells Womack & Cecil Womack in LA. The only "drugs" I saw was pot & usually mine. I NEVER knew of Bobby having to be helped on & off stage, maybe your brother was thinking of Sly Stone.

[heikki]

Hi Mike!

Although commercially not so lucrative as his later UA period, I really like Bobby's Minit era. His both albums - Fly Me To The Moon [[1968) and My Prescription [['69) - contain thrilling soul music.

Best regards
Heikki

[sansradio]

I knew Bobby & all the Womack brothers & spent alot of time up at Bobs' house in Hollywood Hills during '74/'75 when I lived with Mary Wells Womack & Cecil Womack in LA. The only "drugs" I saw was pot & usually mine. I NEVER knew of Bobby having to be helped on & off stage, maybe your brother was thinking of Sly Stone.

My brother would never confuse Sly with Bobby. What's more, Bobby was always candid in the press about his addiction to cocaine. To wit:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/bobby-womack-charismatic-soul-singer-dies-at-70/2014/06/28/705dfa12-fed7-11e3-b1f4-8e77c632c07b_story.html

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/nov/30/bobby-womack-interview

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1994-10-02-9410020167-story.html

https://glidemagazine.com/116085/bobby-womack-soul-survivor-talks-resurgence-jamming-dylan-janis-joplins-last-night-exclusive-interview/

[splanky]

I knew Bobby & all the Womack brothers & spent alot of time up at Bobs' house in Hollywood Hills during '74/'75 when I lived with Mary Wells Womack & Cecil Womack in LA. The only "drugs" I saw was pot & usually mine. I NEVER knew of Bobby having to be helped on & off stage, maybe your brother was thinking of Sly Stone.

People can go through a lot of changes over time and 1975 was a long long time ago...Betty Lavette often laments that she knew Marvin Gaye when he was sane and
David Ruffin when he was sober. Fast forward to the late 1980's/early 90's and George
Clinton, Sly Stone and David Ruffin are in a hotel room sharing a crack pipe. A lot of folks
at one point or another took a detour to planet free-base or were breaking up little rocks
in their living room on a daily basis. Even giants such as Smokey Robinson and Herbie
Hancock have stated they once got distracted for a minute. Bobby spent some time w/
both GC and Sly. It's not impossible...

[sansradio]

People can go through a lot of changes over time and 1975 was a long long time ago...Betty Lavette often laments that she knew Marvin Gaye when he was sane and
David Ruffin when he was sober. Fast forward to the late 1980's/early 90's and George
Clinton, Sly Stone and David Ruffin are in a hotel room sharing a crack pipe. A lot of folks
at one point or another took a detour to planet free-base or were breaking up little rocks
in their living room on a daily basis. Even giants such as Smokey Robinson and Herbie
Hancock have stated they once got distracted for a minute. Bobby spent some time w/
both GC and Sly. It's not impossible...

Thank you. Furthermore, substance abuse is, more often than not, a furtive affair. Most people aren’t likely to indulge in front of family.

[marv2]

People can go through a lot of changes over time and 1975 was a long long time ago...Betty Lavette often laments that she knew Marvin Gaye when he was sane and
David Ruffin when he was sober. Fast forward to the late 1980's/early 90's and George
Clinton, Sly Stone and David Ruffin are in a hotel room sharing a crack pipe. A lot of folks
at one point or another took a detour to planet free-base or were breaking up little rocks
in their living room on a daily basis. Even giants such as Smokey Robinson and Herbie
Hancock have stated they once got distracted for a minute. Bobby spent some time w/
both GC and Sly. It's not impossible...

Very good observation Splanky. 1975 seems like a lifetime ago. So many in and outside of the music business have gone through cycles in their lives depending on individual circumstances. Some people began to drink, others turned to drugs, but that was not to say it was a permanent condition.

[mr_june]

Is it true that Bobby was with Janis Joplin on the day she died? The overdose supposedly happened after he left her home or hotel.

[sansradio]

Is it true that Bobby was with Janis Joplin on the day she died? The overdose supposedly happened after he left her home or hotel.

Yes, it is. Bobby said he had a sense of dread that night.

[Boogiedown]

If I had to pick just one of his songs -- and it's hard because he had several great ones -- it would be "Daylight." It reminds me of my childhood.

There is a TVOne"Unsung" about him and a biography, "Midnight Mover."

Warren Schatz brought Womack's DAYLIGHT to Vicki Sue Robinson to apply their style to and it became a club favorite making it into the disco top 10 , peaking at #9.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8RTeAwnlu8

[motony]

Thank you. Furthermore, substance abuse is, more often than not, a furtive affair. Most people aren’t likely to indulge in front of family.
Hey sansradio I was just disputing the "time-line" as I never saw Bobby that messed up in the 70's. The mid-late 80's brought alot of changes.

[sansradio]

Hey sansradio I was just disputing the "time-line" as I never saw Bobby that messed up in the 70's. The mid-late 80's brought alot of changes.

I see. Thanks for clarifying.

[nativeNY63]

Calvin Richardson, independent label artist at the time, did a solid album of Bobby's cuts. Anyone know if Bobby signed off on it? Or was even aware of it, when it dropped?

[midnightman]

I still can't get it off my mind that Bobby was messing with a teenage Linda Cooke and Barbara almost shot him dead. Jesus, Bobby!

[RanRan79]

Calvin Richardson, independent label artist at the time, did a solid album of Bobby's cuts. Anyone know if Bobby signed off on it? Or was even aware of it, when it dropped?

I vaguely remember that Calvin did that album. I'm surprised I didn't pick it up at the time. I bought his 2:35 PM album back in 03 and really enjoyed it. He's kin to KCi and Jojo and Fantasia and he doesn't disappoint. Apparently the BW tribute album was nominated for a Grammy. I imagine he did Bobby justice. Now whether or not Bobby approved...

[RanRan79]

Here's my fav Bobby cut:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBV-t86N7OM

[midnightman]

The LIVE version to that same song years later:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4f0gCzX9u4

[nativeNY63]

I vaguely remember that Calvin did that album. I'm surprised I didn't pick it up at the time. I bought his 2:35 PM album back in 03 and really enjoyed it. He's kin to KCi and Jojo and Fantasia and he doesn't disappoint. Apparently the BW tribute album was nominated for a Grammy. I imagine he did Bobby justice. Now whether or not Bobby approved...

I really appreciate your comments, Ran! And I agree w/them too. Side bar: Calvin eventually went major label. The result was cookie cutter song and production. I think one album was called I Am Calvin Richardson, or something bland like that. So much for his gripe that "the majors didn't know what to do with him."