Bobby Womack C/D

The excellent recent UK film "Fish Tank" features California Dreamin' prominently.

The great man was on Jools Holland with Gorillaz last night, and did a small teaser for Friday's show, promising a full version of If You Don't Want My Love, Give it Back.
Probably one of my top five Bobby tunes, along with Across 110th Street, Girl You're Welcome (Stop on By), So Many Sides of You, What is This?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHkwzTKSdx8

Can't find a live version, but here you go...

didn't see Bobby Womack, but the other Bobby (McFerrin) was awesome!

Cool.

The "Oooooooooooooooooooooo" at the beginning of "Across 110th Street" is the best ever.

The "Oooooooooooooooooooooo" at the beginning of "Across 110th Street" is the best ever.

― Blecch Generation (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, April 28, 2010 6:38 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark

Yes. The Saturday afternoon show on WKCR of the same name is pretty good too.

The London Sunday Times last weekend reported that Womack is working with Blur/Gorillaz frontman Damon Albarn on an album of new material. Albarn will produce Womack.

The London Sunday Times

LOL Americans. Yes, BW was part of the legendary Gorillaz line-up at Glastonbury: legendary for going down like a fart in a spacesuit.

I just took that from someone's posting on a Yahoo southern soul e-mail group. Womack was also on the most recent Gorillaz album (and maybe the one before that).

But this pairing stay true to the tradition that older black musicians are only relevant and can only get attention when younger rock artists produce them.

He played a tiny fragment of If You Don't Want My Love (Give it back) on Jools Holland's show a few months back, just him and an acoustic. Sadly, he had no band and just did the Gorillaz number with them.

http://stereogum.com/971542/bobby-womack-please-forgive-my-heart/mp3s/

i like this

new solo album called The Bravest Man In The Universe, his first studio effort since a 2000 Christmas joint. Gorillaz leader Damon Albarn and XL Records boss Richard Russell are both serving as producers,

I like the single too.

Need to get and listen to more of his studio efforts

― curmudgeon, Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Shame on me for not remedying this yet, 5 years later. It's been 7 years since I saw Womack live. Wow.

o god so timely, i was walking to work this morning and some boys were BLASTIN if u think ur lonely now on they car radio, i was liiike damn this coffee tastes good

some boys were BLASTIN if u think ur lonely now

Cool. Bet they were just reading this thread on their phones. Or maybe not.

:P

The album, which sets Womack's careworn voice and acoustic guitar against clattering electronics, and mixes old gospel songs with guest appearances by Lana Del Rey, is a triumph.

there's no God just fyi

The songs kicking around already sound pretty good. Plus, yay for beating cancer.

"Please Forgive My Heart" is pretty average. His voice is blown.

Bad as I been, I can sing my ass off, better than I could before. Maybe it's been preserved or something. If I can take control of my life from drugs, divorces, anything, I stand tall." He frowns. "I'm speaking for all those singers who gave up. Marvin, Jackie Wilson, Sam Cooke, Wilson Pickett: I can keep naming them until you say OK, I got enough. They need more respect than can ever be given to them. And I'm gonna set the record straight." And that Soto guy,man I need to straighten him out too, he added.

I think NPR is still streaming his new one.

The album, which sets Womack's careworn voice and acoustic guitar against clattering electronics, and mixes old gospel songs with guest appearances by Lana Del Rey, is a triumph.

wtf with this shit

I had a friend tell me she was "our Nico." probably get used to people putting her on where she doesn't belong

this album just sounded a bit awkward to me

Nabisco asked Damon Albarn about it for New York magazine:

This morning, I was listening to the Bobby Womack record you worked on, and I was curious — for you, was that sort of a standard production job, or something you were pretty invested in?

Not really a “standard production job” — Bobby and I talked about it on tour, and it took about another eight or nine months to come to fruition. But he came over, and [XL label head] Richard Russell, who’s really into working with Bobby as well, so we just sort of got together, and in a two-week session, pretty much got the arch and structure of the record from scratch. There wasn’t really a lot of writing done outside of the studio. We all had a few little ideas we brought into the mix, but it was a very collaborative and quick process.

Lana Del Rey appears on one track — who brought her into the loop?

That would be Richard. My studio’s quite close to the BBC, kinda walking distance, so if anyone comes in from abroad and plays at Jools Holland — which is our one legitimate live music show — we’ve got easy access to them. We kidnap them as they’re on break. Which is what we did with Lana, basically. She was amazing, I have to say, she didn’t know any of us personally, she’d just finished her rehearsal at the BBC, came straight here, and, within half an hour, was singing, dueting with Bobby. Really natural, very gorgeous voice she’s got

http://www.vulture.com/2012/05/damon-albarn-on-blurs-london-olympics-reunion.html

her part sounds nice for the most part, but i just wish she'd enunciate.

the second half of this album is really great, though i'm not quite sure what to make of "love is gonna to lift you up" ... it sounds like he's singing over a casio keyboard demo, which is somehow both awesome and lame at the same time. i'm not too familiar with a lot of his older stuff, so maybe he was always open to sounding a bit weird, but it strikes me as a stretch.

I've been listening to the new one a lot this week. Loved "Please Forgive My Heart" since I first heard it but the whole thing is finally clicking in a big way. I don't even get that annoyed with Lana Del Ray.

Man, this guy's had some bad luck in the last year: http://pitchfork.com/news/49025-bobby-womack-diagnosed-with-early-signs-of-alzheimers/

Bravest Man In The Universe has really grown on me, by the way. Questionable production, definitely, but some of the songs he wrote for this are just too good to ignore.

Alzheimers. Poor guy.

BMITU just missed my Top Ten, but it was a very good year.

http://www.amoeba.com/sized-images/maxs/800/600/uploads/past-performances/hollywood/2012/06.15.2012_Bobby_Womack_Signing/bobbyWomackSigning-7.jpg

I saw D.C. old-school soul singer Eddie Jones do a great version of "Harry Hippie" the other night. Was listening to Womack this morning--"Across 110th Street" is so passionate.

I like his rendition of "California Dreamin'" too

I can't believe I've gotten this far in life without reading about the Womack clan...iirc Bobby married Sam Cooke's widow (2 months after Sam was killed) while steppin with her daughter Linda who married Cecil who married Mary Wells who later shacked up w another Womack brother whose name escapes me. If there's a biography there I'm going to read it.

The Bravest Man in the Universe, indeed.

Despite current health issues, he's doing some gigs

Live
Sunday May 4, 2014
New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, New Orleans

Thursday June 12, 2014
AT&T Performing Arts Center, Dallas

Saturday June 14, 2014
Bonarroo Music And Arts Festival, Manchester

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/bobby-womack-dead-at-70-20140627

Teenie Hodges, Hi Rhythm and Al Green guitarist died the other day and now the great Bobby Womack (teenage gospel singer, guitarist with Sam Cooke, Wilson Pickett and Sly Stone, pal of the Rolling Stones and successful solo artist). RIP Bobby

So sad. A life and a legacy both.

Did he make that Bonarroo date, I wonder.

I feel it is worth mentioning that his recent "comeback" album The Bravest Man in the Universe was a) one of the very few of these kinds of things that wasn't just him and a bunch of guest stars rehashing his old hits, but rather an album of new material, and b) was really, really good.

Not sure if he really played on "Suspicious Minds" but who cares. RIP.

Major RIP :(

This sucks, his music was a big part of my life

Never knew he was left-handed and played upside down.

Extra sad this came in the middle of a career revival. RIP.

i saw him a few months ago at jazzfest and he was absolutely incredible, no surprise. rip, blasting the shit out of the poet all day

Yeah RIP. Very significant in my teenage years. I never saw him perform, to me he had everything.

Not sure if he really played on "Suspicious Minds" but who cares. RIP.

― That's How Strong My Dub Is (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, June 28, 2014 10:27 AM (11 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

...especially when he is all the fuck over there's a riot goin' on.

blasting that's the way i feel about cha right now.

RIP bobby.

Hm. Didn't even realize he was on that. Must...read...the credits... carefully...as in the old days.

i don't think there are actually proper credits on that LP! but it's well-known.

wicker game strong as well

RIP
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/bobby-womack-dead-at-70-20140627

:((((((( RIP Bobby

... wait a minute, he's already dead!

Yes, I'm an idiot. Sorry. This is what happens when you see something on a friend's Facebook page and you fail to check.

I looked for a while and this Bobby Womack "Soul Sides" 2 cd compilation that came out on Metro Select in the Uk is a good compilation. He did alot of ballad material (stuff not unlike Isaac Hayes), but I love his stuff when it gets funky as his guitar is always really tasty. Good comp. 'Across 110th Street' was always the tune that got me interested in Womack's music.

"Daylight" is his ultimate masterpiece. The catchier things he did, the more ornate work, is his best; as a conventional soul singer doing the conventional cover versions, except for "Fly Me to the Moon," he wasn't all that interesting. "How I Miss You Baby," "What Is This," "It's Gonna Rain" (Tommy Cogbill's bass rules), "Arkansas State Prison," "That's the Way I Feel About Cha," and the mind-boggling "You're Welcome, Stop on By" are amazing. I don't care for his '70s albums, by and large--the material isn't there and his covers are forgettable. "If You Think You're Lonely Now" from '80 is his last great moment. I like his more obvious stuff from the Moman recordings, "Broadway Walk" and so forth. But he was never really the soul vocalist his peers were, so it has a self-regarding edge that detracts from its impact--he was just conceptually a bit soft, undefined. I love him, beautiful guitarist, but I think his career boils down into a fairly small set of tunes. Maybe someone could compile the later stuff to some effect.