One of his
80s albums is entitled
The Last Soul Man; this very well may be
true. A
session guitarist,
songwriter,
band member for many of the Greats (including
Sly Stone and
James Brown), and still found time to
record his own
records, too. Maybe most famous for his
voice, one that I like to
characterize as a
wolf in
Marvin Gaye's clothing.
Got his start on the 50s gospel circuit, with his siblings in the unimaginitively named Womack Brothers, often playing alongside Sam Cooke and The Soul Stirrers. Cooke would later take young Bobby under his wing and show him the way to R&B. The Womack Brothers became the Valentinos and a few hits followed, including 'It's All Over Now', but their label folded when Cooke passed away.
Womack befriended and became a mutual influence on Jimi Hendrix - this would show up when Womack guested on Sly Stone's There's a Riot Goin' On and Communication. Kind of like Hendrix, Womack could play guitar in any genre (although not as skillfully) - gospel, R&B, soul, funk, and even country and western (I refer you to the horrifically-titled BW Goes C&W for an example).
Other notable efforts - he went the blaxploitation soundtrack route like most of his contemporaries in the mid-70s, scoring the film Across 110th Street. Not that great overall, IMHO, but well worth it for the title track (on which Quentin Tarantino did his usual resurrect-the-70s job on, putting it on the Jackie Brown soundtrack). Dropped out of the music biz due to drug addictions and the murder of his brother Harry (see the song 'Harry Hippie', from Lookin' for a Love Again) but returned after two years with a 'comeback' album, The Poet.
Editors Note:
Bobby Womack died on June 27, 2014 at age 70. Though the cause of his death has not been determined, he suffered diabetes, prostate cancer, heart diseases, colon cancer, pneumonia and Alzheimer's disease.