March 14, 1944 – June 27, 2014
Bobby Womack sang with soul, played guitar like a bluesman and wrote R&B like a poet. And he lived life in a manner that seemed void of concern for public opinion.
Sadly, the music stopped forever when Womack passed away at the age of 70 on Friday. No cause of death has been released.
His guitar riffs on Aretha Franklin’s 1968 “Lady Soul” album matched her thrilling vocal runs and aching moans, pound for pound and note for note. He also jammed alongside Elvis Presley and Sly Stone.
With aching emotion, he sang about skeletons that not only came out of the closet, but “chased you all around the room” in his 1981 comeback classic “If You Think You’re Lonely Now.”
He set prose to music like an urban Ernest Hemingway – especially in his seemingly first-person account of ghetto life in “Across 110th Street.”
His captivating life experiences played out like Sylvester Stallone’s “Rocky” movies. Womack was often counted out, yet always managed to muster up one last punch to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. And, like Rocky, his comebacks managed to be just as entertaining as the original.
There didn’t seem to be anything thrown at Womack that he couldn’t handle or bounce back from.
He lived through addiction, diabetes, prostate cancer, a near fatal bout with pneumonia – and less than two years ago had announced he was in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. But the show went on.
“Everybody’s got personal problems,” Womack said in a 2012 interview with The Los Angeles Times. “That’s life. If you’re strong enough and want to pull out, you can only pull out for the better.”
2012’s “The Bravest Man in the Universe” would be the last album in a career that spanned seven decades.
The project illustrated Womack’s fearless chartering into new territory, featuring unlikely collaborations with breathy pop singer Lana Del Ray and Malian folk singer Fatoumata Diawara.
The title also could serve as concise, yet accurate memoir for Womack. He never went the safe route. Those risks made his music groundbreaking and his personal narrative more compelling than tragic.
Born in Cleveland to two musician parents on March 14, 1944, Womack began his musical career at age 16 as a member of Curtis Womack and the Womack Brothers with his siblings Curtis, Harry, Cecil and Friendly Jr.
After Sam Cooke signed the group to his SAR Records in 1960, they released a handful of gospel singles before changing their name to the Valentinos and earning success with a more secular sound. In 1964, one month after the Valentinos released their hit “It’s All Over Now,” The Rolling Stones put out their version, which went to No. 1 on the U.K. singles charts.
The group’s mentor, Sam Cooke, was tragically killed that same year, and 21-year-old Womack infamously married Cooke’s widow soon after. They divorced in 1970.
He left the Valentinos to become a successful session musician – playing guitar and providing background vocals to several seminal soul and R&B albums, including many of Franklin’s recordings from the 1960s.
Womack’s solo career began with the debut album “Fly Me to the Moon” in 1968. A string of successful R&B albums would follow, including “Understanding” and “Across 110th Street,” both released in 1972, 1973’s “Facts of Life” and 1974’s “Lookin for a Love Again.”
He had 45 hit singles on Billboard’s Hot R&B chart over the course of his career. Among those are two No. 1 hits: “Woman’s Gotta Have It” and “Lookin’ For a Love.”
And in addition to The Rolling Stones, his music was performed by Janis Joplin, George Benson and many others.
Womack returned to the top of the charts with the 1981 R&B classic “If You Think You’re Lonely Now.” But it would be nearly another 20 years before he would return to the charts after that. “The Bravest Man in the Universe” was named among Rolling Stone Magazine’s 50 Best Albums of 2012.
He announced a tour to support the critically acclaimed record and was ready to take on the world. Soon after, he learned that he was in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease.
Knowing the condition meant he might forget songs – or even the city in which he was performing – Womack kept working.
“With the support of many good doctors, my family and all of my wonderful fans, I will continue to write and perform and bring the good music to the people for as long as I can,” Womack told CNN in January 2013.
Spoken like the bravest man in the universe, indeed.
