Bobby Womack RIP

Soul legend Bobby Womack has died, age 70.

Womack is perhaps best known as a songwriter - he wrote “It’s All Over Now” for his R&B group the Valentinos, and the Rolling Stones covered it and turned it into a pop hit; the same for the J. Geils Band and “Looking for a Love.” He also wrote a number of classic Wilson Pickett songs, including “I’m in Love” and “Funky Midnight Mover.”

But Womack was also a hitmaker on his own, scoring a number of R&B hits in the early 70s with “Woman’s Gotta Have It,” “That’s the Way I Feel About Cha” and “Across 110th Street” (which Tarantino featured in Jackie Brown.)

And he was a great soul guitarist, performing on famous albums by the likes of Aretha Franklin, Sly and the Family Stone, and Janis Joplin (but not, as the Guardian would have you believe, on “Suspicious Minds” or “Son of a Preacher Man.” That’s Reggie Young.)

But words can’t compare to the music. [URL=“https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KZgxo4YnrA”]Here’s the Soul Clan - five great soul singers including Solomon Burke and
Don Covay - performing Womack and Covay’s “That’s How I Feel,” with Womack on guitar. And here’s Bobby himself doing his “More Than I Can Stand.”

Damn, he just played here in Denmark last year, I think it was. I was sad to have missed it then, but now I really wish I’d gone. RIP.