Saturday 28 June 2014

THOSE WE HAVE LOST: Bobby Womack (1944-2014)

File:Bobby Womack - Roskilde Festival 2010.jpg
Womack was an American singer-songwriter and musician. An active recording artist since the early 1960s, when he started his career as the lead singer of his family musical group the Valentinos and as Sam Cooke's backing guitarist, Womack's career spanned more than 50 years and spanned a repertoire in the styles of R&B, soul, rock and roll, doo-wop, gospel, and country.

Womack wrote and originally recorded The Rolling Stones' first UK No. 1 hit, "It's All Over Now" and New Birth's "I Can Understand It" among other songs. As a singer he is most notable for the hits "Lookin' For a Love", "That's The Way I Feel About Cha", "Woman's Gotta Have It", "Harry Hippie", "Across 110th Street" and his 1980s hit "If You Think You're Lonely Now".

In 2009, Womack was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Womack opened up about his frequent drug use in his memoirs, I'm a Midnight Mover. Womack said he began using cocaine sometime in the late 1960s. His cocaine use turned into an addiction by the late 1970s. Womack partially blamed his habit for his son Truth's death as an infant in 1976. At the end of the 1980s, Womack went into a rehab facility to get over his cocaine addiction, which he said he conquered. Womack developed diabetes in his later years.

In early 2012, Womack entered several hospitals with health problems including pneumonia, for which he was successfully treated. It was revealed in March that Womack was diagnosed with colon cancer after Bootsy Collins reported it on his Facebook page. Womack announced afterwards that he was undergoing cancer surgery. On May 24, 2012, it was announced that Womack's surgery to remove a tumor from his colon was successful and he was declared cancer free. On January 1, 2013, Womack admitted that he has struggled to remember his songs and other people's names, leading doctors to suggest that he was in early stages of Alzheimer's disease. Womack died on June 27, 2014 at age 70. He had a number of health issues including diabetes, prostate cancer, heart trouble, colon cancer and pneumonia.

SOUL SURVIVOR-
"The Bravest Man In The Universe"
BOBBY WOMACK WAS TO BE IN ANTWERP JULY 2014
Fate stole his voice June 27.His next gig is SOUL HEAVEN!
Solo ,mellow,yet associative-performing  and writing for
Mary Wells,Patti La Belle,Sam Cooke-even GORILLAZ!
From Bonaroo  to New Orleans Jazz Fest-he toured
first on 1994s RESURRECTION Cd-now as 'The Bravest Man In The Universe"
His distinctive soul stylings mixed jazz with funk,pop,rhythm and blues
You always KNEW the coaxing voice of Bobby Womack
he did not know he would be gone so fast.
If he could only return-to fill our souls with just one more encore
Once,he was known as the "Soul Survivor"-5 generations,2 centuries

Now just a retrospective GREATEST HITS CD-on repeat.Repeat.

                                        Thom the World Poet



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