R.I.P. Bobby Womack
 

R.I.P. Bobby Womack, legendary soul singer dead at 70

Legendary soul singer Bobby Womack has died, according to SoulTracks and several other sources. He was 70 years old.

In 2012, Womack was diagnosed with colon cancer. He was also reported to suffer from Alzheimer’s disease.

Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2009, Womack penned a number of chart-topping hits over the course of his 50 year career, including The Rolling Stones’ first UK hit “It’s All Over Now”, “Lookin’ For a Love”, “That’s The Way I Feel About Cha”, and “If You Think You’re Lonely Now”.

Despite his health ailments, Womack had made a musical comeback as of late, teaming with Damon Albarn for the release of a new solo album, The Bravest Man in the Universe, which was released through XL Recordings.

-------

Very sad. He was one of the greats.

Re: R.I.P. Bobby Womack
 

RIP, wrote some good stuff

<iframe width="504" height="378" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/UOg_8hCC4u4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Re: R.I.P. Bobby Womack
 

I actually liked K-Ci's cover of "Think you're lonely now" a lot more than Bobby's original, but :rip:

Re: R.I.P. Bobby Womack
 

No mention of "Across 110th Street" in the New York Times obit:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/28/ar...dayspaper&_r=0

That's quite an oversight.

Womack wrote and performed the song for the 1973 movie of that title and it was then used as the opening song in Tarantino's JACKIE BROWN (1997). He wrote and performed other songs for ACROSS 110TH STREET as well.

Re: R.I.P. Bobby Womack
 

+1, still Womack was great. RIP.

Re: R.I.P. Bobby Womack
 

For some reason Womack was never that high on my radar although I knew he was a respected songwriter and collaborater in music industry circles. One thing I did find fascinating the few times I saw him on television: a left-hander, he played guitar "upside down" - he had the lowest pitched string on the bottom, continuing to the highest sting on the top. So E4-B3-G3-D3-A2-E2 assuming he used standard tuning.

I'd guess as a youngster he had access to a guitar strung for a right-handed player and just turned it upside down to play without knowing to re-string the guitar so he could use standard fingerings for chords and scales. Just think, he had to work that out for himself - either come up with his own chord fingerings or try to adapt standard ones upside down. On the other hand, maybe that gave him a unique playing style.

Similar unique styles that evolved because the player had no formal training and had to come up with something on their own:

-- Richie Havens - figured that the way to tune a guitar was to an open chord. While this is commonly done, I don't know of anyone who played the way Havens did - by dint of his enormous hands, he could use his thumb to barre all six strings and use his other fingers to modify the chord voicings. He played virtually all his chords this way.

-- Curtis Mayfield - not knowing how to tune his guitar, he used the black keys on the piano as a guide and tuned to an F# major chord. I don't know whether this caused problems with his bandmates as compositions on guitar are usually done in keys that are easy to play on that instrument in standard tuning (E, A, D, G are very common) and F# would not be common at all. He could tune his stings down a whole step and be in E of course. Or up a half step to G and play Rolling Stones songs easily.