I post a weekly diary of historical notes, arts & science items, foreign news (often receiving little notice in the US) and whimsical pieces from the outside world that I often feature in "Cheers & Jeers".
OK, you've been warned - here is this week's tomfoolery material that I posted.
CHEERS to Bill and Michael in PWM, our Wyoming-based friend Irish Patti and ...... well, each of you at Cheers and Jeers. Have a fabulous weekend .... and week ahead.
ART NOTES — a Southern photography exhibit by Sally Mann entitled A Thousand Crossings is at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. through May 28th.
Southern photographyCENSUS NOTES — but not in the USA: instead, the different states of India are battling over which census to use .. with some clinging to a 1971 count, rather than lose funding and parliamentary representation due to population control.
THURSDAY's CHILD is named Cayden the Cat— whose family was relocating cross-country when — at an Indiana rest stop — Cayden pushed the window button down, decided to jump out for some fresh air … and went missing. Fortunately, the diabetic cat was reunited after Facebook postings alerted a rescue group.
Cayden the CatIMMIGRATION NOTES — the nation of Chile has a falling birth rate, an aging population and an already low unemployment rate — but the new conservative government wants to make immigration more orderly .. but more difficult.
FRIDAY's CHILD is named Corella the Hero Cat— a Texas kitteh who alerted her family to an air conditioner explosion that resulted in a fire (which destroyed their home) … fortunately, that they were able to escape from.
Corella the Hero CatBRAIN TEASER - try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC.
LAST NIGHT yours truly hosted the Top Comments diary with a look at a Christine Lavin folk song (about not telling others the kind thoughts you may) and how I’ve tried to use The Moment Slipped Away as a model for change.
THIS COMING SUNDAY I will feature Odds & Ends - a wrap-up diary of my postings, circa noon Eastern (9 AM Pacific). I hope you'll vote in the "Who Lost the Week?!?" poll (a mirror image of the one Bill posts here). Dang, there are already bushel baskets of misfits lined-up for your review (such as Equifax, Alex Jones, Kris Kobach, Nikki Haley and Wells Fargo) .... and the week's not over yet.
SEPARATED at BIRTH — Canadian TV star Will Arnett (Arrested Development, BoJack Horseman) and US stage/TV star Patrick Wilson (Angels in America, Fargo).
Will Arnett (born 1970) Patrick Wilson (born 1973)...... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… someone who is a member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and wrote songs recorded by Wilson Pickett, Janis Joplin, George Benson and the Rolling Stones, and as a guitarist was an influence on Jimi Hendrix was Bobby Womack— yet who is not as well-known in his own right as he ought to be (in part, believe it or not, due to his first marriage). Let's see if we can't remedy the situation.
Born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1944, Bobby was the middle of five sons born to steelworker Friendly Womack and his wife Naomi, who formed a Gospel group known as the Womack Brothers - which met with the approval of his father, who sang in a Gospel choir in church. They opened in 1953 for the legendary traveling band The Soul Stirrers .... headed at that time by a young Sam Cooke who befriended Bobby Womack.
That proved fateful when Cooke formed his own SAR record label in California, and recruited the Womack Brothers: yet envisioning them not as a Gospel group, but rather (as he had already done so) to transition into secular music. In Friendly Womack's ears (as it was to many adult African-Americans of the time) that meant "the devil's music" — and he threw them out of the house.
Sam Cooke wired them $3,000 to buy a new car to drive to California, but Bobby had his heart set on a used $600 Cadillac - which broke down numerous times. But they made it finally: and Sam had them record in 1960 and 1961 as the Womack Brothers, with several songs indeed being Gospel music.
But Sam convinced them not only to make the transition, but also to rename them as The Valentinos - which sounds (for all the world) like a doo-wop group. Yet their first single was a Top Ten hit on the 1962 R&B charts Looking for a Love— which resulted in the Valentinos touring with James Brown.
They had a second R&B hit in June, 1964 with It's All Over Now - which the Rolling Stones heard on the radio when they were in New York that month. Having co-written the tune, Bobby Womack was upset that a rock band wanted to record the song and even wrote to them to get their own songs ... but Sam Cooke saw the potential, persuading Bobby to give them his blessing. And when the Stones reached #1 in Britain with it and Bobby got his first royalty check .... he asked Sam Cooke, "Do they want to record any more of my songs?" (and Bobby remained friends with them thereafter, as you'll see).
However, the shooting death in December, 1964 of Sam Cooke threatened the future of the Valentinos. In no small part because just three months later, Bobby Womack married Sam Cooke's widow Barbara - while the murder was still under investigation (it has yet to be solved) and even wearing one of Sam's suits (per Barbara's request).
In early 1965, this caused a major scandal in the music business, with Bobby forced to leave the Valentinos in favor of a solo career — which also flopped. He did find work as a session musician: first for Ray Charles, and particularly at the famed Muscle Shoals studio in Alabama, where he performed on classic soul recordings such as Aretha Franklin's album Lady Soul from early 1968. To his tasty guitar playing, Womack had also returned to songwriting, contributing two hit songs "I'm in Love" and "I'm a Midnight Mover" for Wilson Pickett.
It took until 1968 for Bobby Womack to revive his solo career (after the scandal had quieted) with "What Is This?" as his first charted single. And then — in yet another reinvention of himself — his first album had three imaginative cover songs: just listen to I Left My Heart in San Francisco as well as Fly Me to the Moon, not to mention California Dreaming— the latter two even making the R&B charts. He continued to have success on the R&B charts over the next few years, with songs featuring an opening prologue on subjects such as love, and while he left sacred music for secular: he retained the ability not only to sing but to testify.
In the meantime, his songwriting continued to pay dividends: Trust Me was a song he not only wrote but performed on for Janis Joplin's posthumous album release "Pearl". In 1971, the J. Geils Band had their first hit with Looking for a Love - which Bobby did not write but for which he sang lead on the Valentinos' version nine years earlier (and had his own successful re-make of it in 1974, becoming his highest-rated single on the pop charts at #10).
And Bobby showcased his guitar abilities in another forum: a duet album with the (equally eclectic) Hungarian jazz guitarist Gábor Szabó in which a song that Bobby wrote for Gabor — the instrumental Breezin'— was a hit for George Benson a few years later.
But the murder of his brother Harry in 1974 led him (along with other reasons) into substance abuse and — after another interesting foray, this time into country music— which failed commercially — he had a difficult time (as did many soul artists) in the disco era, and he laid low for the remainder of the decade.
He made a comeback in the 1980's with his album The Poet - which had a more stylish sound, including a version of "Just My Imagination" - and this became his highest-charting album of all. During the decade, he had several duets with Patti LaBelle, including "Love Has Finally Come at Last", a cover of Donny Hathaway's "Someday We'll All be Free" and backed the Rolling Stones on their re-make of Harlem Shuffle in 1986. He recorded an album in 1989 reuniting him with his surviving Womack Brothers before taking a five-year absence.
He re-surfaced with the appropriately titled album Resurrection in 1994 (recorded on Ron Wood's record label) with guest stars such as Stevie Wonder, Rod Stewart, Ronald Isley and Keith Richards. And in 1999 he fulfilled a promise he made to his late father Friendly Womack (who died in 1981) that he would record a Gospel album - which also had secular songs such as Bridge Over Troubled Water and a tribute to his mentor Sam Cooke with "Ease My Troubled Mind".
In 2007 he released his autobiography, then in 2009 he released a live album and in 2011 he was nominated (along with Mos Def & Gorillaz) for a Grammy in "Best Short-Form Music Video". It was fitting that none other than Ron Wood introduced him upon his 2009 induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame— and even more fitting that the 2009 ceremonies took place in Cleveland itself — his hometown.
In 2012 his first album release in twelve years — The Bravest Man in the Universe— was released, with the title track actually dating back forty years ago. And that same year he underwent a successful colon cancer operation to remove (what turned out to be) a benign tumor. Not for nothing was he referred to as "one of soul music's great survivors".
Alas, at the beginning of 2013 he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, and this along with the accumulated numerous ailments led to his death in June, 2014 at the age of seventy. And while he might have achieved more (but for his drug use and bad record deals) …. he did achieve a lot in his career.
Bobby Womack in youth ... …….. and in his later yearsOf all of his work, it is his composition If You Think You're Lonely Now from his 1981 album "The Poet" that is my favorite - and was included in the medley of songs he performed at his Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremonies. And below you can listen to it.
I want to dedicate this song to all the lovers in the world tonight and I expect that might be the whole world because everybody needs something or someone to loveCan I talk about this woman I have? She's always complaining about the things she ain't got and the things her girlfriend's got But I can't be in two places at one time
If you think you're lonely now Wait until tonight, girl I'll be long gone Ain't it funny how tables turn when things ain't going your way when love walks out, pain walks in You can't help to say
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