Austin Kleon — RIP Bobby Womack

We went to see Bobby in 2012 at the Arena Theatre in Houston, Texas. My wife Meg was six months pregnant with our son Owen and we were some of the only white people in the place and it was just great. He’d already had his cancer scare, and I knew if I wanted to see him live, this was probably going to be one of my only chances. Unfortunately, I was right.

Here’s an Rdio playlist of 10 of my favorite Womack tracks:

He was a sort of musical Zelig — Sam Cooke was his mentor, the Rolling Stones had their first UK hit with his song, “It’s All Over Now,” he wrote songs for Wilson Pickett and Janis Joplin, and he played guitar (left-handed, backwards and upside down like Hendrix) on everything from Sly’s THERE’S A RIOT GOIN’ ON, to Dusty Springfield’s DUSTY IN MEMPHIS, to Elvis’s “Suspicious Minds.” 

There’s a great timeline of his life with video clips on XL’s website, and here’s a great BBC documentary from 2013 spanning his life and career:

So long, Bobby. Thank you.

Filed under: Bobby Womack