BOBBY WOMACK: FACTS OF LIFE (1973)
1) Nobody Wants You When
You're Down And Out; 2) I'm Through Trying To Prove My Love To You; 3) If You
Can't Give Her Love Give Her Up; 4) That's Heaven To Me; 5) Holdin' On To My
Baby's Love / Nobody; 6) Facts Of Life / He'll Be There When The Sun Goes Down;
7) Can't Stop A Man In Love; 8) The Look Of Love; 9) Natural Man; 10) All Along
The Watchtower.
Back from soundtrack territory to regular LP
turf again, Bobby tosses off another fine batch of tunes — nothing particularly
spectacular, just some more of that solid, believable, classy-sounding soul
stuff that seemed to come so easily to him in the early 1970s. By now, it was
obvious that he would not be remembered as a major visionary or innovator of
Stevie Wonder's caliber, but his interest in «minor» experiments and production
twists still kept him miles ahead of many, if not most, competitors in the same
genre.
For instance, how many people would be able to
come up with the idea of redoing the old Jimmy Cox standard ʽNobody Wants You
When You're Down And Outʼ as a funk-pop number, with a nasty bassline and
proto-disco strings? Nothing whatsoever, except for the lyrics, is left over
from the original in the process, but hey, good idea — the song is about
internal turmoil and pissed-off disillusionment, and why not strengthen these
feelings with a bit of a funky tempest? Perhaps the mix is not clever enough to
let us fully appreciate Bobby's electric guitar parts (too eclipsed by the
overriding brass), but fairly strong all the same.
Another example — who would dare take ʽ(You
Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Womanʼ, so closely associated with Carole King
and Aretha, and turn it into ʽNatural Manʼ?
Well, apparently a little-known R&B singer called Fred Hughes got the start
on Bobby five years earlier, but, from what limited amount of his songs I have
heard, Fred sported a bit of a «womanly» image, following in the shoes of Clyde
McPhatter and Smokey Robinson, whereas Womack was totally «virile», and this kind
of gender turnaround might have been seen as risqué by some of his fans. Yet
his vocal parts are totally credible, as he'd already cut his teeth on
reinterpreting stuff like ʽClose To Youʼ — and, for that matter, they also
inspired Rod Stewart to repeat the venture on his own cover, recorded for the Smiler sessions a year later. (Not sure
of whether this should be used as a positive argument — Smiler wasn't that hot a record, but at least he still had Ronnie
Wood by his side at the time, and the decline process was not yet
irreversible).
More questionable is Bobby's decision to put
his own stamp on ʽAll Along The Watchtowerʼ, where he takes the Hendrix version
for default and dares to offer his own guitar playing, heavily wah-wahed and double-tracked,
for comparison. The final results are good, but there is a reason, after all,
why Jimi is revered as a visionary guitar player and Bobby is not — Jimi's fire
comes out of ingeniously tuned firethrowers, while Bobby's fire is satisfied
with steady crackling in the hearth: the song has no dynamics, and is in danger
of becoming boring already after the first minute, especially if it is hard
for you to erase the Jimi comparison from your head.
Concerning originals, there are relatively few
here: ʽHe'll Be There When The Sun Goes Downʼ, a rhythmic, lush-string-drenched
ballad of the Al Green variety, is probably the best of the lot, just because
the string groove seems unusually complex and emotional, and, most importantly,
it falls well in line with the song's lyrical vibe. It actually begins as a
long spoken piece (title track), where Bobby, a little tongue-tied and
confused, explains that his contract does not allow him to keep a steady
relationship — so "don't get hung up on me, cause tomorrow I might be gone
on down the road". The strings help carry on this subtle mix of romance
and loneliness, even if the message itself is sorta questionable, but then, as
long as he ain't justifying date rapes or anything, the man has a right to defend
his lifestyle of one-night stands, and the music here is an excellent
soundtrack for a one-night stand if you're sick and tired of family values or
anything.
Most of the other songs, be they originals or
covers, do not submit themselves to comments that easily — I could rave on
about how wonderfully deep and tender I find ʽThat's Heaven To Meʼ, but it's a rather
faithful Sam Cooke cover, and should rather be discussed in a Sam Cooke context.
In any case, it all sounds good; my only problem with Facts Of Life is that it goes a bit too far in the «soft»
direction, with only the first and last track rocking out with decisiveness —
and all the ballads and melodic upbeat R&B numbers are starting to fall
together after a while. But it's not as if this problem did not exist before,
be it with Bobby or a million other serious, hard-working artists, and it
ain't no reason to deprive the album of another thumbs up — if only because, given
the musical climate of the time, the age of the artist, the original talent, and
the good sense of taste, it would be hard to imagine how Facts Of Life could be anything but not a «solid» album, at least. Maybe if he'd been impressed by
Barry White's early singles...
Check "Facts Of Life" (CD) on Amazon
I love Womack's version of "That's Heaven to Me" - for this listener, he brings a tenderness that Cooke's version with the Soul Stirrers doesn't quite manage.
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