BOBBY WOMACK: ROADS OF LIFE (1979)
1) The Roads Of Life; 2) How
Could You Break My Heart; 3) Honey Dripper Boogie; 4) The Roots In Me; 5) What
Are You Doin'; 6) Give It Up; 7) Mr. D.J., Don't Stop The Music; 8) I Honestly
Love You.
Bobby's label-hopping begins in earnest here:
no longer welcome at Columbia, he is switching over to Arista, for which he
only made this one album before getting the sack. And do we even need to wonder
why? Bland, hookless, run-of-the-mill disco grooves and sentimental ballads
that pick up right where Pieces left
off and downgrade the artist one or two more notches. This time around,
old-school «funky grit» is eliminated completely, so that the entire album
flows by without demanding any of your attention. Just fourty minutes of
unnoticeable background muzak for healthy clubbing. You go on the floor to
stretch out your limbs during the fast ones, then back to the table for a drink
and a chat during the slow ones. You don't even remember the dude's name, not
even if ʽMr. DJʼ has taken the time to announce it.
The most dreadful thing to realize is that all of the songs, except for the last
one, are self-penned this time. The only choice for a cover is quite telling:
ʽI Honestly Love Youʼ, a 1974 hit for Olivia Newton-John, a pretty awful song
when it came out, and Bobby's attempt to inject some «genuine soul» in it is
about as successful as trying to force-feed amphetamines to someone who's been
paralyzed from head to toes. In reality, this can only mean one thing: by 1979,
lost and confused in the whirlwind of musical change and personal troubles,
Bobby had become completely separated from good taste. Oh well; it's not as if
he was the only one.
The less said about the «originals», the
better. Deep lovers of soul in all of its varieties might find something
enjoyable about ʽHow Could You Break My Heartʼ (easily done, Bobby, as long as
you keep seducing your ladies with this sort of material; the tacky «phone
conversation» alone at the beginning of the track makes it unpalatable), or
about ʽThe Roots In Meʼ, a romantic duet with singing lady Melissa Manchester,
but probably even those who are ready to forgive almost everything will find it
very hard to become inspired by the
interminably boring disco grooves that take themselves too seriously to
generate the required fun quotient — ʽMr. DJ, Don't Stop The Musicʼ is almost
like a philosophical piece in itself, even if there is absolutely nothing going
on in the song. As in, you know, somebody told us that there has to be this
four-on-the-floor thing, and some wah-wah guitar, and some strings, and some
chicks singing backup in the background, and that's, uh, the way it goes. Hey,
how come Mr. DJ stopped the music after all? What do you mean, he never even began it? What's wrong with the way
we're doing it?
What is
wrong is that it's all deadly dull. Disco works if you really agree to stoop to
its level — make it raunchy, or at least make it catchy, and there's a guilty
pleasure for you all right. But on Roads
Of Life, just like on Pieces,
Bobby still works from an essentially «polite» point of view, incapable of
crossing the line. And he ain't the Gibb brothers, either, having always placed
his faith in the groove and the soulfulness rather than melody, so there is no
chance of any of these songs attaining the level of a ʽNight Feverʼ. In the
end, it's just another forgettable embarrassment, and a thumbs down without any regret.
Check "Roads Of Life" (CD) on Amazon
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