THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
919) Bobby Womack — “Lillie Mae”
Since I featured Bobby Womack and his brothers yesterday, I thought today I’d turn to a favorite from Bobby’s first solo album. It is a “quick tempo’d example [of] countrified funky soul at it’s finest”. (Dunderbeck1980, https://andresmusictalk.wordpress.com/2016/03/04/anatomy-of-the-groove-lillie-mae-by-bobby-womack-1968/)
“Lillie Mae, I don’t need you no more, since I found Miss Jones. Lillie Mae, I don’t want you no more, since I found Miss Jones.” Harsh!
Dunderbeck1980 goes on to say:
The song that moves me most off this album . . . [is] “Lillie Mae”. [It] is heavy on the rhythm. The drum is playing a fast shuffle with the rhythm guitar chugging away with equal rhythmic energy. On each chorus and refrain, the horn section either burst out or sustain themselves melodically-depending on the chords of the given part of the song. On the refrain the organ comes in, again playing a very strong sustain. On the end of the songs second refrain, the organ transitions into the chorus with a big, up scaling psychedelic explosion of sound. The song concludes with the refrain of the song repeating as it fades out-having the organ play hi hat like percussive accents on the very last moments of it. My very first reaction to hearing this song was that it sounded very similar to Elvis’s song “A Little Less Conversation”. That isn’t at all surprising as that was also recorded with Chip Moman’s production. And came out the same year as this. . . . The guitar very much picks up on JB’s [James Brown?] use of the instrument at the time as a fully involved rhythmic element to the drums in the song. It also includes the instrumental sustains used on Memphis/Stax soul records at the time. So right at the very time the funk was getting ready to burst out into a genre all it’s own, Bobby Womack was playing his part in the entire funk process.
https://andresmusictalk.wordpress.com/2016/03/04/anatomy-of-the-groove-lillie-mae-by-bobby-womack-1968/
Yesterday, I focused on Bobby Womack’s formative years and his tenure in the Valentinos with his four brothers. As to Bobby Womack’s early solo career, Steve Huey writes that:
Able to shine in the spotlight as a singer or behind the scenes as an instrumentalist and songwriter, Womack never got his due from pop audiences, but during the late ’60s and much of the ’70s, he was a consistent hitmaker on the R&B charts . . . . [Sam] Cooke’s tragic death in December 1964 left Womack greatly shaken and the Valentinos’ career in limbo. Just three months later, Womack married Cooke’s widow, Barbara Campbell, which earned him tremendous ill will in the R&B community . . . . Womack found himself unable to get his solo career rolling in the wake of the scandal; singles . . . were avoided like the plague despite their quality. . . . To make ends meet, Womack became a backing guitarist, first landing a job with Ray Charles; he went on to make a valuable connection in producer Chips Moman, and appeared often at Moman’s American Studio in Memphis, as well as nearby Muscle Shoals, Alabama. In the process, Womack appeared on classic recordings by the likes of Joe Tex, King Curtis, and Aretha Franklin . . . among others. He recorded singles . . . without success, but became one of Wilson Pickett’s favorite songwriters, contributing the R&B Top Ten hits “I’m in Love” and “I’m a Midnight Mover” (plus 15 other tunes) to the singer’s repertoire. Womack had been slated to record a solo album . . . but had given Pickett most of his best material, which actually wound up getting his name back in the public eye in a positive light. In 1968, he scored the first charting single of his solo career with “What Is This?” and soon hit with a string of inventively reimagined pop covers — “Fly Me to the Moon,” “California Dreamin’,” and “I Left My Heart in San Francisco[]” . . . . A songwriting partnership with engineer Darryl Carter resulted in the R&B hits “It’s Gonna Rain,” “How I Miss You Baby,” and “More Than I Can Stand” over 1969-1970. . . . . [H]e contributed the ballad “Trust Me” to Janis Joplin[] . . . . He also teamed up with jazz guitarist Gabor Szabo . . . [on] Womack’s composition “Breezin'” (which . . . became a smash for George Benson six years later). . . . Womack played guitar on Sly & the Family Stone’s There’s A Riot Goin’ On, a masterpiece of darkly psychedelic funk . . . .
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/bobby-womack-mn0000064509/biography
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That is funky!
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