I haven't seen this diaried here, so I'm going to dive right in even though I have two strikes against me. #1 is that it's my first diary; #2 is that I'm no musical genius. Oh, and #3 might be that I'm a white lady who shouldn't delve too recklessly into the subject of black experiences.
I'm a huge, huge Bobby Womack fan, though, so I wanted to acknowledge the dude's passing into the (hopefully) gentle night. Bobby was, unlike me, a musical genius that got his start as a gospel singer and then was nudged by (also musical genius) Sam Cooke into giving secular music a shot. He got off to a darn good start, writing a song that the Rolling Stones later made their own:
Later he went solo and a lot later he recorded and wrote songs such as below:
That is one seriously sultry song, and I think it's pretty nifty how he holds onto his gospel roots while unquestionably going into a new direction.
Speaking of new directions, here comes the ranty portion of this groundbreaking (for me) diary. Onward we move to something that sticks in my craw, from the NY Times obit for our beloved musical genius,
"His sandpaper vocal style made him more popular in England, where audiences revere what they consider authentic traditional American music, than in the United States."
Um, what? That to me reads as a, intentional or not, blunt dismissal of the many AA musicians who, yeah, do get more appreciation on the other side of the continent. I'm thinking of brilliant talents like Candi Staton, Bettye Swann, and so on, who get treated like the gods that they damn well should be treated like on the other side of the pond. And I do, ahem, have to wonder if race plays a part in the way all of these musicians get short shrift here. Why do Justin Timberlake and Allen Thicke, who mimic Womack and other decades old soul singers, get the mega star treatment and their predecessors get short shrift?
Or maybe it isn't just about race- Pharrell does pretty well, here- but is also about how we get trained to bow down to corporate gods in a million different ways. After all, Timberlake and Thicke are polished to the gills with hyper-produced corporate sheen. And that corporate sheen may teach the ears of America to value a conformist, mega-capitalist sound- you will listen to the musical hits du jour, or else!- over a sound with a more intimate and personal artistic vision. What the NY Times classifies as Womack's "sandpaper voice," to me means that his voice uniquely expressive in a way that doesn't tow the corporate, slicked up party line.
I dunno. All I know is that my fondness for his talents puts me in good company. See below:
DAMON AlBURN
"I will see my brother in church @RealBobbyWomack"
RONNIE WOOD
"I'm so sad to hear about my friend Bobby Womack ~ the man who could make you cry when he sang has brought tears to my eyes with his passing."
DE LA SOUL
"Just received sad news, @RealBobbyWomack passed away. We had an amazing time touring around the world with him. We love you Mr. Womack."
Suck on that, NYT. In conclusion, I present Queen Aretha covering Bobby's classic "That's the Way I Fell About Cha:
What say you, the maybe 3 readers that stumble across this diary?