Soul 'Poet' Bobby Womack Dead

His career spanned seven decades
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 28, 2014 5:49 AM CDT

Bobby Womack is dead at age 70 after a musical career that has tributes, like this in the Chicago Tribune, referring to him as the "revered poet of soul music." Though renowned as a singer, songwriter, and guitarist in his own right, Womack's work has been extensively covered by the greats. The New York Times relays this anecdote from 1964,when a new British band called the Rolling Stones covered a song he wrote called "It's All Over Now." At first Womack was ticked because he and his brothers had their own version out on the R&B charts as the Valentinos. But the Stones' version hit No. 1 in Britain, and “I stopped being upset when we got our first royalty check," Womack once said. "That changed everything.”

Womack got inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2009 and recorded a widely acclaimed album in 2012 called the Bravest Man in the Universe, a collaboration with younger artists, reports Rolling Stone. "You know more at 65 than you did at 25," he said at the time. "I understand the songs much better now." Womack the singer is probably best known for "Lookin' for a Love," "That's The Way I Feel About Cha," "Woman's Gotta Have It," "Harry Hippie," and "Across 110th Street," notes the Hollywood Reporter. Quentin Tarantino featured the latter song in his 1997 film Jackie Brown. (More obituary stories.)

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