Bobby Womack Has Left The Building

"Lookin' For A Love," by the Valentinos.

We lost Bobby Womack the other day, crossed the river, he did. 

These guys, working here as the Valentinos, were very important in the first formulation of "Soul Music."  They had started out as a gospel act, as did Sam Cooke, and worked with Sam at his SAR Records out in Los Angeles.  Soul was a confluence of black church musical conventions and pop sensibilities, with the goal of producing hits for the widest audience possible. 

Wilson Pickett, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, many of those early/mid-Sixties Soul hits were secular remakes of black Christian hymns. 

That's the five Womack Brothers in the picture, that was a very handsome, talented family.  RIP, Bobby, and my condolences to the remaining family.  And  only seventy years old.  Boy, do I hate it when that happens.