ARCHIVE
BOBBY WOMACK
A fine reissue of two career-rejuvenating records.
By Richard Williams
The Poet/The PoetII
BEVERLY GLEN/ABKCO
8/10
BOBBY WOMACK may not have been the leading poet of the greatest generation of soul singers and songwriters – surely Curtis Mayfield and Smokey Robinson had stronger cases – but that didn’t stop him claiming the title when he began a comeback in 1981.
After solo success in the ’7 0s with hits including “Woman’s Gotta Have It”, “That’s The WayI Feel About Cha”, “Harry Hippie” and the soundtrack to Across 110th Street, the career of the former Valentino had faltered towards the end of the decade, his music losing focus as he pursued a flirtation with country music that failed to emulate the success of Ray Charles’ pioneering fusion almost 20 years earlier.
At the start of the new decade, having lost his contract with United Artists and failed to make an impact with albums for Columbia and Arista, he signed with Beverly Glen, a new black-owned label founded by record executive Otis Smith, who had made his name by signing Rufus and Chaka Khan to ABC Dunhill several years earlier. With offices on Sunset Boulevard and amid rumours that the operation had been set up to launder drug money, the brief existence of Beverly Glen produced some fine albums, including Johnnie Taylor’s brilliant Just Ain’t Good Enough in 1982 and Anita Baker’s much admired debut, The Songstress, a year later. Before that, however, Womack had given the label a rocket-fuelled takeoff with The Poet, which restored his name to the top of the R&B charts.