Soul legend Bobby Womack, whose career stretched from an early association with SAR Records to a renaissance with the 2012 album ‘The Bravest Man In The Universe‘, has died at the age of 70.
Rolling Stone reports Womack’s label XL Recordings has confirmed his death, but a cause has not yet been determined.
“To say that 70’s soul icon and generational journeyman Bobby Womack has earned his status as a rarified legend is a point that is hardly worth mentioning,” Live4ever said of Womack during our ‘Bravest Man In The Universe’ review.
“The man has been making music for literally half a century, beginning in 1954 with his run as a prepubescent member of Curtis Womack & the Womack Brothers and culminating with a 2009 induction into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame.”
“Along the way he played guitar for Aretha Franklin, collaborated with Sly & the Family Stone, penned ballads for Janis Joplin, and still found time to pump out twenty-six studio albums and a slew of chart-topping singles all under his own name.”
“To say that an artist of Womack’s stature is in need of one last career-affirming record is to entirely miss the point altogether, but that is exactly what Womack himself has managed to do – miss the point, albeit fantastically – with the release of this year’s ‘The Bravest Man In The Universe‘, a remarkably powerful collection of songs that somehow celebrates his storied past by simultaneously pushing himself further from it.”