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When Bobby Womack and his four brothers were growing up very young in Cleveland, his father made side money cutting hair. In an early trade-out for a haircut, his dad was given a guitar. What happened next isn\u2019t all that different from the famous story involving Michael Jackson and his own musician father. <\/p>\n
Bobby and his brothers found the instrument irresistible and each took their turn playing the thing. He who did the best job at playing along with the radio got the most time and Bobby learned the most.<\/p>\n
When he broke a string, his father demanded, \u201c\u2019Who touched my guitar?\u2019 They all pointed at me,\u201d said Bobby, who was warned by his dad, \u201cIf you don\u2019t play this guitar, I\u2019ll beat you until the middle of next week.\u201d<\/p>\n
Apparently, he passed his first audition and not only did he avoid the beating, his father told them, \u201cI\u2019m going to Sears and Roebucks. Anyone else want to play?\u201d<\/p>\n
It was guitars-all-around for brothers Bobby, Cecil, Curtis, and Friendly. Harry got a bass. They became the Womack Brothers and worked the gospel circuit. <\/p>\n
Their break came \u201cat the Bethel Baptist Church. Crooner Sam Cooke had just joined the Soul Stirrers\u201d who were performing at the church and he allowed to Womacks to open for his group.<\/p>\n
In the early 1960s, after becoming a pop sensation, Cooke recalled the Womack Brothers when he was starting up his new SAR label. They wanted to record gospel; Cooke wanted them to go pop, which they did when as the Valentinos, \u201cLookin\u2019 For A Love\u201d hit the pop charts. \u201cIt\u2019s All Over Now\u201d did even better, getting covered by the Rolling Stones and making the group an important part of the burgeoning soul music.<\/p>\n
When Cooke was murdered in 1964, Womack married Cooke\u2019s widow and the controversy caused him to have to leave the Valentinos. From 1964 through 1968, Womack wrote songs, worked with Wilson Pickett, Joe Tex and others in Memphis, where he had relocated.<\/p>\n
From about 1968 through the early 1980s, the name Bobby Womack guaranteed record sales with songs like \u201cBroadway Walk\u201d as well as his own take on \u201cFly Me To The Moon\u201d and \u201cCalifornia Dreamin’.\u201d <\/p>\n
Womack\u2019s powerful catalog got him elected to the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, and he continues to work shows throughout the world. Not standing still, Womack is going where few have gone before by cutting vocals for a new project with a so-called British cartoon band called Gorillaz, named by the Guinness Book Of World Records as the world\u2019s \u201cMost Successful Virtual Band.\u201d<\/p>\n
A pretty good 50-year sweep for the impoverished son of a part-time Cleveland barber who wanted his kids to stick to gospel music.<\/p>\n
The Long Beach Blues Festival will be held at Rainbow Lagoon Park in Long Beach, September 6th and 7th.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The blues legend boasts a career that spans 50 years, and Steve Propes tells the story of how he acquired his first guitar and almost became a gospel musician.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":70258,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-5753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hi-lo","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/81"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5753"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=5753"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=5753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}