Midnight Mover: The Bobby Womack Collection
Bobby Womack's career is a book with many chapters; neither a bestseller nor a literary classic, it is nonetheless a consistently good read. The two-CD set,The Midnight Mover: The Bobby Womack Collection, only covers the middle chapters of that story, but those years (1968-76) brought the singer-guitarist-songwriter-producer his only Top 40 pop hits: "That's the Way I Feel About Cha," "Harry Hippie," "Nobody Wants You When You're Down and Out," and "Lookin' for a Love." Womack is better known today for songs that were recorded by others: "It's All Over Now" by the Rolling Stones, "Woman's Gotta Have It" by the Neville Brothers, "I'm in Love" by Aretha Franklin, and 17 different songs by Wilson Pickett, most notably "I'm a Midnight Mover." All these recordings are superior to Womack's own versions (he is a robust gospel-soul singer but curiously lacking in understatement or big climaxes), but they are indicative of Womack's knack for telling a story to a very funky beat. All 8 of the above songs are included among the 44 tracks on the new anthology. What's missing from this anthology are the early chapters in Womack's story and the later chapters (his brilliant post-cocaine comeback albums, 1981'sThe Poetand 1984'sThe Poet II, his collaborations with Patti LaBelle and Wilton Felder, and his 1986 reunion with Moman,Womagic, the best album of his career).The Midnight Moveris the kind of anthology you shouldn't bother with until you have Otis Redding, Al Green, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, Curtis Mayfield, and Aretha Franklin covered. But if you have plenty of their recordings and still hunger for more classic R&B;, Bobby Womack is a good next move.--Geoffrey Himes