Bobby Womack R&B Telecaster Master - ASK ZAC EP 7

1:01
Hey you guys and welcome to another Ask
1:03
Zach I'm Zach Childs and today I wanted
1:07
to talk about Bobby Womack so because I
1:13
interviewed Reggie young years ago and
1:17
when I asked him the most the single
1:20
most important guitar influence of his
1:23
he indicated Bobby Womack of course I
1:27
knew very little about Bobby so I
1:29
started doing research and finding out
1:32
all the important R&B sessions that he
1:36
had played on in the 60s and his
1:37
songwriting and of course him as an
1:39
artist and I was blown away and I wish
1:44
somebody had told me earlier about Bobby
1:46
so that's what I want to do today is
1:49
just talk about the importance of Bobby
1:51
Womack the artist songwriter and guitar
1:55
player and how influential he was now I
1:59
want to be careful in talking about R&B
2:02
guitar players and and where certain
2:05
things came from because a lot of these
2:07
guys were actually playing together
2:09
touring together playing with the same
2:12
artists you know because you've got you
2:15
know Reggie you know and then you've got
2:18
Bobby and you've got Cornell Dupree and
2:21
you've got Jimi Hendrix and you've got
2:23
Steve cropper and you've got all these
2:24
different cats and yeah it's kind of
2:30
like you know where did it come from
2:33
well probably you know bobby was one of
2:38
the earliest guys to be showcasing some
2:43
of the things that we think of as as R&B
2:47
guitar like a lot of these
2:52
[Music]
2:59
but again you also had you know Jimi
3:04
Hendrix was doing those things you had
3:06
Cornell Dupree who was doing those
3:07
things but Bobby was one of the earliest
3:10
to record that and then of course his
3:14
his playing rubbed off on Reggie Young
3:16
and Reggie started playing in that style
3:18
also so a little backstory on Bobby he
3:24
he had a family gospel group he was in
3:27
and that morphed into a pop group called
3:29
the Valentino's he became a protégé to
3:34
the great Sam Cooke and Sam was taking
3:38
him under his wing and helping him to
3:40
become an artist in his own right he he
3:45
played in Sam Cooke's band also as as
3:50
usual I've created a Spotify playlist
3:53
and in it I've included a Valentino's
3:57
tune I used to love her but it's all
4:00
over now which was a big hit for the
4:02
stones that he wrote he made a lot of
4:04
songwriter cash off that mailbox money
4:06
then there's Sam Cooke live at the Copa
4:11
doing you send me and you can hear
4:15
there's two guitar players and one of
4:18
the cats was Sam's your main guitar
4:20
player who played with him most of the
4:21
time and of course Bobby was playing
4:24
also but you can really hear the two
4:26
guitar you know interplay of that so
4:29
after Sam Cooke's brutal murder Bobby
4:36
ended up marrying Sam Cooke's Widow and
4:40
because of that that kind of put his
4:42
solo career kind of on hold because
4:45
people weren't really happy with that so
4:48
he concentrated more on his guitar
4:50
playing session playing and songwriting
4:53
and he ended up moving to Memphis and
4:57
hanging out at American studios of
4:59
course that was Chips Moman's studio and
5:03
of course the guitar player there was
5:05
Reggie Jung
5:06
well bobby was hanging out there and
5:10
they were they were playing together
5:13
Reggie and Bobby were playing together
5:14
and Reggie apparently soaked up a lot of
5:18
Bobby's playing style and of course he
5:21
he made it his own but still he Reggie
5:25
was very vocal about how he had stolen a
5:29
lot from from Bobby Wommack so now you
5:32
might be saying okay well you know what
5:35
you know what was Bobby doing what was
5:38
he playing on well he was he was riding
5:43
and he you know got the attention of
5:46
Atlantic and Wilson Pickett and so he
5:49
was working with Wilson Pickett both in
5:52
Muscle Shoals and in in Memphis and
5:55
American studios and again I've included
5:59
some of these cuts on the Spotify
6:01
playlist also Bobby was playing on a
6:03
wreath of Franklin Records he was being
6:05
flown up to to New York to play at
6:08
Atlantic studios you know along with
6:11
Jimmy Johnson from the Swampers and at
6:15
different times there would be even a
6:17
third guitar player so you might have
6:18
Jimmy Johnson playing straight rhythm
6:21
then you'd have Bobby Walmart kind of
6:24
doing his kind of R&B thing then you you
6:27
might have Joe South is that their
6:28
guitar player and when Joe South played
6:31
he played an old Gretsch and he tuned
6:33
down and he did a lot of the almost
6:38
baritone guitar setting stuff so think
6:40
of chain of fools that's Joe South so
6:45
that's that's one of the fun things
6:46
about listening to those records when
6:48
there's three guitar players listed on
6:50
an Aretha Franklin session is finding
6:52
out okay so if you learn about their
6:54
style you can listen to it go okay that
6:57
low string thing that's almost out of
6:59
tune that's Joe South the the rhythm
7:03
jinx and you know kind of the boogie
7:06
lines a you know are tend to be Jimmie
7:09
Johnson the
7:11
you know again more of what you would
7:13
call typical R&B fills tend to be Bobby
7:17
Womack on on those that again that he
7:20
participated on so I included grooving
7:26
Aretha is you know cover of that on the
7:29
on the playlist so you can really hear
7:31
because he really hear him playing you
7:33
know the the intro I'm playing his style
7:36
of guitar one of the funny things about
7:40
the influence going back and forth
7:42
between Reggie and Bobby was of course
7:45
Bobby was influencing Reggie's guitar
7:47
playing and Reggie was influencing
7:49
Bobby's choice of guitars
7:52
so Bobby had been playing a an archtop
7:57
guitar as a barker and he was very proud
8:01
of it and of course it was an expensive
8:03
handmade instrument but when he started
8:05
playing with Reggie he he liked the
8:08
Telecaster sound so he ended up getting
8:10
a tele like this one this is a 67 tele
8:13
and apparently Bobby went to Manny's in
8:16
New York and either rented one at first
8:19
or bought one but that's when he played
8:21
on the Aretha sessions and you can hear
8:23
you can hear it and you can see it in
8:25
pictures from the sessions there's even
8:27
even some really rare video of the of
8:31
the Aretha sessions that for lady
8:33
soul so of course again he was also
8:37
playing with Wilson Pickett and on the
8:40
Wilson stuff in Muscle Shoals it's him
8:43
and Jimmie Johnson and then the American
8:46
stuff it's Bobby and Reggie young so
8:51
also Bobby you know started cutting a
8:55
solo record he had he had kind of given
8:57
a lot of his good songs over to over to
9:02
Wilson Pickett apparently but he so he
9:06
included quite a few covers on this
9:08
first album but the covers are fantastic
9:11
so this was his first album that he cut
9:14
at American it's called fly me to the
9:17
moon and I loved his arrangement of fly
9:20
me to them and I think it's amazing
9:22
and and he does cut like I'm a midnight
9:25
mover that also picket cut and then his
9:28
one of his most known songs is I'm in
9:31
love which of course Wilson cut and
9:34
Aretha cut and he cut and that's what I
9:36
was playing at the beginning of the you
9:40
know of the episode so you could kind of
9:42
hear a bit of Bobby's playing this album
9:47
which is the second ones that he did
9:48
with an American it has a neat photo on
9:53
the back where you can see his Barker
9:55
archtop and again he after playing with
9:59
Reggie he stopped playing this and
10:01
started playing a Telecaster and funnily
10:05
enough
10:06
he ended up influencing Jimmie Johnson
10:09
to play a Tele
10:09
so Reggie influenced Bobby to pick up
10:12
telly
10:12
and then when Jimmie Johnson and Bobby
10:15
Wommack were playing together on the
10:17
Aretha sessions up in New York and
10:19
Atlantic studios you know Jimmy decided
10:23
to be a Telecaster guy and that's what
10:25
Jimmy Johnson played the rest of his
10:26
career so there you have it and that's
10:30
another one of the reasons why the
10:32
Telecaster is kind of considered kind of
10:35
the R&B guitar you know so again that
10:40
intro is really interesting and again
10:45
you know you've got in both the Wilson
10:49
Pickett version and the and his version
10:52
there's two guitars on it and both of
10:55
them are Reggie and Bobby and Reggie is
11:00
playing the low part and with kind of a
11:03
descending bass line and and I was
11:06
playing my approximation of of Bobby's
11:10
you know the
11:12
[Music]
11:25
just a beautiful guitar part you can
11:30
tell why other guitar players wanted to
11:33
play in that style and wanted to wanted
11:34
to pick that up from him also looking at
11:37
some of these other Tunes like I used to
11:40
love her but it's all over now you you
11:42
kind of get that sixth thing again I've
11:56
kind of had my way with that a little
11:59
bit but yeah so he had all these all
12:03
these things and
12:04
[Music]
12:14
all these kind of isms that you know
12:18
between he and Cornell Dupree and Reggie
12:21
young and Hendrix really became part of
12:25
you know what we consider the R&B guitar
12:28
vernacular so I hope you've enjoyed this
12:34
episode I hope you will take a listen to
12:37
Bobby Womack please take a gander on my
12:40
Spotify playlist and yeah listen listen
12:44
to some Bobby Womack I have to say my
12:47
favorite version of California Dreamin
12:50
is is Bobby's and I've included that on
12:53
the playlist so listen to that please
12:56
subscribe please share with others I
12:59
hope you enjoy hope you will send in
13:02
questions and yeah thank you and have a
13:06
great week bye bye