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Front Row: Bobby Womack, with Damon Albarn and Peter Guralnick

Bobby Womack, with Damon Albarn and Peter Guralnick

30/08/2012

BBC Radio 4 - Front Row, Bobby Womack, with Damon Albarn and Peter Guralnick

John Wilson talks to soul survivor Bobby Womack, with views from collaborator Damon Albarn

John Wilson profiles soul music survivor Bobby Womack, talking to Womack himself, to Damon Albarn who produced his most recent album, and to music biographer Peter Guralnick.

With John Wilson. 

Singer and songwriter Bobby Womack is one of soul music's great survivors. He reflects on a career which spans more than half a century, in which he's confronted illness, addiction and controversy. 

He discusses his return to the studio for the first time in almost a decade, at the invitation of Damon Albarn, and Albarn himself looks back at the dramatic conclusion to their first recording session for a Gorillaz album. 

Bobby Womack also recalls his less-than-positive first reaction to the news that The Rolling Stones had recorded his song It's All Over Now - although he readily admits that his views changed when he received the first of many large royalty cheques. 

And music biographer Peter Guralnick charts how singer and entrepreneur Sam Cooke played a key role in Womack's early career: Bobby Womack remembers Cooke's ready advice, which included always to own a good ring and a good watch - valuables which could be pawned if a concert promoter failed to pay up. 

Producer John Goudie.

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