Bobby Womack – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

Peter Wolf was doing his thing in this song. Wolf is the complete package as a lead singer. He can give you a great voice to drive the songs and move around the stage like he is on fire. I would put him up as one of the best in rock. In the era of Roger Daltrey, Robert Plant, Rod Stewart, and Mick Jagger. Peter Wolf could keep up with the best…and still can.

The song Looking for a Love was originally recorded by The Valentinos, a soul group featuring Bobby Womack, in 1962. It became an R&B hit (#8) at the time and was written by J. W. Alexander and Zelda Samuels. The J Geils Band took the song and lit it up with energy. It’s some fantastic fun R&B that the band covered great. That was their strong suit…infectious driving live band who had soul and some funk to boot.

The J. Geils version peaked at #25 in Canada and #39 on the Billboard 100 in 1971. It was on the band’s second album called The Morning After. It peaked at #63 on the Billboard Album Charts and #73 in Canada.

Bobby Womack re-recorded it in 1974 and had a massive hit with it that peaked at #1 on the R&B Charts and #10 on the Billboard 100.

The J. Geils Band was formed in 1967 in Worcester, Massachusetts. The band came out of the Boston club scene in the late sixties. I always thought they should have been bigger than they were in the 1970s. They didn’t hit their commercial peak until the early 80s with Love Stinks, Come Back, and then the hugely popular Freeze-Frame album in 1983 but their 70s output gets lost at times and that is a big shame.

Also, there are a couple of you who recommended their live album Full House…that would be CB and John Holton…I appreciate it because it’s one of the best live albums I’ve heard.

Looking For a Love

Somebody help meSomebody help me nowSomebody help me now

Somebody help meFind my babySomebody help meFind my baby right now

I`m looking for a loveI`m looking for a loveI`m looking here and thereI`m searching everywhereI`m looking for a loveTo call my own

Gonna get up in the morningAnd rub my headI`m looking for a loveTo call my own

Fix my breakfastAnd bring it to my bedI`m looking for a loveTo call my own

Do my loveDo it all the timeI`m looking for a loveTo call my own

With lots of love and kissesBut people until thenI`m looking for a loveTo call my own

I`m looking for a loveI`m looking for a loveI`m looking here and thereI`m searching everywhereI`m looking for a loveTo call my own

Stay in my cornerAll the way, yeahI`m looking for a loveTo call my own

Stick by me, babyNo matter what they sayI`m looking for a loveTo call my own

I`ll give my loveTo her all the timeI`m looking for a loveTo call my own

Loving, kissingPeople on the wayI`m looking for a loveTo call my own

I`m looking for a loveI`m looking for a loveI`m looking here and thereI`m searching everywhereI`m looking for a loveTo call my own

Somebody help meTo find my babyI said I`ve got to findMy baby right now

I`m looking in the morningI`m looking at nightGot to find my babyBut she`s nowhere in sight

Somebody help meTo find my babyI said I`ve got to findMy baby right now

I`m looking in the morningI`m looking at nightGot to find my babyShe`s nowhere in sight

I`m looking, I`m lookingI`m looking, I`m looking……

…

I first heard this song in the 80s and later on, I heard it in a Tarantino movie called Jackie Brown. You feel like you are walking down that Street in 1973 with this song. You can see the sights and feel the grime as the song finishes. It’s R&B, Soul, and a touch…just a small touch of Motown in the background.

Across 110th Street
Pimps trying to catch a woman that’s weak
Across 110th Street
Pushers won’t let the junkie go free
Across 110th Street
Woman trying to catch a trick on the street, ooh, baby
Across 110th Street
You can find it all in the street

Bobby Womack’s 1973 hit single Across 110th Street was the title song from Barry Shear-directed movie starring Anthony Quinn for which Womack provided the soundtrack music. The song peaked at #56 on the Billboard 100 and #19 in the R&B Charts. The song was written by Bobby Womack and J.J. Johnson.

It was used in the movie by Quentin Tarantino “Jackie Brown” in 1997 and featured in the 2007 movie “American Gangster.” I’m glad that it has had a revival of sorts and didn’t get lost in history.

Bobby Womack was asked if he noticed his audience changed after this song.

Bobby Womack: I did simply because, at that particular time, that was a change for me, to record with orchestration like that. Across 110th Street had meaning, because although I lived on Central Avenue in Cleveland Ohio [growing up], it was like Across 110th Street. That’s what made me in the frame of mind to write the lyric as I did, because it sort of typified me and my brothers growing up.

Carol Kaye plays bass on this song.

“Across 110th Street”
Ooh, ooh-ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh-ooh
Ooh, ooh-ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh

I was the third brother of five
Doing whatever I had to do to survive
I’m not saying what I did was all right
Trying to break out of the ghetto was a day-to-day fight

Been down so long, getting up didn’t cross my mind
But I knew there was a better way of life that I was just trying to find
You don’t know what you’ll do until you’re put under pressure
Across 110th Street is a hell of a tester

Ooh, ooh-ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh-ooh, oh-oh-oh

I got one more thing I’d like to talk to y’all about right now

Hey, brother, there’s a better way out
Snorting that coke, shooting that dope, man, you’re copping out
Take my advice, it’s either live or die
You got to be strong if you want to survive

The family on the upper side of town
Would catch hell without a ghetto around
In every city you’ll find the same thing going down
Harlem is the capital of every ghetto town
Help me sing it

Across 110th Street
Pimps trying to catch a woman that’s weak
Across 110th Street
Pushers won’t let the junkie go free
Oh, across 110th Street
A woman trying to catch a trick on the street, ooh, baby
Across 110th Street
You can find it all
In the street
Yes, you can

Oh, look around you, look around you
Look around you, look around you
Yeah
Yeah

Ooh, ooh-ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh-ooh

Tag: Bobby Womack

J Geils Band – Looking For A Love

Bobby Womack – Across 110th Street