Bobby Womack-Facts of Life (1973)
In a career with it’s fair share of highs and lows, Facts of Life was an unquestionable high and set the standard and was the textbook example of a great Bobby Womack album.
Facts of Life was Womack’s sixth release in a catalogue that already included 1971's Communication and 1972's soundtrack classic, Across 110th Street and songs like “Harry Hippie” and “That’s The Way Feel About Cha.” At this point Womack was known as “The Preacher” due in his hard-earned and often profound views on relationships. Facts of Life is all but the perfect Bobby Womack album that displayed his strong originals as well as his inventive and transformative work on cover versions. That’s certainly true of Facts of Life’s first track.
Womack recasts Billie Holiday’s “Nobody Wants You When You’re Down and Out” into a funky strut and he not only changed the structure of the lyrics, he gave the song an almost eerie, psychedelic tone that made the message even more stinging.
The covers and remakes are exceedingly strong on Facts of Life, but like most of Womack’s best work, the greatest songs were written by Womack himself. The devastating ballad, “ I’m Through Trying To Prove My Love To You” has Womack’s matching great lines with great phrasing and every word had a sense of cogency and power. “Medley: Fact of Life/He’ll. Be There When The Sun Goes Down” takes a…
