Bobby Womack 1944-2014 — rollingstone.com

Soul-music genius Bobby Womack had talent to burn — and he burned it. He was in the first rank of songwriters, penning classics such as "It's All Over Now," which became the Rolling Stones' first Number One single in the UK. He was a top-notch guitarist, backing up everyone from Ray Charles to Aretha Franklin. And when he sang on his own records, he could compel you to get on your feet ("Looking for a Love"), reinvent standards as R&B anthems ("Fly Me to the Moon") or express yearning like nobody else ("Across 110th Street"). Somehow, all that didn't add up to superstardom: Womack kept sabotaging himself with bad record deals and cocaine abuse. "It seems that every once in a while I pop up from out of the water and then disappear again," he complained to Rolling Stone in 1974. "Well, I'm tired of that shit."

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