The Womack “Live”

LIBERTY 1970, £20

You say: “For the frantic version of More Than I Can Stand.” Danny Toeman, via Twitter

Amid ‘live‘ hubbub, Womack thrives. His easy conversational interaction with the audience, unexpected covers (Fred Neil’s Everybody’s Talkin’; George Harrison’s Something), loose charts and, on his medley of Sam Cooke’s Laughin’ & Clownin’ and Percy Mayfield’s To Live The Past, the latter guesting. I’m A Midnight Mover is reclaimed from Wilson Pickett with a briskly hard-hitting arrangement before the set’s centrepiece – Womack as wise and wisecracking raconteur, living up to his nickname of The Preacher. In pulpit cadences, he tells of returning home early from work to find his best friend’s car in the drive, his front door locked, hearing carnal sounds from inside the house. Segues into More Than I Can Stand.