Bobby Womack: “It’s All Over Now”

I have been re-reading “Uncommon Sound” about some of the guitar players that changed the face of music. I came across a quote from Bobby Womack, whose song “When The Weekend Comes” was a favourite of mine for some time. One of his best-known compositions is “It’s All Over Now”, a hit for the Rolling Stones. But what many people don’t know is that Womack was only 14 when he wrote it.

Quoting from the book: “My Uncle Wes had a wife called Betty Joe, the sexiest finest woman you could ever hope to see. One day, Betty Joe got tired of going to church with him and told him, ‘…I’m gonna have me a good time. Men tell me I’m fine.’ […] So every weekend he’d be sitting there saying, ‘I’m through with Betty. That’s it. It’s all over’. […] About 3 or 4 o’clock, we hear some feet coming up the steps and it’s Betty Joe. […] She’d sit right on his lap, whisper in his ear, ‘You know you don’t want to kick me out. Come here.’ And when she took him into the room that was it. So the next day, he’d unpack. Next week, she’s take off for another 3-day trip and Wes would say, ‘I used to love her but it’s all over now!’ That’s what that song comes from. He knew my song was about him, so I told him, ‘Know why they’re buying that song? Because it’s about them too. A lot of people go through that’.”

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