All this week we’ve been looking at socially relevant songs from the late ’60s/early ’70s by prominent soul artists. So far all the tracks have been by Motown or Motown-adjacent (Freda Payne, with “Bring the Boys Home“) artists. Today we step away from the Motor City and venture to the recording studios of the West Coast with Bobby Womack and his hit, “Across 110th Street.” The single, released in February 1973 on the United Artists label, only hit #56 on the Billboard Hot 100 but got all the way to #19 on Billboard’s Best Selling Soul Singles chart.
“Across 110th Street” was written by Mr. Womack and jazz trombonist J.J. Johnson for the movie of the same name. Across 110th Street was one of many so-called blaxpoitation films of the era, starring Yaphet Kotto, Anthony Quinn, Tony Franciosa, and Paul Benjamin. The film, set in New York City, was about Mr. Benjamin’s plot to steal $300,000 from the Mafia. The scheme went sideways, resulting in the deaths of both gangsters and cops. The rest of the movie follows police detectives Kotto and Quinn rushing to apprehend the criminals before they’re caught instead by Mafia capo Franciosa.
Here’s the trailer for the film:
In New York City, 110th Street was the dividing line between Harlem and Central Park, the line that separated both race and class. In “Across 110th Street,” Mr. Womack sings of doing whatever it takes to break out of the ghetto and cross into the respectable life on the other side of that dividing line. As the lyrics put 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, look
You can find it all in the street
Yes, you can
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’ve got to be strong if you wanna survive
Younger audiences might remember “Across 110th Street” played under the opening credits of Quentin Tarantino’s 1997 film, Jackie Brown, as the title character traveled through the Los Angeles airport (in a homage to the beginning of The Graduate, actually). I’ve long considered Jackie Brown to be my favorite Tarantino film, in no small part because it’s based on and fairly faithful to one of my favorite Elmore Leonard novels, Rum Punch. Tarantino changed the title character from a middle-aged white flight attendant in Miami to a middle-aged Black flight attendant in L.A., but other than that he hewed closely to Mr. Leonard’s plot and dialog. The film was notable for its stellar supporting cast (including Samuel L. Jackson, Bridget Fonda, Michael Keaton, and Robert De Niro) and career-defining turns by former blaxpoitation star Pam Grier in the title role and Stephen Forster as the sympathetic bail bondsman who gets caught up in her world. If you haven’t seen the film, you should.
And here’s your daily bonus video of the day, the opening credits sequence from Jackie Brown, featuring Bobby Womack’s “Across 110th Street.” It really sets the scene and mood for the entire movie. If you haven’t seen the film, seek it out; it’s terrific.
