Poet II

Personnel includes: Bobby Womack (vocals, guitar); Patti LaBelle (vocals); David T. Walker, Courtney Sappington, George Benson, Robert Palmer (guitar); Dorothy Ashby (harp); Rusty Hamilton (harmonica, synthesizer); Wilton Felder, Fred Wesley, Thurmon Green, Harry Kim, Sidney Mulgrow, Fernando Harkless (horns); Michael Wycoff (keyboards); Denzil "Broadway" Miller (synthesizer); David Shields (bass); James E. Gadson (drums, background vocals); Fred Johnson (DMX Electric drum); Paulinho Da Costa (percussion).
Producers: Andrew Oldham, James E. Gadson, Bobby Womack.
After sweating out dimming career prospects in the late 1970s and making a surprise comeback with 1981's THE POET, what else would the notoriously pragmatic Bobby Womack be expected to do but follow it up with an overt sequel, THE POET II? Like its predecessor, this album combines Womack's raw soul with crisp, slick, contemporary production, but it goes a bit further towards the polished side. A couple of tracks move in a disco direction, with full-on dance-floor-directed arrangements. The most impressive cuts here (and unsurprisingly the biggest hits) are the the duets with soul queen Patti LaBelle. While THE POET II did well, it failed to match the commercial success of THE POET, which Womack would in fact never surpass.