Let's talk about Bill Withers.

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Still Bill is one of my favorites - he's just brilliant

― luna (luna.c), Sunday, 20 April 2003 19:53 (10 years ago) Permalink

i think DMX covered "Ain't No Sunshine" for the sdtrk. to "Exit Wounds".

― mosurock (mosurock), Sunday, 20 April 2003 22:26 (10 years ago) Permalink

best version of Aint No Sunshine = Rahsaan Roland Kirk's

Wrong. Finest cover of "Ain't No Sunshine" is by Jack Natz's BLACKSNAKES.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Sunday, 20 April 2003 23:57 (10 years ago) Permalink

dude alex yr totally violating the nabisco dictum.

― Amateurist (amateurist), Monday, 21 April 2003 00:03 (10 years ago) Permalink

*Shudders*

I just heard the sound of 20 ILx0rs being fired.

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Monday, 21 April 2003 00:04 (10 years ago) Permalink

3 weeks pass...

how do you turn a duck into a soul singer?

put it in the microwave until its bill withers

― del a robbo, Saturday, 17 May 2003 16:39 (10 years ago) Permalink

1 year passes...

" I can't Write Left Handed" is blowing me away. i've practically had it on repeat for the last 3 days. WOW. (This is only slghtly ruined by the fact that Rick Astley stole the harmonies for his actually pretty good soul pastiche "cry for help"). The version i have seems to be a live version - is this the most commonly available version? anything more along these lines from his catalogue i should look out for? if you haven't heard this you really must. You will thank me, i assure you.

― jed (jed_e_3), Thursday, 5 August 2004 16:59 (8 years ago) Permalink

Jill Scott did a mean version of "Use Me" when I saw her live in Manchester a couple of years back- and it was the opening tune. "Harlem" is a bit of a belter too, more of a foot-stompin'-soul type Bill - he did a bit of presenting for BBC Radio 2 last year on a series of soul retospective programmes.

― neil tacus (tacit), Thursday, 5 August 2004 18:21 (8 years ago) Permalink

Twista & Anthony Hamilton made me want to buy lots of Bill Withers albums.

― Jordan (Jordan), Thursday, 5 August 2004 18:22 (8 years ago) Permalink

"I can't Write Left Handed" is blowing me away

yeah i was just going to bring this one up, too. i like the version on the live at carnegie hall album best. more/less relevant than ever?

― vahid (vahid), Thursday, 5 August 2004 19:13 (8 years ago) Permalink

what's Menagerie like then?

― Sonny A. (Keiko), Thursday, 5 August 2004 19:15 (8 years ago) Permalink

I always wanted to hear a version of "Use Me" sung by a woman... would change the implications of the song considerably, I think.
Also always loved "Who Is He (And What Is He To You?)," esp. Gladys Knight's spine-chilling version...

-- Douglas (il...), April 19th, 2003.

I don't know where it came from, but I've got a version of it by Fiona Apple that's pretty true to the original.

― JC-L (JC-L), Thursday, 5 August 2004 19:35 (8 years ago) Permalink

i'm listening to ain't no sunshine right now. one of those songs that makes me want to put my head under a pillow.

― lauren (laurenp), Thursday, 5 August 2004 19:39 (8 years ago) Permalink

Yep, he's fine. "Lonely Town, Lonely Street" is amazing. "Another Day to Run" too. I had only remembered him from his hits and then went out and bought the reissue of "Still Bill." He makes it sound so effortless.

Joe Simon I like too--he recorded for Sound Stage 7 in Nashville. A bit more of a conventionally "good" singer but great.

― eddie hurt (ddduncan), Thursday, 5 August 2004 19:46 (8 years ago) Permalink

dude alex yr totally violating the nabisco dictum.

...and I'd do it again.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 5 August 2004 21:11 (8 years ago) Permalink

live at carneige hall is a fantastic live album. even bill's jokes come off well.

― splooge (thesplooge), Friday, 6 August 2004 07:59 (8 years ago) Permalink

wtf's the nabisco dictum?

― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Friday, 6 August 2004 10:19 (8 years ago) Permalink

Bill was a frequent guest on teevee variety shows back in the day, always relaxed and great. Saw him on one of those reruns of the Flip Wilson Show recently, doing "Lean On Me" with a live vocal over a pre-taped backing track. Whatayacallit when they do that -- strum-synch? Makes the drummer look ridiculous.

It's always a cool breeze to the earholes when "Soul Shadows" comes on during the drive-time Quiet Storm show.

― briania (briania), Friday, 6 August 2004 11:08 (8 years ago) Permalink

Woven Hand, side project of 16 Horsepower's singer David Eugene Edwards, recorded a great, haunting version of "Ain't No Sunshine". An even better version (or adaptation, named "Animalitos (aint no sunshine)") appears on his/their second album, Blush Music, the material of which he wrote for a ballet piece by the Ultima Vez dance co.

― willem (willem), Friday, 6 August 2004 11:26 (8 years ago) Permalink

Agreed, the DEE version of 'Ain't No Sunshine' is superb. (And yes, the Blush Music version is better.)

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Friday, 6 August 2004 13:06 (8 years ago) Permalink

i like the jackson 5 version of aint no sunshine.

― splooge (thesplooge), Friday, 6 August 2004 14:01 (8 years ago) Permalink

1 year passes...

Live at the Carnegie Hall is his best record & one of my all time favourites. i love the between song banter on this one. If you didn't already know how great he was just from his studio work, listening to ...Carnegie Hall your heart swells to bursting with love for the man. When he says "alot of folks from all different nationalities and things come up to me and say... 'i dug my grandmother too'", as an intro to "Granda's hands", it brings a huge lump to my throat. the gently feminist intro to "let me in your life" is beautiful.

highlights, as vahid noted above, "I can't write left handed" - more relevant than ever now. the long held note on "she's go-o-o-o-o-o-one" in the track "hope she'll be happier" is probably even more astonishing than the one on "Lovely Day".

if you don't have this album you must buy it.

― jed_ (jed), Wednesday, 28 June 2006 22:08 (6 years ago) Permalink

for a man who claimed to be really shy as a youth, bill withers sure knew how to handle a crowd...those between-song raps on the CARNEGIE HALL album are as worthwhile as the songs themselves!

also seek out the soundtrack to SAVE THE CHILDREN (a 1973 concert movie of a Jesse Jackson/Operation PUSH rally from the year before)...bill starts out his portion of the album by saying something like: "ten years ago, if we saw THIS many black people in one place...even WE woulda been scared!" kinda makes up for the fact that he starts out "lean on me" wildly offkey

― Rev. Hoodoo (Rev. Hoodoo), Thursday, 29 June 2006 03:11 (6 years ago) Permalink

Big interview in the last wax poetics, btw. bought it, haven't read it. Hey, Rev Hoodoo!

― Stormy Davis (diamond), Thursday, 29 June 2006 03:20 (6 years ago) Permalink

oh damn i wish i had a copy of still bill with me right now.. i burned a copy without "stand by me," because it started suffering from the beggar's banquet::"sympathy for the devil" syndrome.. i think i prefer it to any marvin gaye or al green album (except for 'call me,' maybe). "who is he (and what is he to you)" is about the best track ever..

― poortheatre (poortheatre), Thursday, 29 June 2006 03:49 (6 years ago) Permalink

whazzup stormy! withers is always good for a quip or two, even today, so youve got an incredible interview to look forward to, along with a mess of photos ive never seen before...

(you should also check out the DVD that comes with the recent reissue of JUST AS I AM...my man Bill is just going OFF in the modern-day interview segments!)

― Rev. Hoodoo (Rev. Hoodoo), Thursday, 29 June 2006 03:56 (6 years ago) Permalink

And speaking of JUST AS I AM (as I was up above)...that's another reason why Bill stands out from a typical soul singer of the time...the cover of that album was AN OUT-OF-FOCUS INSTAMATIC PHOTO OF BILL ON HIS LUNCH BREAK AT HIS DAY JOB INSTALLING AIRPLANE ENGINES! i mean, he's got his lunch pail in his hand and everything! it's not uncommon for a future superstar to hold on to his day job till the big bucks start rolling in, but Bill was practically FLAUNTING IT IN THE OPEN! "yeah, I still have my job at Boeing, so what?"

JUST AS I AM was actually reissued on Columbia in the eighties featuring an updated photo of a bearded Bill in a suit (my, how far we've come), but the new CD version (again on Columbia) restores the original day-job cover from '71!

― Rev. Hoodoo (Rev. Hoodoo), Thursday, 29 June 2006 04:03 (6 years ago) Permalink

for some reason, that cover always reminded me of george mccrae's "rock your baby"

― flëétwøöd måçk (jaxon), Thursday, 29 June 2006 04:39 (6 years ago) Permalink

3 months pass...

Just downloaded 'Justments (74), and it's great. Wondering why no one is reissuing it.

― Fastnbulbous (Fastnbulbous), Friday, 27 October 2006 18:03 (6 years ago) Permalink

Co-sign on JUSTMENTS. Totally underrated album. Although three of these songs ("The Same Love That Made Me Laugh," "Heartbreak Road," and the bitter-as-all-hell "You") were hit singles on the soul charts, none of them crossed over pop. This album didn't have the same momentum of his first two, but music-wise it still has the same high standards.

Then he changed labels and got more and more "quiet storm" as the years went on, and that's where I get off the train re: Withers. But damn if JUST AS I AM, STILL BILL, the live LP and JUSTMENTS weren't an incredible four-album run.

― Rev. Hoodoo (Rev. Hoodoo), Monday, 30 October 2006 07:57 (6 years ago) Permalink

There is also an amazing B side to be found on the 'You Got the Stuff' 12'', from er, sometime in the 70's...

It's a disco edit/extended mix that sounds like Bill Withers and Quincy Jones being chopped and blunted by Madlib and then fed through the Akufen machine for a futuristic cleaning.

Italo-disco/Cosmic DJs love this track - I have no idea who did this remix - but if it were 3600 minutes long it would still be too short.

― greypejooze (Ryanssssss), Monday, 30 October 2006 12:14 (6 years ago) Permalink

The way he held those long notes on "Lovely Day" was impressive.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 30 October 2006 14:06 (6 years ago) Permalink

This thread caused me to buy Live At The Carnegie, which is great. Thank you thread.

― Rodney... (R. J. Greene), Monday, 30 October 2006 21:56 (6 years ago) Permalink

Bill Withers is great.
period.
his delivery is what gets me.

― edde (edde), Tuesday, 31 October 2006 00:49 (6 years ago) Permalink

I had a really good E moment to "Lovely day".

― struttin' with some barbecue (jimnaseum), Tuesday, 31 October 2006 01:48 (6 years ago) Permalink

7 months pass...

OMG just bought Carnegie Hall, and it really is beautiful. And as a rule I hate live albums... It's just so charming, and the band are so understated yet wildly funky. Grandma's Hands is genuinely affecting.

I just felt I wanted to share this.

― Daniel Giraffe, Monday, 18 June 2007 10:06 (5 years ago) Permalink

his drummer is teh shit! so subtle and funky. unbelievable. must get the carnegie hall.

much much love for horace andy's "ain't no sunshine."

― andrew m., Monday, 18 June 2007 17:02 (5 years ago) Permalink

1 month passes...

Live At Carnegie Hall is the greatest soul record there is. James Brown invented more, Otis Redding is the greater singer, Aretha Franklin could do a wider variety of things, Al Green was more magical. None came close to summing up a cultural moment the way Live At Carnegie Hall did. Bill Withers' world is the one we would all want to live in, and the fact that we don't is why soul died and was replaced by funk and then hip hop (which, of course, have their own virtues).

― Kenny, Thursday, 19 July 2007 17:44 (5 years ago) Permalink

I just picked up a two-fer of his first couple, but I need to listen. Which is the story with a lot of music I own. : (

― The Reverend, Thursday, 19 July 2007 18:42 (5 years ago) Permalink

2 months pass...

Live At Carnegie Hall is the greatest soul record there is

^^^^^^

― El Tomboto, Friday, 12 October 2007 11:43 (5 years ago) Permalink

hmmmmmm. I just have a studio effort.

― curmudgeon, Friday, 12 October 2007 15:51 (5 years ago) Permalink

No, you need that Carnegie Hall album. Seriously.

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 12 October 2007 15:57 (5 years ago) Permalink

― The Reverend, Friday, 12 October 2007 16:38 (5 years ago) Permalink

― Dimension 5ive, Friday, 12 October 2007 16:57 (5 years ago) Permalink

more love for Menagerie! it's as good as Still Bill.

Search 'It ain't because of me baby'

― poortheatre, Friday, 12 October 2007 18:27 (5 years ago) Permalink

Live At Carnegie Hall is the greatest soul record there is

^^^^^^

-- El Tomboto, Friday, October 12, 2007 11:43 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Link

^^^^^^

― jed_, Friday, 12 October 2007 18:37 (5 years ago) Permalink

― James Redd and the Blecchs, Friday, 12 October 2007 18:38 (5 years ago) Permalink

this is true

― tremendoid, Friday, 12 October 2007 21:55 (5 years ago) Permalink

1 month passes...

got the Live at Carnegie Hall record at the behest of this thread - good shit! thx for the rec everybody

― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, 19 November 2007 23:32 (5 years ago) Permalink

I Can't Write Lefthanded kills - weird version of Ain't No Sunshine tho (I like it but the drummer has an odd take on the rhythm)

― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, 19 November 2007 23:33 (5 years ago) Permalink

Skipping 107 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

i think withers himself would admit as much

― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Wednesday, 28 March 2012 20:20 (1 year ago) Permalink

there's that latter-day TV clip in the documentary still bill where he's lip-synching to one of his later minor hits and he just looks dead inside.

― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Wednesday, 28 March 2012 20:21 (1 year ago) Permalink

it's not a late minor-hit it's him singing "just the two of us" and it's from the time it was released. it's used to underscore his deep cynicism re. the record industry at that time.

― jed_, Wednesday, 28 March 2012 20:27 (1 year ago) Permalink

listened to Just As I Am this morning. how many records end with the singer killing himself?

― Dominique, Thursday, 5 April 2012 15:49 (1 year ago) Permalink

Was talking to a drummer the other day and he was telling me James Gadson was his main man

― zing left unguarded, the j/k palace in flames (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 9 April 2012 03:33 (1 year ago) Permalink

1 month passes...

Still find it kind've mind-blowing that New Zealand's #1 single of 1988, 6 weeks at the top, etc, was a cover of an album cut from his '85 album Watching You Watching Me.

― etc, Tuesday, 15 May 2012 10:54 (1 year ago) Permalink

6 months pass...

oh yes ...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Complete-Sussex-Columbia-Album-Masters/dp/B008S80PCE/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1352975059&sr=8-5

― mark e, Thursday, 15 November 2012 10:31 (6 months ago) Permalink

wow

― curmudgeon, Thursday, 15 November 2012 15:28 (6 months ago) Permalink

its ace.
picked it up from fopp today for £21.
they've even replicated the foldout sleeve that 'still bill' had.
of course the love for the 1st two is well known, but damn, '+justments' is fantastic ..
looking forward to digging through the pretty thorough booklet, seems to have a lot of detail.
well chuffed.

― mark e, Thursday, 15 November 2012 15:32 (6 months ago) Permalink

Wow, that's tempting.

Was anyone else surprised that the doc's hung so much weight on "Grandma's Hands?" That's the one apparently iconic Withers track that I didn't know was so highly rated, esp. compared to "Ain't No Sunshine," "Use Me," "Lean On Me," et al.

― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 15 November 2012 16:16 (6 months ago) Permalink

Well, Blackstreet sampling it should have told ya something's up.

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 15 November 2012 16:21 (6 months ago) Permalink

I was a little surprised by that too, but I was glad they spent so much time on it relative to "Lean On Me" (which is great and all, but no "Grandma's Hands").

― 5-Hour Enmity (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Thursday, 15 November 2012 16:22 (6 months ago) Permalink

I love me some "No Diggity." I guess I just never knew the sample.

― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 15 November 2012 16:57 (6 months ago) Permalink

i never picked up re the sample.

just hope it helped him out $$ a la david axelrod and 'the edge'.

also, now i see why the live album gets so much love.

its f*cking brilliant.

the only real duffer is the 1985 album, 'watching you .. ' that's full of nasty mid 80s production. just dreadful.

the rest however, hits so many of my sweet spots.

i have bought a few boxsets this year (the byrds, simple minds, neil young, tom moulton, cabaret voltaire, roxy music), but i have to say, this is the one i will be revisiting the most.

― mark e, Friday, 16 November 2012 17:56 (6 months ago) Permalink

letz talk abt withers mane

― thraeds of life (The Reverend), Friday, 16 November 2012 19:23 (6 months ago) Permalink

discovered yesterday that naked & warm is a really good record

― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Friday, 16 November 2012 19:56 (6 months ago) Permalink

when "city of the angels" gets all mercurial... man. nothing else like it in his catalog as far as i know?

― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Friday, 16 November 2012 19:57 (6 months ago) Permalink

4 months pass...

"I don't care whether you own a furniture store. The best sign you can put up is, 'Sold out.'"

― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 17 March 2013 23:28 (2 months ago) Permalink

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