― Jay K (Jay K), Friday, 18 April 2003 22:23 (twenty years ago) link
― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 18 April 2003 22:45 (twenty years ago) link
― Chris V. (Chris V), Friday, 18 April 2003 22:46 (twenty years ago) link
Also always loved "Who Is He (And What Is He To You?)," esp. Gladys Knight's spine-chilling version...
― Douglas (Douglas), Saturday, 19 April 2003 00:00 (twenty years ago) link
― mosurock (mosurock), Saturday, 19 April 2003 00:12 (twenty years ago) link
Just the two of us We can make it if we try Just the two of us Just the two of us Building castles in the sky Just the two of us You and I
We look for love, no time for tears Wasted waters's all that is And it don't make no flowers grow Good things might come to those who wait Not to those who wait to late We got to go for all we know
I hear the crystal raindrops fall On the window down the hall And it becomes the morning dew Darling, when the morning comes And I see the morning sun I want to be the one with you
Just the two of us We can make it if we try Just the two of us Just the two of us Building big castles way on high Just the two of us You and I
Just the two of us Let's get together, baby Just the two of us We can make it Just the two of us We can make it Just the two of us Just the two of us we can make it
Such a classic, classic song, made even better with the saxophonic (that even a word?) presence of Grover Washington, Jr. Interesting thing: I actually saw the ep of "American Bandstand" where they used this song as a "spotlight dance" song, and that was just about the classiest moment they'd ever had. Even the lighting was understated.
― Dee the Lurker (Dee the Lurker), Saturday, 19 April 2003 00:36 (twenty years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 19 April 2003 00:38 (twenty years ago) link
― Sean (Sean), Saturday, 19 April 2003 00:38 (twenty years ago) link
if you're in to this you should definitely check out Eugene McDaniels' AMAZING "Headless Heroes of the Apocalypse". by far one of my favorite albums of all time. funk, folk, soul. one of two albums i own in two formats (record and cd). the other being kinda similar too - Shuggie Otis "Inspiration Information"
― JasonD (JasonD), Saturday, 19 April 2003 00:41 (twenty years ago) link
Bit of a tangent here, but does anyone know of any other West Virginia natives who (a) had a career comparable (quality- and/or longeivity-wise) to Withers and (b) weren't working in folk, C&W, or bluegrass? This WV native is curious. . .
― Jeff Wright, Saturday, 19 April 2003 02:04 (twenty years ago) link
― michael wells (michael w.), Saturday, 19 April 2003 02:22 (twenty years ago) link
― Chris A. (Chris A.), Saturday, 19 April 2003 02:50 (twenty years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 19 April 2003 02:50 (twenty years ago) link
put it in a microwave until its bill withers.
― michael wells (michael w.), Saturday, 19 April 2003 02:51 (twenty years ago) link
― gabbneb (gabbneb), Saturday, 19 April 2003 02:52 (twenty years ago) link
It's really gratifying to see the Bill Withers love here. Good question about West Virginia; what's the black population there, percentage-wise?
The drumming on Still Bill is sort of a miracle; the backing band is basically the Watts 103rd St Rhythm Band, whose own records I haven't heard (recommendations?)--all kinds of crazy 16th notes on the hi-hat and stuff.
― Amateurist (amateurist), Saturday, 19 April 2003 06:21 (twenty years ago) link
― rumpelstiltskin, Saturday, 19 April 2003 07:18 (twenty years ago) link
― Amateurist (amateurist), Saturday, 19 April 2003 16:06 (twenty years ago) link
― Jay K (Jay K), Saturday, 19 April 2003 17:14 (twenty years ago) link
― autovac (autovac), Saturday, 19 April 2003 19:22 (twenty years ago) link
And 'borrowing' records from your parents = k-classic.
― Cozen (Cozen), Saturday, 19 April 2003 19:24 (twenty years ago) link
i just picked up the record (25$) of Charles Wright and the 103rd st Rhythm Band's "Express Yourself" for a friend. it has the song made most famous by NWA on (duh) "Express Yourself." the album's cool but i don't think it's worth 25$. if it's available on used cd i'd look for it.
and i didn't realize they were the backing band on Still Bill. that's cool to know.
― JasonD (JasonD), Saturday, 19 April 2003 19:31 (twenty years ago) link
― Jordan (Jordan), Saturday, 19 April 2003 20:12 (twenty years ago) link
― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Sunday, 20 April 2003 19:42 (twenty years ago) link
― luna (luna.c), Sunday, 20 April 2003 19:53 (twenty years ago) link
― mosurock (mosurock), Sunday, 20 April 2003 22:26 (twenty years ago) link
Wrong. Finest cover of "Ain't No Sunshine" is by Jack Natz's BLACKSNAKES.
http://www.consumerrevolt.de/crawl.jpg
― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Sunday, 20 April 2003 23:57 (twenty years ago) link
― Amateurist (amateurist), Monday, 21 April 2003 00:03 (twenty years ago) link
I just heard the sound of 20 ILx0rs being fired.
― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Monday, 21 April 2003 00:04 (twenty years ago) link
put it in the microwave until its bill withers
― del a robbo, Saturday, 17 May 2003 16:39 (twenty years ago) link
― jed (jed_e_3), Thursday, 5 August 2004 16:59 (nineteen years ago) link
― neil tacus (tacit), Thursday, 5 August 2004 18:21 (nineteen years ago) link
― Jordan (Jordan), Thursday, 5 August 2004 18:22 (nineteen years ago) link
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 (nineteen years ago) link
― Sonny A. (Keiko), Thursday, 5 August 2004 19:15 (nineteen years ago) link
-- 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 (nineteen years ago) link
― lauren (laurenp), Thursday, 5 August 2004 19:39 (nineteen years ago) link
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 (nineteen years ago) link
...and I'd do it again.
― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 5 August 2004 21:11 (nineteen years ago) link
― splooge (thesplooge), Friday, 6 August 2004 07:59 (nineteen years ago) link
― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Friday, 6 August 2004 10:19 (nineteen years ago) link
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 (nineteen years ago) link
― willem (willem), Friday, 6 August 2004 11:26 (nineteen years ago) link
― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Friday, 6 August 2004 13:06 (nineteen years ago) link
― splooge (thesplooge), Friday, 6 August 2004 14:01 (nineteen years ago) link
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 (seventeen years ago) link
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 (seventeen years ago) link
― Stormy Davis (diamond), Thursday, 29 June 2006 03:20 (seventeen years ago) link
― poortheatre (poortheatre), Thursday, 29 June 2006 03:49 (seventeen years ago) link
(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 (seventeen years ago) link
I'm gutted to hear this, RIP
― we have no stan but to choice (flamboyant goon tie included), Friday, 3 April 2020 16:17 (three years ago) link
His live album is among the best I've heard. Rarely has a sense of warmth and communion between performer and audience been more palpable.
Read the news, sighed, and fired said album up. And all the comments about it throughout the thread are accurate. Glad he was here, you know?
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 3 April 2020 16:20 (three years ago) link
It's possible my first introduction to Bill Withers as a ... concept? Aesthetic? As something more than just some nice songs I'd heard here and there growing up, might have been in here, hilariously:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUI3_USzHYU
“It’s not my fault you got lovesick during the Quiet Storm."
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 3 April 2020 16:21 (three years ago) link
Live at Carnegie is one of the best live albums ever. I remember discovering him as a teenager and picking up the albums whenever i saw them in dollar bins, which was often. Of all the punk and weirdo music I used to play as a kid, Bill Withers was one of the only things my parents would complain about, having overdosed on hearing "Lean on Me" a billion times on the radio over the years, they would tell me.
One of the things that always made him stand out to me was that he had so many good songs on the topic of platonic friendship, which is a rarer song subject than you'd think it would be. I guess as a result of already being a grownass adult when he started his career, his songs always seem so mature and grounded in actual real adult life & experiences. You could really see him living in those songs, walking around out there in the real world. Very easy for me to get choked up thinking about him, his life, and his body of work. A giant.
― turn the jawhatthefuckever on (One Eye Open), Friday, 3 April 2020 16:31 (three years ago) link
we had a live performance of ‘lean on me’ at our wedding ceremony, just such an elegantly crafted expression of something universalreally broken up by this tbh, one of those incredibly rare performers whose songs have become an indelible part of popular culture
― bam! Free bees! (bizarro gazzara), Friday, 3 April 2020 16:39 (three years ago) link
I can't think of a cover of any of his songs that I honestly like, but I'm open to recommendations (mention Club Nouveau and get FP'D).
GRACE JONES― brimstead, Friday, April 3, 2020 11:39 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink
I knew as soon as I posted that an obvious one would either come to me or be pointed out. Yes, Grace's "Use Me" is a solid.
― Maria Edgelord (cryptosicko), Friday, 3 April 2020 16:48 (three years ago) link
there are so many different versions of 'ain't no sunshine' that at least one or two has to be good, right?
― ooga booga-ing for the bourgeoisie (voodoo chili), Friday, 3 April 2020 16:50 (three years ago) link
Mick Jagger has a decent cover:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8E_lZPAhrbA
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 3 April 2020 16:51 (three years ago) link
Don't rmde at "ft. Lenny Kravitz." He hadn't started to suck yet in early '93.
bill withers is a big one for me. coming up on ecstasy and the dj playing lovely day is one of the most transcendent moments I've ever had with music.
― COVID and the Gang (jim in vancouver), Friday, 3 April 2020 16:53 (three years ago) link
just remembering, freddie king's 'ain't no sunshine,' which is solid.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTboI4LDt4I
some rippin' live versions out there too
― ooga booga-ing for the bourgeoisie (voodoo chili), Friday, 3 April 2020 16:58 (three years ago) link
here's a couple of my favourite versions of "ain't no sunshine"
caterina caselli, 1972:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g53QYP5jPpI
junko ohashi, 1976:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfPgOHcrlIs
― Kate (rushomancy), Friday, 3 April 2020 17:02 (three years ago) link
Soulful is such an overworked word, but he had one of those voices (Arthur Alexander is another) where just the sheer humanity and... soulfulness of it can often bring me to tears. RIP, Bill.
― Album Moods: Rambunctious; Snide (Dan Peterson), Friday, 3 April 2020 17:10 (three years ago) link
I love this man so much. what a life.
"You Got The Stuff" off 'Bout Love is a great late 70s deep cut. Especially if you find the version with the disco outro
― Heez, Friday, 3 April 2020 17:23 (three years ago) link
the most pleasant voice of all time. RIP
so many great songs and a really easy discography to get through.
'stories' always hits mehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5RSogOduEA
― Spottie, Friday, 3 April 2020 17:31 (three years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-2n7VLBHi0
― Vanishing Point (Chinaski), Friday, 3 April 2020 18:06 (three years ago) link
RIP Getting hipped to the live album is one of the best things ILX did for me. That complete albums box Legacy did was an A+ package all the way down.
― "...And the Gods Socially Distanced" (C. Grisso/McCain), Friday, 3 April 2020 18:11 (three years ago) link
dunno if its been posted upthread but this live TV set is really something. The version of "Let Me In Your Life" is jaw dropping
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwgggzBgJfM
― turn the jawhatthefuckever on (One Eye Open), Friday, 3 April 2020 18:39 (three years ago) link
I'd shared thoughts on Live at Carnegie Hall on Twitter and here's a tidbit:
This is his best album. When I told him I loved it, he smiled and told me "that might've been the best show I ever played." https://t.co/6xO56i8xlR— Scott Collette (@ScottJCollette) April 3, 2020
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 3 April 2020 18:48 (three years ago) link
Was just listening again to some of it, and was reminded that the strings & horns were overdubbed, surely one of the best instances of sweetening on a live album EVAH.
― "...And the Gods Socially Distanced" (C. Grisso/McCain), Friday, 3 April 2020 18:57 (three years ago) link
Hope She's Happier With Him off Carnegie Hall is devastating. Such a beautiful, sad, dark lyric, so perfectly delivered.
― Pinche Cumbion Bien Loco (stevie), Friday, 3 April 2020 19:05 (three years ago) link
i dug my grandmother too
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Friday, 3 April 2020 19:16 (three years ago) link
I was sort of shocked by him when I "discovered" him, after having heard his songs for years (and not always realizing they were by the same person). The soulfulness of his voice, concision of his songwriting, richness of his melodies, and an overall sense of maturity that always set him apart — I'm sure partly having to do with not getting famous until he was in his 30s, but also seeming to emanate from from something inside him. Music by a grown-up for grown-ups.
It's been heartening to see the outpouring for him, one of those giants kind of hiding in plain sight.
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Friday, 3 April 2020 19:27 (three years ago) link
i always held out hope he would release new music or maybe even play again. The latter option gone forever now; hopeful there will be a posthumous release or two of some merit.
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Friday, 3 April 2020 19:34 (three years ago) link
It's been a while since I saw the documentary but iirc it seemed like he was still making some music in his home studio.
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Friday, 3 April 2020 19:43 (three years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4j2e2d7U94
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Friday, 3 April 2020 19:56 (three years ago) link
^ blessed by the man himself at the start
― Pinche Cumbion Bien Loco (stevie), Friday, April 3, 2020 12:05 PM (thirty minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink
yes
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Friday, 3 April 2020 20:00 (three years ago) link
on percussion, we got a lady
― brechtian social distancing (Simon H.), Friday, 3 April 2020 21:30 (three years ago) link
very happy to learn Still Bill is on youtube
― brechtian social distancing (Simon H.), Friday, 3 April 2020 23:06 (three years ago) link
Carmen McRae’s version of “Paint your pretty picture” is the only cover I know of that improves on Bill’s takehttps://youtu.be/RknfFt06Uzs
― Heez, Saturday, 4 April 2020 00:52 (three years ago) link
Withers got a real royalty juice when S.O.U.L S.Y.S.T.E.M'S pop house cover on The Bodyguard soundtrack got some play
i legitimately love that record
r.i.p. to this great artist
― dyl, Saturday, 4 April 2020 05:35 (three years ago) link
xpost There's something else (very tangentially) cool about that Carmen McRae live album: it might be the first recorded appearance of Joey Baron on drums!
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 4 April 2020 14:04 (three years ago) link
Even chilly darkness has the brightest POLL: Bill Withers' STILL BILL
― Maria Edgelord (cryptosicko), Sunday, 5 April 2020 21:50 (three years ago) link
i moved in to a cozy little trailer with someone i'm in love with a few months ago. we're both jobless since covid but we're lucky to have some savings so in between bouts of anxiety about income we've both slowed down a little bit - not much to do but care for each other.
anyway i played menagerie the morning i heard he'd died and we had coffee and listened to it. the second "lovely day" started i was giving j. meaningful glances and trying to keep from outright bawling. i hadn't actually listened to menagerie before so it was quite a treat -- even the two disco tracks are good. we got to "tender things" and i told j. that bill withers had died and i cried and j. told me that the song's spirit matched mine. a compliment i'll always remember.
― i am a horse girl (map), Monday, 6 April 2020 02:37 (three years ago) link
i wish i could really say what it is about bill withers that's so special. the familiarity with depression is a part of it. the ability to articulate so clearly what it is about sharing your life with another person that's so fulfilling is another part. and also a healthy, earth-bound sense of ones self in relation to another. a humility, a familiarity with limits. and just the crazy perfect songs, like they're natural fixtures in the world, like the world would be an absurd place by definition if they didn't exist.
― i am a horse girl (map), Monday, 6 April 2020 02:51 (three years ago) link
My brass band finally finished the tribute that we recorded after he passed, it took awhile to figure out recording in our separate homes and putting a video together:https://www.facebook.com/mamadigdown/videos/3043741569039500/
All proceeds go to the New Orleans Brass Band Musicians Relief Fund:https://digdown.bandcamp.com/track/just-the-two-of-us-2
― change display name (Jordan), Tuesday, 5 May 2020 16:43 (three years ago) link
this is solid man, thanks!
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Tuesday, 5 May 2020 17:24 (three years ago) link
thanks u!
― change display name (Jordan), Tuesday, 5 May 2020 19:09 (three years ago) link
The second side of Justments is the best of chill withers
― Heez, Sunday, 5 November 2023 20:38 (four months ago) link
Such a fantastic record. Would like to play Railroad Man out somewhere people might dance to it.
― Yngwie Azalea (stevie), Sunday, 5 November 2023 21:01 (four months ago) link
i def would.
also 'justments is his best album.
― "another slice of death, please." (Austin), Sunday, 5 November 2023 21:25 (four months ago) link