Let's talk about Bill Withers.

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"

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. . .

put it in a microwave until its bill withers.

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.

And 'borrowing' records from your parents = k-classic.

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.

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

http://www.consumerrevolt.de/crawl.jpg

I just heard the sound of 20 ILx0rs being fired.

put it in the microwave until its bill withers

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?

-- 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.

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

...and I'd do it again.

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

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.

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

(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!)

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!

http://img.hmv.co.jp/image/jacket/190/14/5/8/355.jpg http://www.comicgenius.com/DiscoFever/disco_profiles/george_mccrae/images/rock.gif

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.

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.

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

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

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.

Hope She's Happier With Him off Carnegie Hall is devastating. Such a beautiful, sad, dark lyric, so perfectly delivered.

i dug my grandmother too

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.

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.

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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4j2e2d7U94

^ blessed by the man himself at the start

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, April 3, 2020 12:05 PM (thirty minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

yes

on percussion, we got a lady

very happy to learn Still Bill is on youtube

Carmen McRae’s version of “Paint your pretty picture” is the only cover I know of that improves on Bill’s take

https://youtu.be/RknfFt06Uzs

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

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!

Even chilly darkness has the brightest POLL: Bill Withers' STILL BILL

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 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.

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

this is solid man, thanks!

thanks u!

The second side of Justments is the best of chill withers

Such a fantastic record. Would like to play Railroad Man out somewhere people might dance to it.

i def would.

also 'justments is his best album.

Via a post from Chris O'Leary: "the engineer Bill Halverson on the making of "Ain't No Sunshine," 1971 (from a Mix interview in 2012)."

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:vtqkh4q3vlh7rltd4tnaweh2/bafkreig3codqyfxdi2er2sqqri34kumkg2izjo4k7gtxp6pfipsxyx3yxe

awesome

been listening to 'still bill' the last week or two and goddamnit he is still bill

this has recently become one of my favourite Bill jams. also, goddamn that Carnegie Hall LP.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDIEHyqk0I4

Don't know if it's the right place to post it but RIP James Gadson...you fucking ruled

I knew it was coming at some point, but I loved knowing he was still out there, damn. Best feeling 16th notes of all time.

wow, what a feel that guy had.

Just saw that. RIP:(

An awesome list of great songs Gadson played on

https://stereogum.com/2494641/legendary-session-drummer-james-gadson-dead-at-86/news

Wow, just a little over six years to the day Withers passed too.