the four or five Bill Withers songs everybody knows

For me he's one the greatest American Songwriters...he has a very similar lyric writing talent to Todd Rundgren in that he can write something really green and make it sound completely heartfelt...in somebody elses hands (grandma's??) it could sound mawkish and sentimental but he writes and sings it straight from the heart and that's something you can't fake...he completely nails it...I utterly adore him and wish there were more writers about like him today...he kills me...

Still Bill in its entirety should be in every thinking man's top ten.

Lean on Me is a totally great but DARE graduations spoiled it for me a little.

Gonna have to go with a massive favorite from my childhood here: Ain't No Sunshine.

http://www.blackclassicmovies.com/dvd_covers/lean_on_me.jpg
i've seen this movie, but i have only the vaguest recollections of it.

It had to be 'Lean On Me'...the way he delivers it is a thing of wonder...it totally transcends any crap interpretation...it should be sung in every school every day...

amazing little clutch of tunes, and so varied in terms of vibe! makes it really hard to choose a favorite. i guess the first i'd cut is lovely day, which is nice and funky, but feels a bit slight in comparison to the likes of "just the two of us" and "ain't no sunshine". i guess those are my top two. prefer the cryptic, nocturnal sheen of the darker/slower tracks to the more upbeat likes of "lean on me" and "use me".

"just the two of us" sort of rewrites paul simon's "50 ways to leave your lover", right? not a complaint, cuz i love both songs to death, but the similarities are striking. voting "ain't no sunshine" cuz the ache is so deep and delicate.

haha i have never heard "lean on me" and was sure that "who is he (and what is he to you)" would be in here

wow can't believe that didn't occur to me before about 50 Ways/Two of Us, you are totally right

"who is he" would have been my choice, as it is i can't look past "ain't no sunshine" because it's basically perfect

Going for "Lovely Day", which was actually a fantastic vocal performance. That ultra-long tune he is keeping without any problems!

ultra-long note, I mean

"Ain't No Sunshine" for me--it's got that desolate eeriness that you find on so many of the greatest songs from that moment ("Smiling Faces," "The World Is a Ghetto," etc.) I've been compiling early-'70s soul tapes and CDs for friends since the mid-'80s, and that's always my Bill Withers go-to song. But I like all the others to one degree or another.

haha i have never heard "lean on me"

I suppose I should stop being surprised at you, but really now.

Unless the song just really has no profile at all in the UK?

Let me be the first:

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

'Just the Two of Us' ruined by both Mike Myers and Will Smith.

Still wish there had been a proper release of the Gap commercial mashup of "Lovely Day" and "I Hear Music in the Streets."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJ2XBzq387c

aint no sunshine

Use Me

Lean On Me > Ain't No Sunshine > Use Me > Lovely Day > Just The Two of Us

...though the first three are so close that it feels ridiculous to rank them. His first two records contained much stronger material than either of those latter two songs, though. There isn't a song on Just As I Am that isn't brilliant, really.

Liked the documentary as well, though I wish there was a bit more to it. Reviewed it <a href=http://echoandsway.wordpress.com/2011/04/07/beside-the-music/";>here</a>.

Ugh, make that here: http://echoandsway.wordpress.com/2011/04/07/beside-the-music/

Also would have said Grandma's Hands. But voted Ain't No Sunshine.

I feel like on a particular day, I could vote for any one of these (and also "Grandma's Hands"), but "Ain't No Sunshine" is some be-all/end-all shit in my world.

I just want to vote for USE ME as this live clip is one of my favorite things I found on youtube. The band is so laid back in the pocket and groovy.

The drummer is just the coolest. He's like "this is a pretty killer groove ain't it."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3hBYTkI-sE

I've always been partial to "Kissing My Love," he just sounds so overwhelmingly joyous. Out of this list, "Ain't No Sunshine" has always sounded alien in how fantastic it is, even if "Use Me" is kinda more interesting to me.

xp: Goddamn, that's awesome.

Ain't No Sunshine is inexplicably great. He just rides that "I know, I know, I know" riff and you can't say just how it becomes transcendent, but it does. But I voted Use Me, because, face it, such a great lyric and it's crazy-funky as all get out.

Use Me, the others all in a tie for 2nd place

Bill Withers "Lovely Day" C/D

'Lovely Day', for sure. As in the immortal words of, eh, one of the dudes of 'Air France':

Can liven a funeral, I tried and It worked. Makes you move on.

A Karaoke highlight (for me) was proving to myself that I could actually do that last long note on "Lovely Day"

Anyway, the real answer is "Grandma's Hands"

― skot gigz - moombah pimpin' (The Reverend), Wednesday, 25 May 2011 22:03 (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

everybody doesn't know "Grandma's Hands" like they know these 5 songs -- i'm listening to it right now for the first time ever (not counting the "No Diggity" sample)

Funny thing is that if you watch the Still Bill doc somehow knowing absolutely nothing about Withers, you could plausibly come away from it thinking "Grandma's Hands" was his biggest hit.

I love the lyrics and groove to "Use Me", so that's what I voted for. But all these are great. And "Lean On Me" is just so classic I may actually switch my vote.

I'd vote Lovely Day, but you can't go wrong with any of 'em.

And here's a vastly underrated Colombia-era single:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-1Z1TpQCgw

all of these are great to Godlike. Use Me rocks my world the most. I need Still Bill, right?

one of the sweetest memories I have is of hearing "Use Me" while riding with a good friend down a highway at night, no way I can get objective about the other ones in light of it

'(si si) je suis un rock star'

how did we get this far into a Bill Withers thread without the duck joke?

what are you even talking about ward

lol tomofthenest

trying (and obv failing) for a bill withers-bill wyman 'joke', pl move along etc

Ok, I'll bite.

Duck joke?

That You Got The Stuff track! The loooooong vamp at the end is rocking my world. It sounds like My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts!

http://it.bing.com/search?q=duck+joke+bill+withers&src=IE-SearchBox&Form=IE8SRC

xpost

^^ made my day.

Please tell me there's a music joke thread around here somewhere that I just haven't found yet.

Another fave:

Q: Why did the farmer start a punk rock band?

A: Cause he was tired of haulin' oats.

Artist-specific music jokes

Knock yersel' out.

This is impossible.