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Bill Withers makes no apologies.
“I’m sick and tired of somebody saying ‘I love you’ with both arms up in the air,” Bill Withers said. Photograph by Fin Costello.
In 1972, a year after the release of his first album, “Just As I Am,” Bill Withers performed a song on British television. “Harlem,” the record’s first single, had done little on the charts, but radio d.j.s had picked up on its B-side. Wearing a ribbed orange turtleneck and sweating visibly, the thirty-three-year-old rookie introduced the first song he had ever written:
“Men have problems admitting to losing things,” he said. “I think women are much better at that. . . . So, once in my life, I wanted to forgo my own male ego and admit to losing something, so I came up with—” Withers began to play his acoustic guitar and sing. “Ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone / It’s not warm when she’s away / Ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone / And she’s always gone too long, any time she goes away.”
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Bill Withers' Desperation Gets Loud in new documentary
"The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation," muses music legend Bill Withers in the new documentary Still Bill. "I would like to know how it feels for my desperation to get louder."
The 70 year old master songwriter can casually quote Thoreau and sound like a complete rock star in the same breath. The documentary, whose name is taken from the title of the subject's classic 1972 sophmore album, chronicles an amazing artist at a turning point in his life and creativity. Filmmakers Damani Baker and Alex Vlack gained access to the life of the unlikely superstar who turned his back on the music industry in 1985. Together, they have created a touching and empowering portrait of a man most know little about, but whose music has been a part of all our lives.
Withers' honest lyrics and hummable melodies are easily as fundamental to American music (and by extension popular music of the world) as that of The Beatles or Bob Dylan, with a deep soulfulness that reaches the listeners heart in a way unmatched by either. In Still Bill, the filmmakers have captured the feel of many Bill Withers' songs; heart-warming and down to earth with just a touch of sadness. Classic performance footage from the 1970s and 80s is interspersed with brand new interviews, current footage of Withers with his family and performances from a 2008 tribute show featuring Cornell Dupree and Corey Glover, among others.
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Bill Withers is back – that is, his music
By Ann Hornaday
June 15, 2009 in print edition D-6
In 1985, the great R&B singer Bill Withers made his last record, leaving fans hungry for more of the sinuous grooves, poignant lyrics and smooth voice that made his songs so instantly recognizable. For the last 30 years, Withers has lived a life of contented domesticity with his wife, Marcia, and children Todd and Kori.
But despite his best efforts to leave fame behind, suddenly he’s everywhere, with his sultry ballad “Use Me” promoting the HBO series “Hung” and two films coming out: “Still Bill,” a documentary on Withers’ life and career, and “Soul Power,” about the concert that preceded the Muhammad Ali-George Foreman boxing match in Zaire in 1974. (The latter film will be shown at the Los Angeles Film Festival on Sunday.)
Bill Withers, you’re having a moment. It seems like wherever you go, one of your songs is playing.
I don’t know. Marcia deals with all that stuff in the office, so she’s probably more aware of that than I am. So I’ll take your word for it.
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Rolling Stone
by Austin Skaggs
8/21/08, 12:05 pm EST
Photo: Buckner/Getty
We saw some killer shows in the last couple of weeks: The Radiohead and Kings of Leon sets at All Points West were brilliant; Wilco debuted a ridiculous new song at Lollapalooza while wearing rad Nudie suits; and Bob Dylan dazzled in Brooklyn. But sometimes we miss one. In this case it was the Bill Withers Tribute, part of the Celebrate Brooklyn series, which drew folks like Jim James (”Ain’t No Sunshine”), Nona Hendryx (”Lovely Day”) and others to pay tribute to the reclusive soul genius. And for the first time in decades, Withers himself stepped onstage, to sing “Grandma’s Hands.” When we reached Withers, he said he was drawn to the stage by legendary R&B guitarist Cornell Dupree. “I probably wouldn’t have bothered,” says the 70-year-old, the subject of an upcoming documentary. “I thought, ‘Let me go up there and hang out with Cornell for a minute.’” Ear-witness reports say Withers’ voice was glorious, but don’t expect to see him again. “This is not the age for showing off,” he says. “I’m just some old guy in the checkout line at the Home Depot. Which is fine with me.”
PopMatters
The Mythbuster: An Interview with Bill Withers
by Dan Nishimoto
January 31, 2006
A middle-aged man with a heart full of songs makes a career change and leaves an indelible print on pop music. Over 30 years later, he's still Bill Withers. And thank goodness for that.
From a statistical standpoint, no one is supposed to make it in the music industry. Like hoop dreams, the chances of having "that" talent, meeting a sympathetic label with both an open heart and an open wallet, negotiating an equitable contract and, finally, attaining creative and/or financial success are slim. So, when someone actually hits the jackpot, the listener understandably expects a fantastic story, like: a nasally sliver of a boy kneels at his hero's deathbed before shaking the world with his message; or, a girl with concert pianist dreams responds to academic racism by raising her booming voice; or, a child beaten under a strict religious upbringing finds release in rhythm and blues with a most merciful cry. Even without hearing their music, these tales carry an air of mythology that feeds right back into the exclusive prestige of Hollywood (and Vine).
So, why isn't Bill Withers's name on more people's lips?
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Wax Poetics Issue 16, Apr/May 2006
Bill Withers was a soft-spoken musical maestro who quietly took over the music industry in 1971 with his unassuming B-side, "Ain't No Sunshine." Brazil's "Black Rio" scene wasn't so unassuming; young Black Brazilians saw their reflections in American funk music and soon Rio DJs spurred a homegrown Brazilian soul and social movement.
Purchase at: Wax Poetics Storefront
Featured Articles:
Bill Withers
"I don't know if I have touched a guitar in the last year. I'm more likely to pick up a hammer or some power tool than I would a music instrument. About five or six years ago, I built a studio in my house, but I haven't gotten around to just being in there."
SONGFACTS Interview
by Carl Weiser
January 2, 2004
Bill Withers
| The understated Bill Withers is a Soul music legend, respected for his elegant songwriting and an exceptional voice that compliments his words. We tried to get a sense for why his songs have had such impact, and were treated to a thought-provoking discussion on transference, the X-factor, and making the complicated simple. |
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Carl Wiser (SF): Your songs have endured, and we're hoping you can tell us about some of them. "Ain't No Sunshine," can you tell us what inspired you to write that?
Bill Withers: It's pretty obvious what it's about, I was watching a movie called Days Of Wine And Roses (1962) with Lee Remick and Jack Lemmon. They were both alcoholics who were alternately weak and strong. It's like going back for seconds on rat poison. Sometimes you miss things that weren't particularly good for you. It's just something that crossed my mind from watching that movie, and probably something else that happened in my life that I'm not aware of.
To me, songwriting is you sitting around scratching yourself and something crosses your mind. There are probably more great stories made up about the writing of songs after they've been written and received, because you've got to say something. I love listening when there's some song like "Eat My Funky Sweat," and then somebody makes up this profound story about what inspired him to do it. Sometimes the stories are much more profound than the songs. Being at the age now where I'm a certified curmudgeon, you get a little grouchy when you pass 65, I used to do it when I was younger sometimes, I've learned to try to probe a little deeper. Somebody would ask, "What were you thinking when you wrote so and so," and the obvious answer was, "I was thinking what I wrote." So I won't do that to you, Carl.
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Sun Spin: Bill Withers
LADIES & GENTS, THE CADILLAC OF LIVE RECORDINGS
posted: jambase 1/26/2009
Captured on a rainy night in 1972, Bill Withers Live At Carnegie Hall is everything a tremendous live document aspires to - intimate yet bold, seductive and entertaining, a frozen piece of time that retains a part of the evening's spark. Most artists are already at a significant disadvantage going up against Bill Withers in the early '70s, where his mingling of acoustic guitar, funk flavors, tough pop instincts and populist anthems was Paul Simon lethal, as witness by the Top 10 debut of his first single, the immortal “Ain't No Sunshine" - a classic covered many times but never with the same flair or feeling of Withers' original.
Backed at Carnegie Hall by the better part of The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band - one of the under-sung soul heroes of that genre's golden age - who he'd snapped up after the rapid success of his first album, Just As I Am (1971), Withers is indestructible. His buzz is palpable and infectious and even after only two years it's certain his days as a blue-collar plumber were fast fading memories. Slinky as shit and beyond talented, this band moves through the tall grass with predatory perfection, laying low when it makes sense and pouncing with unerring accuracy, as in opener “Use Me," where the song comes to a complete stop but it's clear the crowd is still really feelin' it so they jump back in for another couple choruses. Again and again, they let the music breath, kicking it while Withers tells stories like some streetwise Garrison Keillor and then falling in perfectly, a breathing entity of many limbs serving some of the strongest pop music ever created.
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